Joint effect of particulate matter and cigarette smoke on women’s sex hormones

BMC Women's Health

Table 4 Effects of two exposures (PM10 and Tobacco Smoke) on Estradiol (E2), Progesterone (P) levels and E2/P ratio, after standardization to age and cycle length

Variable	Level	Mean	SE	Between-subject effects	Within-subject effects
		Mean	SE	p value	p value (with H–F corrections)
		Estradiol [pmol/l]—entire cycle
PM10	Low	14.3	1.07	[Ref.]	[Ref.]
	High	17.0	1.07	0.08	0.02
Total Smoke Exposure	nSM	13.8	1.06	[Ref.]	[Ref.]
	SM	17.7	1.09	0.02	0.18
PM10 × Total Smoke Exposure	Interaction effect			0.64	0.41
PM10 × Total Smoke Exposure (4 groups)*	LowPM-nSM	12.4	1.10	[Ref.]	[Ref.]
	HighPM-nSM	15.3	1.07	0.09	0.02
	LowPM-SM	16.5	1.11	0.04	0.17
	HighPM-SM	18.4	1.16	0.03	0.27

		Progesterone [pmol/l]—luteal phase
PM10	Low	130.4	1.08	[Ref.]	[Ref.]
	High	130.7	1.08	0.99	0.19
Total Smoke Exposure	nSM	129.0	1.07	[Ref.]	[Ref.]
	SM	132.2	1.10	0.84	0.30
PM10 × Total Smoke Exposure	Interaction effect			0.85	0.16

		Estradiol/Progesterone ratio—luteal phase
PM10	Low	0.1	1.11	[Ref.]	[Ref.]
	High	0.2	1.12	0.11	< 0.01
Total Smoke Exposure	nSM	0.1	1.09	[Ref.]	[Ref.]
	SM	0.1	1.14	0.26	0.23
PM10 × Total Smoke Exposure	Interaction effect			0.80	0.23

Means were derived from calculations on log-transformed values and then back-transformed by taking the antilog
*Model with dummy variables

ISSN: 1472-6874