This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Resveratrol reduces testosterone, DHEAS levels in women with PCOS
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Women with polycystic ovary syndrome assigned the polyphenol resveratrol for 3 months saw a marked reduction in testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate vs. those assigned a placebo, according to findings from a randomized trial.
“Our study is the first clinical trial to find resveratrol significantly lowers PCOS patients’ levels of testosterone as well as dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS), another hormone that the body can convert into testosterone,” Antoni J. Duleba, MD, professor and director of the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, said in a press release. “This nutritional supplement can help moderate the hormone imbalance that is one of the central features of PCOS.”
Duleba and colleagues analyzed data from 30 women with PCOS who did not use oral contraceptives in the 3 months leading up to the study, recruited from Poznan University of Medical Sciences in Poland between December 2013 and March 2015 (mean age, 27 years; 68% with hyperandrogenism). Researchers randomly assigned women to 1,500 mg per day oral micronized trans-resveratrol or placebo for 3 months. Participants underwent assessments for hirsutism, acne and ovarian volume, and provided fasting blood samples to measure insulin, total testosterone, luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, prolactin, sex hormone-binding globulin, 17-hydroxyprogesterone, DHEAS and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein. All women underwent a 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test. Primary outcome was change in serum total testosterone.
At 3 months, total testosterone levels declined only in the resveratrol group, according to researchers. Women assigned the supplement saw a mean decline of 23.1% (P = .01); women assigned placebo saw a mean increase of 2.9% (P = .78). Women assigned resveratrol also saw a mean 22.2% decline in DHEAS; women assigned placebo experienced a mean 10.5% increase (P = .08)
Women assigned resveratrol also experienced a decline in fasting insulin (–31.8%; P = .007) and an increase in insulin sensitivity (66.3%; P = .04). Researchers observed no effects on BMI, ovarian volume, gonadotropins, lipid profile or on markers of endothelial function or inflammation. Women in the placebo group, however, experienced a reduction in ovarian volume, as well as an increase in both total cholesterol and HDL cholesterol, according to researchers.
Duleba called the study findings “promising,” but cautioned that it is too early to recommend clinical use of the supplement.
“It is too early to recommend routine use of resveratrol,” Duleba told Endocrine Today. “Larger studies on different populations of patients with PCOS are needed. We also need comparisons with other treatments such as [oral contraceptive pills] and metformin, and we need to look at clinical outcomes such as changes in hirsutism or ovulation.” – by Regina Schaffer
For more information:
Antoni J. Duleba, MD, can be reached at the department of reproductive medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, 9500 Gilman Drive, MC 0633, La Jolla, CA 92092; email: aduleba@ucsd.edu.
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts