Steroid hormones — including glucocorticoids (like cortisol) and sex steroids (estrogens, androgens) — are central regulators of metabolism, immunity, bone health and red blood cell production. Clinicians rely on hormone measurements for diagnosis and treatment of endocrine disorders, and epidemiologists study hormone patterns to understand disease risk across populations.
Yet despite their importance, we have had an incomplete picture of how steroid hormone levels vary in healthy adults according to age, sex and common lifestyle factors. A new large-scale analysis published in Science Advances provides one of the clearest snapshots to date of how sex, aging, genetics and day-to-day behaviors such as use of oral contraceptives and smoking shape circulating steroid hormone profiles in healthy people aged 20–79 years.
The study—reported by Léa Deltourbe et al. and led by scientists from the 米利厄·伊内里奥联盟—measured steroids in nearly 1,000 healthy adults and re-measured many donors after a decade. Its findings have practical implications for clinicians, researchers and anyone who uses or prescribes steroid-influencing medications.
