Is There Any Association Between Hirsutism and Serum Zinc Levels in Adolescents?
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Is There Any Association Between Hirsutism and Serum Zinc Levels in Adolescents? Ulvi Aliyev 1 & Melis Pehlivantürk-Kızılkan 1 Sinem Akgül 1 & Orhan Derman 1
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Yasemin Düzçeker 1 & Nuray Kanbur 1
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Zehra Aycan 2 &
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Zinc has shown to have an anti-androgenic effect through 5 alpha-reductase enzyme activity inhibition in skin. However, there are contradicting findings concerning the effect of zinc on hirsutism mainly from studies including adult women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The aim of our study was to investigate the association between serum zinc levels and hirsutism in adolescents. Between October 2017 and June 2018, 51 female adolescents with hirsutism (mean age: 16.11 ± 1.47 years) and 51 healthy female controls were included in the study (mean age: 15.5 ± 1.40 years). Adolescents with hirsutism were classified under two groups; PCOS (n = 34, 66.7%) and idiopathic causes of hirsutism (idiopathic hirsutism (n = 9, 17.6%) and idiopathic hyperandrogenemia (n = 8, 15.7%)). The serum zinc levels were measured via atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The mean zinc levels of adolescents with hirsutism (102.02 ± 11.64 μg/dl) and the control group (101.72 ± 16.71 μg/dl) were similar (p = 0.915). Additionally, there was no significant difference among the mean zinc levels of the hirsutism sub-groups and the control group (p = 0.979). While some studies demonstrated low zinc levels in women with hirsutism, some studies similar to ours showed no association. Adolescence is a developmental phase where generally isolated mild hirsutism is not associated with hyperandrogenism and more studies are needed to evaluate the effect of zinc on hirsutism in this age group. Keywords Hirsutism . Polycystic ovary syndrome . Adolescent . Zinc . Idiopathic hirsutism . Idiopathic hyperandrogenemia
Introduction Hirsutism is a common condition of excessive terminal hair growth in androgen sensitive areas in women with an incidence of 5 to 15% [1]. Hirsutism might be a result of adrenal and/or ovarian hyperandrogenism or increased sensitivity of hair follicles to circulating androgens [2]. Zinc is an essential trace element and a cofactor of various enzymes and transcription factors. It is involved in follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) synthesis, gonadal
differentiation, androgen hormone and receptor metabolism, and aromatase activity [3]. Zinc also takes place in the modulation of hair growth [4]. However little is known about its effects on hirsutism. Zinc has anti-androgenic properties as it was shown to decrease the production of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) by inhibiting 5-alpha reductase activity [5–7]. Zinc supplementation in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) was shown to decrease hirsutism scores [8]. Oxidative stress was shown to be associated with hyperandrogenism, and it was demonstrated that women with
* Melis Pehlivantürk-Kızılkan [email protected]; [email protected]
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