Plasma 2-hydroxy-catecholestrogen responses to short-term submaximal and maximal exercise in untrained women. Cr[acute]ee, Carl De, Peter Ball, B[umlaut]arbel Seidlitz, Gerrit Van Kranenburg, Peter Geurten, Hans A. Keizer. Interuniversity Project on Reproductive Endocrinology in Women and Exercise, Department of Applied and Experimental Reproductive Endocrinology, The Institute for Gyneco-Endocrinological Research, P.O. Box 134, B-3000 Leuven 3, Belgium, Department of Biochemical and Clinical Endocrinology, Medical University of L[umlaut]ubeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, D-23538 L[umlaut]ubeck, Germany, and _Department of Movement Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Maastricht, P.O. Box 616, NL-6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands
APStracts 3:0495A, 1996.
Exercise-induced menstrual problems are accompanied by an increase in catecholestro gen (CE) formation. It has been hypothesized that hypoestrogenemia may be secondary to an increased turnover from estrogens to CE, which then may disrupt LH release. In addition, the strong affinity of CE for the catecholamine-deactivating enzyme, catechol-O-methyltrans ferase, has led to speculations about their possible role in safeguarding norepinephrine during exercise from premature decomposition. It was our purpose to investigate whether acute exercise on a cycle ergometer produces any changes in CE homeostasis. Nine untrained, eumenorrheic women (body fat: 24.8 +/- 3.1%) volunteered for this study. Baseline plasma CE averaged, for 'total' 2-hydroxyestrogens (2-OHE), 218 +/- 29 pg/ml (means +/-SE) during the follicular (FPh), and 420 +/- 58 pg/ml during the luteal phase (LPh). 2-Methoxyestrogens (2-MeOE) measured 257 +/- 17 pg/ml in the FPh, and 339 +/- 39 pg/ml in the LPh. During incremental exercise, total estrogens (E) increased, but 2-OHE and 2-MeOE levels did not significantly alter in either phases. The 2-OHE/E ratio (measure of CE-turnover) decreased during exercise in both menstrual phases, while the 2-MeOE/2-OHE ratio (correlates with COMT activity) did not significantly change. These findings suggest that there is insufficient evidence to conclude that brief incremental exercise, in untrained eumenorrheic females, acutely produces increased CE formation. 

Received 22 July 1996; accepted in final form 28 October 1996.
APS Manuscript Number A694-6.
Article publication pending Journal of Applied Physiology.
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 13 November 1996