Skip to main content
PMC home page
British Medical Journal logoLink to British Medical Journal
. 1977 Jun 18;1(6076):1568–1570. doi: 10.1136/bmj.1.6076.1568

Fluctuations of serum and bile lipid concentrations during the menstrual cycle.

T S Low-Beer, A C Wicks, K W Heaton, P Durrington, J Yeates
PMCID: PMC1607359  PMID: 871668

Abstract

We measured fasting serum and bile lipid concentrations at three intervals during the normal menstrual cycles of 11 healthy women not taking oral contraceptives. In nine of them cholesterol saturation of bile, and therefore presumably the risk of developing gall stones, was higher nine days after midcycle than at the end of menstruation. This change in bile cholesterol saturation was preceded by a significant fall in serum lipid concentrations: during the nine days after mid-cycle serum triglyceride and cholesterol concentrations fell in nine and eight of the 11 women respectively. Changes in the composition of serum and biliary lipids during the menstrual cycle are presumably due to a direct effect of sex hormones on the liver.

Full text

PDF
1570

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Davis R. A., Kern F., Jr Effects of ethinyl estradiol and phenobarbital on bile acid synthesis and biliary bile acid and cholesterol excretion. Gastroenterology. 1976 Jun;70(6):1130–1135. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Friedman G. D., Kannel W. B., Dawber T. R. The epidemiology of gallbladder disease: observations in the Framingham Study. J Chronic Dis. 1966 Mar;19(3):273–292. doi: 10.1016/0021-9681(66)90132-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Glenn F., McSherry C. K. Gallstones and pregnancy among 300 young women treated by cholecystectomy. Surg Gynecol Obstet. 1968 Nov;127(5):1067–1072. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Haslewood G. A., Murphy G. M., Richardson J. M. A direct enzymic assay for 7 -hydroxy bile acids and their conjugates. Clin Sci. 1973 Jan;44(1):95–98. doi: 10.1042/cs0440095. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Hegardt F. G., Dam H. The solubility of cholesterol in aqueous solutions of bile salts and lecithin. Z Ernahrungswiss. 1971 Apr;10(3):223–233. doi: 10.1007/BF02020933. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Holzbach R. T., Marsh M., Olszewski M., Holan K. Cholesterol solubility in bile. Evidence that supersaturated bile is frequent in healthy man. J Clin Invest. 1973 Jun;52(6):1467–1479. doi: 10.1172/JCI107321. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. IWATA T., YAMASAKI K. ENZYMATIC DETERMINATION AND THIN-LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHY OF BILE ACIDS IN BLOOD. J Biochem. 1964 Nov;56:424–431. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.jbchem.a128013. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. King E. J. The colorimetric determination of phosphorus. Biochem J. 1932;26(2):292–297. doi: 10.1042/bj0260292. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Lynn J., Williams L., O'Brien J., Wittenberg J., Egdahl R. H. Effects of estrogen upon bile: implications with respect to gallstone formation. Ann Surg. 1973 Oct;178(4):514–524. doi: 10.1097/00000658-197310000-00014. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Macdonald I. A., Williams C. N., Mahony D. E. A 3 alpha- and 7 alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase assay for conjugated dihydroxy-bile acid mixtures. Anal Biochem. 1974 Jan;57(1):127–136. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(74)90059-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. NESTEL P. J., HIRSCH E. Z., COUZENS E. A. THE EFFECT OF CHLOROPHENOXYISOBUTYRIC ACID AND ETHINYL ESTRADIOL ON CHOLESTEROL TURNOVER. J Clin Invest. 1965 Jun;44:891–896. doi: 10.1172/JCI105205. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Nilsson S., Stattin S. Gallbladder emptying during the normal menstrual cycle. A cholecystographic study. Acta Chir Scand. 1967;133(8):648–652. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Pertsemlidis D., Panveliwalla D., Ahrens E. H., Jr Effects of clofibrate and of an estrogen-progestin combination on fasting biliary lipids and cholic acid kinetics in man. Gastroenterology. 1974 Apr;66(4):565–573. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Sutor D. J., Wooley S. E. A statistical survey of the composition of gallstones in eight countries. Gut. 1971 Jan;12(1):55–64. doi: 10.1136/gut.12.1.55. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Thomas P. J., Hofmann A. F. Letter: A simple calculation of the lithogenic index of bile: expressing biliary lipid composition on rectangular coordinates. Gastroenterology. 1973 Oct;65(4):698–700. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from British Medical Journal are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES