Salivary concentrations of steroid hormones in males and in cycling and postmenopausal females with and without periodontitis

Concentrations of testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone, eslradiol, progesterone, 17α-hydroxyprogesterone, and cortisol were measured in the saliva by radioimmunoassay. Saliva from male and cycling and postmenopausal female patients with and without periodontitis was studied.
It was found that salivary concentration of progesterone was increased in all patients with periodontitis. While testosterone was significantly increased in the female diabetic and non-diabetic patients with periodontitis, no difference in its concentration was found in the saliva of non-diabetic males with and without periodontitis. Salivary dehydroepiandrosterone was also increased in postmenopausal females with periodontitis. In contrast, estradiol was significantly decreased or not measurable in all patient groups with periodontitis. The concentration of cortisol and 17α-hydroxyprogesterone showed no significant differences in postmenopausal patients with and without periodontitis. In addition, the salivary concentration of all hormones in postmenopausal females showed circadian variation. Moreover, results obtained in postmenopausal and ovariectomized females provided evidence for extragonadal production of sex steroid hormones in postmenopausal females.
The present results suggest that there is a relationship between the altered production of sex steroid hormones and the incidence of periodontal pathology.