Trial reportThe lancet. Healthy longevity2022
Associations between blood sex steroid concentrations and risk of major adverse cardiovascular events in healthy older women in Australia: a prospective cohort substudy of the ASPREE trial.
Trial report in The lancet. Healthy longevity, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 23 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- Gender-Specific Associations Between Sex Hormones and Cardiovascular Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Reviews in cardiovascular medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Endogenous Sex Steroid Hormones, Sex Hormone-Binding Globulin, and Risk of All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality: A Systematic Review and Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2025Pooled it
- The Effects of Aerobic Exercise Training on Testosterone Concentration in Individuals Who are Obese or Have Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Sports medicine - open · 2024Pooled it
- Brazilian Guideline on Menopausal Cardiovascular Health - 2024.Arquivos brasileiros de cardiologia · 2024Guideline
- The Intersection of Androgens and Cardiovascular Disease in Postmenopausal Women.Current cardiology reports · 2026Review
- Testosterone therapy effects adipose distribution in older females post hip-fracture: The STEP-HI study.Obesity pillars · 2026Article
- Association of female reproductive traits with altered aging trajectories: Insights from genetic and observational analyses.Cell reports. Medicine · 2025Observational
- Concentration and genetic regulation of sex hormone binding globulin and fracture risk in older women.Climacteric : the journal of the International Menopause Society · 2025Article
- Getting to the Heart of the Matter: Exploring the Intersection of Cardiovascular Disease, Sex and Race and How Exercise, and Gut Microbiota Influence these Relationships.Reviews in cardiovascular medicine · 2025Review
- Endogenous sex hormone levels are associated with the revised Framingham Stroke Risk Profile in postmenopausal women: a longitudinal study in a Swedish cohort.BMC endocrine disorders · 2025Observational
- Sex differences in features of atherosclerotic plaques as revealed by various imaging techniques: historical review.Frontiers in physiology · 2025Review
- Similar but Distinct Comorbidity Patterns Between Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and Endometriosis in Korean Women: A Nationwide Cohort Study.Journal of Korean medical science · 2024Article
- Sex Steroid Levels in Women With Hypopituitarism: A Case-controlled Observational Study.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2024Observational
- Higher testosterone is associated with higher HDL-cholesterol and lower triglyceride concentrations in older women: an observational study.Climacteric : the journal of the International Menopause Society · 2024Observational
- Androgen deficiency in hypopituitary women: its consequences and management.Reviews in endocrine & metabolic disorders · 2024Review
- Hyperandrogenism and Cardiometabolic Risk in Pre- and Postmenopausal Women-What Is the Evidence?The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2024Review
- Article
- Brazilian Guideline on Menopausal Cardiovascular Health - 2024.Revista brasileira de ginecologia e obstetricia : revista da Federacao Brasileira das Sociedades de Ginecologia e Obstetricia · 2024Article
- Associations between low sex hormone concentrations and depression in older women: An observational study.Maturitas · 2023Observational
- Sex hormones and the risk of myocardial infarction in women and men: a prospective cohort study in the UK Biobank.Biology of sex differences · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBlood testosterone concentrations in women decline during the reproductive years and reach a nadir in the seventh decade, after which concentrations increase and are restored to those of reproductive-aged women early in the eighth decade. We aimed to establish the association between the concentration of testosterone in the blood and risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and all-cause mortality in healthy older women.
methodsSHOW was a prospective cohort substudy of the longitudinal randomised ASPREE trial. Eligible participants were women aged at least 70 years from Australia with unimpaired cognition, no previous MACE, and a life expectancy of at least 5 years. Participants who were receiving hormonal or steroid therapy were ineligible for inclusion. We measured serum concentrations of sex steroids with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and of SHBG with immunoassay. We compared lower concentrations of sex hormones with higher concentrations using four quartiles. Primary endpoints were risk of MACE and all-cause mortality, the associations of which with sex steroid concentrations were assessed using Cox proportional hazards regression that included age, body-mass index, smoking status, alcohol consumption, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, impaired renal function, and treatment allocation in the ASPREE trial (aspirin
findingsOf the 9180 women recruited to the ASPREE trial between March 10, 2010, and Dec 31 2014, 6358 participants provided sufficient biobank samples at baseline and 5535 were included in the final analysis. Median age at entry was 74·0 years (IQR 71·7-77·7). During a median 4·4 years of follow-up (24 553 person-years), 144 (2·6%) women had a first MACE (incidence 5·9 per 1000 person-years). During a median 4·6 years of follow-up (3·8-5·6), 200 women died (7·9 per 1000 person-years). In the fully adjusted models, higher concentrations of testosterone were associated with a lower incidence of MACE (quartile 4
interpretationBlood concentrations of testosterone and DHEA above the lowest quartile in older women were associated with a reduced risk of a first-ever MACE. Given that the physiological effects of DHEA are mediated through its steroid metabolites, if the current findings were to be replicated, trials investigating testosterone therapy for the primary prevention of ischaemic cardiovascular disease events in older women would be warranted.
fundingThe National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, US National Institute on Aging, the Victorian Cancer Agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, and Monash University.
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Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.