Steroid hormone levels vary with sex, aging, lifestyle, and genetics

Steroid hormone levels vary greatly among individuals, between the sexes, with age, and across health and disease states. Nevertheless, what drives variance in steroid hormones and, globally, how steroid hormones vary in an individual over time are not well-studied. To address this fundamental gap in knowledge, we measured the levels of 17 steroid hormones in a sex-balanced cohort of 949 healthy donors ranging in age from 20-69 years. We investigated associations between steroid levels and biological sex, age, clinical and demographic data, genetics, and proteomics. Steroid hormone levels were strongly affected by biological sex and age as hypothesized, but also associated with a surprisingly high number of lifestyle habits. Key among our observations was the broad impact of hormonal birth control in female donors and the relationship with smoking in male donors. Using data collected from a 10-year follow-up of the cohort, we identified significant associations between steroid hormone levels and health status only in male donors. These observations provide a unique and comprehensive resource for steroid hormone level variance in healthy individuals and highlight biological and lifestyle parameters that can impact these levels. Our findings underly the importance of considering parameters, such as sex, age, and potentially gendered behaviors, in preventative health care and the treatment of hormone-related diseases.