Investigating the association of testosterone with survival in men and women using a Mendelian randomization study in the UK Biobank.

ABSTRACT: Life expectancy in the developed West is currently stagnated and remains shorter in men than women. Well-established evolutionary biology theory suggests lifespan trades-off against reproductive success, possibly sex-specifically. We examined whether a key driver of reproductive success, testosterone, affected survival using a Mendelian randomization longevity study in the UK Biobank to obtain unbiased estimates, along with control exposures. We applied published genetic instruments for testosterone to obtain inverse variance weighted estimates of associations with survival to (i.e., age at) recruitment, in 167,020 men and 194,174 women. We similarly obtained estimates for a positive control (smoking initiation), and a negative control (absorbate), a marker of vitamin C metabolism. Testost

SUBMITTER: Schooling CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8263740 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature