Relation of circulating estrogens with hair relaxer and skin lightener use among postmenopausal women in Ghana.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Hair relaxers and skin lighteners have been commonly used by African women, with suggestions that they may have hormonal activity.

Objectives

To investigate the relationship of hair relaxer and skin lightener use to serum estrogen/estrogen metabolite levels.

Methods

We utilized the postmenopausal population-based controls of the Ghana Breast Health Study to estimate adjusted geometric means (GM) and 95% confidence intervals of individual circulating estrogen levels by hair relaxer/skin lightener exposure categories.

Results

Of the 585 postmenopausal women included in our analysis, 80.2% reported hair relaxer use and 29.4% skin lightener use. Ever hair relaxer use was positively associated with estriol (adjusted GM 95.4 pmol/L vs. never 74.5, p value 

SUBMITTER: Geczik AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9256865 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature