{"id":411918,"date":"2026-04-22T15:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T15:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/411918\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T15:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T15:12:10","slug":"sjogrens-disease-risk-may-start-with-hormones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/411918\/","title":{"rendered":"Sjogren\u2019s Disease Risk May Start with Hormones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>HORMONAL transitions across the lifespan may play a critical role in shaping susceptibility to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.emjreviews.com\/en-us\/amj\/rheumatology\/news\/new-insight-balance-dysfunction-in-sjogrens-syndrome\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sjogren\u2019s disease<\/a>, offering new insight into its well-known female predominance. A large-scale analysis of electronic health records suggests that fluctuations in sex hormones, rather than abnormal hormone levels, may align with shifts in disease risk across different life stages.<\/p>\n<p>Hormonal Transitions and Sjogren\u2019s Disease Risk<\/p>\n<p>Sjogren\u2019s disease has long been characterized by a strong female predominance, often cited as a 9:1 female-to-male ratio. However, this study challenges that static view by demonstrating that sex-specific prevalence varies significantly with age.<\/p>\n<p>Analysis of over 100,000 patients with Sjogren\u2019s disease and more than 1.3 million controls revealed distinct, non-linear patterns in male prevalence. Rates were highest in early childhood at 30.1%, declined sharply during late puberty and adulthood to 9.8%, and increased again in older age to 13.5%. These shifts closely mirrored natural changes in testosterone and estradiol levels across the lifespan.<\/p>\n<p>Age-Dependent Hormonal Dynamics<\/p>\n<p>To better understand these patterns, researchers integrated population-level hormone data and evaluated associations between hormone fluctuations and disease prevalence. Notably, hormone concentrations themselves did not significantly differ between patients and controls.<\/p>\n<p>This finding suggests that the timing of hormonal transitions, rather than absolute hormone levels, may influence autoimmune susceptibility. Periods such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.emjreviews.com\/en-us\/amj\/rheumatology\/news\/eular-breaking-news-interferon-signature-in-paediatric-sjogrens-diagnosis\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">puberty and aging<\/a>, which involve significant endocrine changes, appear to correspond with key inflection points in Sjogren\u2019s disease risk.<\/p>\n<p>Rethinking Sex Bias in Autoimmune Disease<\/p>\n<p>These findings challenge the traditional perception of Sjogren\u2019s disease as uniformly female-dominated and instead support a more dynamic model of risk. The evolving sex distribution across age groups highlights the importance of considering hormonal context when evaluating autoimmune disease susceptibility.<\/p>\n<p>By linking physiological hormonal transitions to disease patterns, this study provides a new framework for understanding how immune responses may be modulated across the lifespan. It also underscores the need for age- and sex-specific approaches in both research and clinical management of Sjogren\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n<p>Reference<\/p>\n<p>Diggins EC et al. Hormonal transitions across the lifespan shape susceptibility to Sjogren\u2019s disease. Rheumatology. 2026;65(3).<\/p>\n<p>Featured Image: New Africa on Adobe Stock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HORMONAL transitions across the lifespan may play a critical role in shaping susceptibility to Sjogren\u2019s disease, offering new&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-411918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}