Progestin negatively affects hearing in aged women

doi:10.1073/pnas.0606891103

Progestin negatively affects hearing in aged women

Departments of *Otolaryngology,
^‡Neurobiology and Anatomy, and
^§Biomedical Engineering, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY 14642; and
^†International Center for Hearing and Speech Research, National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY 14623

Communicated by Jozef J. Zwislocki, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, August 9, 2006 (received for review May 8, 2006)

Abstract

Female hormone influences on auditory system aging are not completely understood. Because of widespread clinical use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), it is critical to understand HRT effects on sensory systems. The present study retrospectively analyzed and compared hearing abilities among 124 postmenopausal women taking HRT, treated with estrogen and progestin (E+P; n = 32), estrogen alone (E; n = 30), and a third [non-hormone replacement therapy (NHRT; n = 62)] control group. Subjects were 60–86 years old and were matched for age and health status. All had relatively healthy medical histories and no significant noise exposure, middle-ear problems, or major surgeries. Hearing tests included pure-tone audiometry, tympanometry, distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs), transient otoacoustic emissions, and the hearing-in-noise test (HINT). The HINT tests for speech perception in background noise, the major complaint of hearing-impaired persons. Pure-tone thresholds in both ears were elevated (poorer) for the E+P relative to the E and control groups. For DPOAEs, the E+P group presented with lower (worse) levels than the E and control groups, with significant differences for both ears. For the HINT results, the E+P group had poorer speech perception than the E and control groups across all background noise speaker locations and in quiet. These findings suggest that the presence of P as a component of HRT results in poorer hearing abilities in aged women taking HRT, affecting both the peripheral (ear) and central (brain) auditory systems, and it interferes with the perception of speech in background noise.

Footnotes

^¶To whom correspondence should be addressed:
Department of Otolaryngology, University of Rochester Medical Center, 601 Elmwood Avenue, Rochester, NY 14642-8629.
E-mail: robert_frisina{at}urmc.rochester.edu
Author contributions: S.T.F., D.R.F., and R.D.F. designed research; P.G., S.T.F., F.M., S.F.T., and D.R.F. performed research; P.G., S.T.F., and R.D.F. analyzed data; P.G. wrote the paper; and P.G., S.T.F., F.M., S.F.T., D.R.F., and R.D.F. edited the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Abbreviations:

DP,

distortion product;

DPOAEs,

distortion-product otoacoustic emissions;

E,

estrogen;

HINT,

hearing-in-noise test;

HRT,

hormone replacement therapy;

NHRT,

non-hormone replacement therapy;

P,

progestin;

PTA,

pure-tone average;

spl,

sound pressure level;

TEOAEs,

transient evoked otoacoustic emissions.
Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.