Assessment of Aromatase in Premenopausal and Postmenopausal Women Attending Rivers State University Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Aim: This study was a cross sectional study aimed at evaluating the concentration of the enzyme aromatase in premenopausal and postmenopausal women in Port Harcourt.

Study Design: The study population comprised of apparently healthy premenopausal and postmenopausal women who were within the age range of 20-79 years. A total of seventy (70) participants were voluntarily recruited, who were divided into 2 groups: group A comprising of thirty (30) premenopausal and group B comprising of forty (40) postmenopausal women.

Methodology: An Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) method was used to analyze the concentration of aromatase in the samples. The statistical analysis was done using GraphPad Prism version 9.4.1.

Results: The results obtained for the respective groups were expressed as mean±SD and statistical significance was determined by a p-value <0.05. The results clearly showed a significant increase in the level of aromatase in postmenopausal women when compared to the premenopausal women.

Conclusion: This finding implies that postmenopausal women have much higher concentration of aromatase than the premenopausal population. Thus, there is an age-related increase in aromatase expression in relation to menopausal status.