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This thesis includes a study of 125 patients which was conducted at the department of obstetrics and gynecology of the general hospital of Vienna (AKH Wien), division of gynecology, endocrinology and reproductive medicine under the survey of Prof. DDr. Johannes Huber. The thesis has confirmed a decline of dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEA-S) levels corresponding to age. Also, in postmenopausal women, not only the total concentration of DHEA decreases, but also the circadian oscillations of DHEA-S concentrations flatten. The synthesis of cortisol shows no change in postmenopausal women. Conspicuous are the desynchronization of DHEA-S and cortisol levels in postmenopausal women and the statistically significant inverse correlation between the BMI and the levels of cortisol. On the other hand, there is no correlation between BMI and DHEA-S. The present study also shows that those hormonal disturbances that lead to amenorrhea do not affect the production of DHEA secretion in the adrenal gland. Likewise, the behavior of menstruation seems to have no effect on cortisol synthesis.

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Dr. med Jingjing Federmann, born on the 1st of October, 1981 in China, has completed her medical study at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria. Since then, she lives in Switzerland and works in the field of quality management in health care in Zurich.

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