AUTHOR=Boettcher Claudia , Hartmann Michaela F. , Zimmer Klaus-Peter , Wudy Stefan A. 

TITLE=High Glucocorticoid Response to 24-h-Shift Stressors in Male but Not in Female Physicians

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Endocrinology

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2017

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/endocrinology/articles/10.3389/fendo.2017.00171

DOI=10.3389/fendo.2017.00171

ISSN=1664-2392

ABSTRACT=Abstract
Physicians’ daily work is accompanied by emotional and physical stress and 24h shifts are considered to be a major stressor. Effects of stressors on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis can be evaluated by estimating the glucocorticoid excretion in urine samples. We characterized the impact of a 24h working period on the urinary glucocorticoid excretion of physicians and focused on gender differences. 10 females and 12 male physicians collected 24h urine samples during a 24h shift (“on-duty”) and on a free weekend (“off-duty”) that were analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Urinary glucocorticoid excretion rates were assessed by addition of the 24-h excretion rates per m2 body surface area for the seven major urinary cortisol and cortisone metabolites. Women showed generally lower glucorticoid excretion rates compared to men. Only male physicians had increased glucocorticoid excretion rates on duty compared to off duty. As a measure of change between being on duty and off duty the ratio glucocorticoid excretion rates on duty/ glucocorticoid excretion rates off duty was significantly higher in males than in females. Thus, the 24h shift stress factor generates diverging results between female and male subjects with activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis primarily in male physicians.