Reference range of testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate levels in women during reproductive age in the Iranian population

To determine the average cutoff values of serum?free and total testosterone (FT, TT) and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) among healthy premenopausal women.

Participants were women aged 18–55 years without signs and symptoms of hyperandrogenism (n = 489). Participants if Ferriman–Gallwey (FG) scores between 6 and 8 were considered a group located in the upper spectrum related to the normal hirsutism score (n = 30). DHEAS, TT, and FT levels were compared between different populations. Upper limits of 97.5 and 95 and lower limits of 5 and 2.5 percentiles were calculated to provide the reference intervals for DHEA, TT, and FT in the total sample and in the population with FG 6–8.

In the total population, the mean ± standard deviation (SD) serum FT, TT, and DHEAS levels were 1.40 ± 0.63 pg/mL, 0.42 ± 0.17 ng/mL, and 1.5 ± 0.97 ?g/ml, respectively. The cutoff values of FT at 1.35 and TT at 0.49 were obtained for differentiating the patients with FG 6–8 scores from the normal population, with the corresponding specificity of 0.60, the sensitivity of 0.67, and area under the ROC curve (AUC) (confidence interval 95%) of 0.63 (0.52–0.73), P = 0.01 and 0.68 (0.58–0.78) P = 0.001, respectively.

In our study, the mean ± SD serum FT level was 1.40 ± 0.63 pg/mL, the TT level was 0.42 ± 0.17 ng/mL, and the DHEAS level was 1.5 ± 0.97 ?g/ml, in premenopausal women between 18 and 49 years of age. Furthermore, in a population with FG 6–8 score, a cutoff value of FT at 1.35 and TT at 0.49 was obtained. Although the irregular menstrual cycle did not change the reference range when compared with the normal group.