Pipper, Cornelia, Bliem, Linda, León, Luis E et al. · Journal of endocrinological investigation · 2024 · DOI
Researchers measured hormone levels in the blood of ME/CFS patients and compared them to healthy people. They found that certain hormones—including cortisol-related compounds and progesterone—were different in people with ME/CFS, and the differences varied depending on whether patients had mild/moderate or severe disease and their sex. These hormone patterns might help doctors better identify and categorize ME/CFS in the future.
Steroid hormone abnormalities may represent objective biomarkers for ME/CFS diagnosis and disease severity stratification, addressing a critical clinical need in a disease lacking definitive diagnostic tests. Sex-specific hormone patterns suggest that biological mechanisms and disease expression differ between males and females, which could inform more personalized treatment approaches and improve understanding of why ME/CFS disproportionately affects women.
This study does not establish whether hormone abnormalities cause ME/CFS or result from it—the cross-sectional design prevents causal inference. It does not prove these hormones alone can reliably diagnose ME/CFS in clinical practice, as external validation in larger, independent populations is needed. The modest sample size, especially for males (n=6-8), limits generalizability of sex-specific findings.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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