CClinicalTrials.gg
Status unknownNCT02525276Updated Aug 17, 2015

Female Sex Hormones, Insulin Resistance and Effects of Exercise in a Human Experimental Model of Menopause

An interventional study of exercise and Hormone treatment in Metabolic Syndrome, sponsored by Rigshospitalet, Denmark. Status unknown. Open to female participants aged 18 Years to 55 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2015-08-17.

Sponsored by Rigshospitalet, Denmark · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention

The sponsor has not verified this record recently (last verified Aug 2015), so the status shown — last known as Not yet recruiting — may be out of date.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
48
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 55 Years
Sex
Female
01

Study summary

The main objective of this study is to investigate the role of female sex hormones in relation to insulin resistance in a controlled human experimental model of menopause and to explore whether exercise and/or hormone treatment (HT) can compensate for loss of endogenous sex hormone production by maintaining insulin sensitivity and metabolic activity at a level equivalent to what is seen in premenopausal women.

Loss of ovarian function is associated with an increased incidence of metabolic disease including metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. This increased disease incidence seems to be related to changes in body composition including decreased skeletal muscle mass and increased visceral fat mass as well as decreased whole body fat oxidation and energy expenditure. Regular physical activity decreases general mortality among other things by increasing fat free mass and insulin sensitivity and hereby prevents metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease - conditions seen with an increased incidence after menopause and could therefore be a possible treatment.

In the present study the Investigators will assess the role of sex hormones in a model of menopause where healthy women are undergoing planned bilateral oophorectomy due to risk of hereditary ovary cancer. The use of this model makes it possible to control the time point for loss of ovarian function and hereby investigate the timeframe and possible contributing factors in a strictly controlled model. 48 premenopausal women will be included in the study. The study is conducted in women who have already been offered surgical oophorectomy. The first 2 months the study will be an observational cohort study. Hereafter the patients will be allocated to one of four groups (n=12) in a randomized controlled trial, addressing the effects of 6 months of exercise with or without HT. Type of surgery has been decided before inclusion based on medical indications. The women will be offered HT according to national guidelines, but the choice is up to them. Randomization applies only to the training intervention.

Firstly the Investigators aim at investigating the role of endogenous female sex hormones and HT in relation to insulin resistance, whole body fat oxidation and -energy expenditure, changes in visceral fat mass and fat free mass after oophorectomy. Secondly, the Investigators wish to study the molecular mechanisms behind the oophorectomy-induced insulin resistance with a focus on insulin signaling in skeletal muscle and fat tissue. Lastly, the investigators aim to explore whether exercise and/or HT can compensate for loss of endogenous female sex hormone production by maintaining IS and metabolic activity, hereby preventing future incidents of metabolic disease in relation to menopause.

All in all, this project will contribute with new knowledge concerning the question of how endogenous female sex hormones affect insulin sensitivity and metabolic functioning and how exercise may be used as a disease preventive modality for middle-aged women.

02

Conditions studied

  • Metabolic Syndrome
03

In context

Metabolic Syndrome

1,964 studies on the registry are indexed under Metabolic Syndrome; 330 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 48 is below the median of 60 across 1,460 interventional studies indexed under Metabolic Syndrome.

Browse Metabolic Syndrome studies →

Lead sponsor

Rigshospitalet, Denmark is the lead sponsor of 1,017 studies on the registry; 183 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 55 Years
Sexes eligible
Female
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  • women
  • going through oophorectomy to prevent hereditary cancer
  • premenopausal

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • infection during the last month
  • chronic disease
  • smoking
  • alcohol > 14 servings/week
  • hysterectomized
  • premature menopause
  • BMI > 30
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Prevention
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
48 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    training + HT

    training + HT

    Behavioral: exercise · Drug: Hormone treatment

  • Experimental
    training - HT

    training - HT

    Behavioral: exercise

  • Placebo comparator
    -training + HT

    -training + HT

    Drug: Hormone treatment

  • No intervention
    - training - HT

    - training - HT

Interventions

  • Behavioralexercise

    The exercise intervention will conduct the following training program 4 days/week for 6 months: endurance training consisting of supervised training on a bike ergometer for 20 min at 70% of maximal heart rate (HR) the first week, increased by 5 min each week until reaching 40 min. Then the intensity will be increased to 80% of max HR over the next month and recalculated every month.

  • DrugHormone treatment

    Continually estradiol and gestagens - tablets and patches or cyclic estradiol and gestagens - tablets or patches. Including: Drospirenon, Norethisteronacetat, Medroxyprogesteronacetat

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. insulin sensitivity

    Measured by a hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp as AUC for glucose infusion rate

    Time frame: 1 year

07

Study locations

No study locations are listed for this record.

08

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Aug 17, 2015, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT02525276
Lead sponsor
Rigshospitalet, Denmark
Responsible party
Anders Rasmussen Rinnov (MD PhD, Rigshospitalet, Denmark) — Principal investigator
First posted
Aug 17, 2015
Start date
Aug 2015
Primary completion
Aug 2018 (estimated)
Completion
Aug 2018 (estimated)
Last update
Aug 17, 2015

Study contacts

Julie Abildgaard, MD
Contact
julieabild@gmail.com
+4535457190
Julie Abildgaard, MD
principal investigator · Centre of Inflammation and Metabolism

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is status unknown, as verified in Aug 2015. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

Follow this study

Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.

Sign in to follow

Discussion

Questions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.

Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.

Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.

Start the discussion