Association between follicle‐stimulating hormone and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes mellitus

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Follicle‐stimulating hormone (FSH) was negatively associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in women older than 55 years old. People with obesity and diabetes had higher prevalence of NAFLD. Thus, we aimed to explore the association between FSH and NAFLD in postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). METHODS: A total of 583 postmenopausal women with T2DM with an average age of 60.22 ± 6.49 were recruited in this cross‐sectional study through January 2017 to May 2021. Anthropological data, biochemical indexes, and abdominal ultrasound results were retrospectively collected. Abdominal ultrasound was used to diagnose NAFLD. FSH was measured by enzymatic immunochemiluminescence and divided into tertiles for further analysis. The logistic regression was used to assess the association of FSH with prevalent NAFLD. Likelihood ratio tests were used to assess the interactions between groups. RESULTS: A total of 332 (56.94%) postmenopausal women had NAFLD. Compared with postmenopausal women in the lowest tertile of FSH, postmenopausal women in the highest tertile of FSH had lower prevalence of NAFLD (p < .01). After adjusting for age, diabetes duration, metabolism‐related indicators, and other sex‐related hormones, FSH was inversely associated with NAFLD (odds ratio: 0.411, 95% confidence intervals: 0.260–0.651, p < .001). In subgroup analysis, there were no significant interactions of FSH with strata of metabolic factors on the association of NAFLD. CONCLUSION: FSH was negatively and independently associated with NAFLD in postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes mellitus. It might be a potential index for screening and identifying individuals with high risk of NAFLD in postmenopausal women.