• Francesco Oliva, Eleonora Piccirilli, Anna C Berardi, Antonio Frizziero, Umberto Tarantino, and Nicola Maffulli.
• Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', Roma, Italy.
• Br. Med. Bull. 2016 Mar 1; 117 (1): 39-58.

BackgroundTendinopathies negatively affect the quality of life of millions of people, but we still do not know the factors involved in the development of tendon conditions.Sources Of DataPublished articles in English in PubMed and Google Scholar up to June 2015 about hormonal influence on tendinopathies onset. One hundred and two papers were included following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.Areas Of AgreementIn vitro and in vivo, tenocytes showed changes in their morphology and in their functional properties according to hormonal imbalances.Areas Of ControversyGenetic pattern, sex, age and comorbidities can influence the hormonal effect on tendons.Growing PointsThe increasing prevalence of metabolic disorders prompts to investigate the possible connection between metabolic problems and musculoskeletal diseases.Areas Timely For Developing ResearchThe influence of hormones on tendon structure and metabolism needs to be further investigated. If found to be significant, multidisciplinary preventive and therapeutic strategies should then be developed.© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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