Endocrine Abstracts

The aim: Is to investigate the effectiveness of therapy with testosterone undecanoatein patients with hypothyroidism and androgen deficiency.

Material and methods: Substitution therapy with testosterone was performed on 55 men with hypothyroidism and clinically or laboratory confirmed androgen deficiency. The age of the patients was from 35 to 69 years, the duration of hypothyroidism – from 3 to 16 years.

Results: The average total testosterone level in the patients’ blood before the start of treatment was 9.3±0.6 nmol/l and was significantly lower than the control group level (20.02±0.81 nmol/l), P> 0.05. Indicators of total testosterone levels in the patients were in the range from 3.9 nmol/l to 10.7 nmol/l, with a level of hormone below 8.0 nmol/l (sign of absolute androgen deficiency) was observed in only 11 patients. Three months after the administration of testosterone, a significant increase in the mean total concentration of testosterone in the blood of the examined patients was observed up to 14.9±0.87 nmol/l. At the same time, there were significant fluctuations of the indicator – from the mean normal values to those that were within the lower boundary of the normal values of testosterone in the blood of healthy men. A more pronounced increase in the average blood level of total testosterone in patients was observed after 6 months up to 17.24±0.73 nmol/l. On the background of substitution therapy with testosterone, stabilization of the level of total testosterone at the reference level in the blood of men with hypothyroidism was observed after 9 months of follow-up (after the fourth injection) (16.83±0.75 nmol/l) compared with the indicator before treatment.

Conclusions: The average total testosterone level in the blood of patients before the start of treatment was significantly lower than that of the control group. On the background of substitution therapy with testosterone, stabilization of the level of total testosterone at the reference levels in the blood of men with hypothyroidism was observed in 9 months of follow-up compared with the indicator before treatment. The use of long-acting injectable long-term testosterone undecanoate results in the normalization of total testosterone levels in men with hypothyroidism and androgen deficiency.