Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Obesity is a chronic relapsing disease that has acquired pandemic dimensions in recent years. Obesity is not just a disease that is associated with an increase in body weight, but a condition that leads to a complete change in the hormonal status of patients.

Methods: In the Clinic of "Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases" of the Military Medical Academy - Sofia, we tracked 100 people with obesity with a BMI over 30 kg/m2 for 6 months. Patients were divided into 5 different groups depending on the therapy they received-with metformin, with liraglutide up to 3 mg, semaglutide up to 2.4 mg, treatment with specialized probiotics or only on a standard diet. We monitored the values of thyroid hormones - TSH, fT4 fT3; levels of TAT, MAT; total testosterone in men and women, fasting insulin levels, fasting glucose levels and insulin and glucose levels during oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), before the start of treatment and 6 months later.

Results: We found statistically significant changes (P<0.05) in the hormone levels - in patients who reduced more than 5% of body weight regardless of the therapeutic approach-a decrease in TSH levels was found, in patients with subclinical hypothyroidism at the beginning of the follow-up, without levothyroxine replacement therapy and increased total testosterone levels in men with baseline low total testosterone. In patients with a reduction of more than 10% of body weight, a decrease in fasting insulin levels was found, as well as in fasting glucose levels and glucose levels at 120 min of the performed OGTT compared to the values at the beginning of the follow-up.

Conclusion: The reduction of body weight and the treatment of obesity leads to an improvement in the general hormonal status of patients, independently of the therapeutic approach, but in correlation with the percentage of reduced body weight.