Endocrine Abstracts

Background and purpose: Obese men often exhibit hypoandrogenemia. Although previous research has established obesity and metabolic-related disorders as key factors contributing to decreased androgens in males, there are rare studies to comprehensively understand the correlation between sex hormones and obesity, as well as metabolic indicators, particularly in non Caucasian populations. This study aims to comprehensively investigate the relationship between sex hormones and obesity in adult males using a large-scale clinical sample in non Caucasian populations.

Materials and Methods: Participants were screened based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the sex hormone indicators including sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), total testosterone (TT), estradiol (E2), luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), free testosterone (FT), bioactive testosterone (BioT), as well as metabolic indicators including BMI, blood lipids, fasting glucose, blood uric acid were collected and analyzed.

Results: A total of 360 adult males were included. The findings showed that TT (ng/ml) exhibited a sequential decrease from the obese group, the overweight group and the normal group (P<0.05). When BMI (kg/m²)≥ 28.326, a significant decrease in FT was observed (0.080 vs 0.090, P<0.05), and when BMI (kg/m²)≥ 28.360, a significant decline in BioT was observed (1.85 vs 2.10, P<0.05). Multivariate linear regression analysis revealed that SHBG was negatively correlated with BMI and triglycerides, and positively with age; TT was negatively correlated with BMI, blood glucose and TG; FT was negatively correlated with BMI, age, and blood glucose; BioT was negatively correlated with BMI, age, and blood glucose; E2 was positively correlated with BMI and negatively with TG. However, LH and FSH were positively correlated with age only.

Conclusion: Increased BMI and glucose levels correlated with lower androgen hormone levels including serum TT, FT and BioT, which reminds us to pay particular attention to the possibility of hypogonadism in obese men.