ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SERUM TESTOSTERONE-ESTRADIOL RATIO AND BODY MASS INDEX IN OBESE IRAQI MEN

Abstract

The obesity epidemic has grown to alarming rates in recent years, and a decrease in male fertility has been observed in parallel with obesity. Objective: To evaluate relationship between serum testosterone/estradiol ratioand body mass index BMI in obese Iraqi men. Material & Methods: The subjects of this study were 72 obese males, ageing 22-51 years, they were selected after a detailed medical history taken with physical exam including BMI with a body mass ≥ 30kg/m2.Blood sampling was carried out to measure serum estradiol (E2), total testosterone (Tes), insulin level (Ins) and thyroid stimulation hormone (TSH) using Chemiluminescence assay analyzer (Tosoh AIA-600).Data distribution was evaluated. Variables displaying a normal distribution were expressed as mean ± SD. ANOVA were used for the comparison of variables. Results & Discussion: In this study Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated. Mean (± SD) age of the subjects included in this study was 35.4 (± 7.7) years mean (± SD) Estradiol, total testosterone, Insulin were 44.1(±13.4)pg/ml, 359.1(±6730)ng/dL and 17.0(±8.1)µU/ml respectively. Statistically significant differences were observed in the mean values of BMI between three IBM class groups (p<0.001). Significant direct correlation of BMI with estradiol and insulin level (r=0.388, p<0.01 and r=0.386 p<0.01 respectively), while in verse correlation with serum total testosterone(r = -0.413, p < 0.001) was recorded in this study. The prime hormonal defect in obese men is (Tes/E2) ratio, which have a negative significant correlation with obese males.