Science

J. Hofstra, S. Loves, B. van Wageningen, J. Ruinemans-Koerts, I. Janssen, H. de Boer

Background: Obesity can be associated with biochemical evidence of isolated hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (iHH) in men. Prevalence and severity of iHH in obese men are not exactly known.
Objective: To assess the prevalence of iHH in obese men. design and subjects: Cross-sectional study of 160 obese men, bMi >30 kg/m2, who applied for medical or surgical treatment of obesity in a general teaching hospital.
Main outcome measures: Total and calculated free testosterone (TT and fT) in relation to body mass index (bMi).
Results: Mean age of the study population was 43.3 ± 0.8 years (mean ± sEM), bMi ranged from 30.0 to 65.7 kg/m2. TT and fT levels were inversely related to bMi (-0.48, p