Objective: To study the impact of abdominal obesity on the production of male reproductive endocrine hormones.
Methods: This study included 342 male patients at the andrology clinic, aged 19 -47 years and higher than 160 cm. We measured their waistlines, hiplines and waist-hip ratio, detected the levels of serum estradiol (E2), testosterone (T), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH) and free testosterone (FT) by chemiluminescence and radioimmunoassay, and analyzed the correlation of the waist-hip ratio with the levels of reproductive endocrine hormones. Abdominal obesity was defined as the waist-hip ratio > 0.9.
Results: In the 342 male patients, there were 62 cases of abdominal obesity and 280 cases of the normal somatotype (waist-hip ratio < or = 0.9). The waist-hip ratio was negatively correlated with the T level (r = -0.163, P = 0.003) and the T/LH ratio (r = -0.13, P = 0.02). Both the T level and T/LH ratio were significantly reduced in the abdominal obesity patients ([14.51 +/- 4.53] nmol/L and 2.26 +/- 0.36) as compared with the normal somatotype controls ([17.21 +/- 4.23] nmol/L and 4.61 +/- 0.19) (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: The waist-hip ratio has a significant negative correlation with the T level and T/LH ratio, and the serum T level is significantly lower in men with abdominal obesity than in those of the normal somatotype.