Aim: There is increasing awareness of hypogonadism in men with type 2 diabetes but limited data from Primary Care.
Subjects and methods: The anonymised records of 6457 male patients aged 18-80 years with diabetes were accessed. Within the last 2 years 391 men (6.0% of total) underwent measurement of serum testosterone. Data search was performed through the centralised data facility afforded by EMIS®, the majority GP systems provider in Cheshire.
Results: 4.4% of type 2 diabetes men screened were frankly hypogonadal with a serum total testosterone of less than 8.0 nmol/l. For borderline hypogonadism (serum total testosterone 8-11.99 nmol/l) the proportion of type 2 diabetes men rose to 32.1%. Age adjusted mean (geometric) testosterone was lower in men with type 2 diabetes (13.6 nmol/l 95%CI: 13.1-14.2) vs type 1 diabetes (17.9 nmol/l; 95%CI 15.2-21.0), F=10.3; p=0.0014. For those screened age adjusted body mass index (BMI) was greater in type 2 diabetes at 30.7 (30.1-31.3) vs 28.4 (26.1-30.6)kg/m(2) in type 1 diabetes (F=4.3; p=0.04). Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that there was a statistically significant interaction (P=0.014) between BMI and diabetes type in their relation with log testosterone. For persons with type 1 DM and type 2 DM, testosterone can be expected to decrease by 6% (P=0.002) and by 1% (P=0.002) respectively, for every one unit increment in BMI.
Conclusions: There is manifestly a subset of men with diabetes and androgen deficiency who could benefit from testosterone replacement. BMI has an independent influence on androgen status.
Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.