COVID-19 disrupts sex hormone levels in men
14 Feb 2021
Infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus leads to alterations in male sex hormone levels, reducing total testosterone (TT) while increasing luteinizing hormone (LH) and prolactin levels, a recent study has found.
Researchers conducted a prospective cohort study of 262 men (aged 20–65 years), of whom 89 had the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), 30 had non-COVID-19 respiratory tract infections, and 143 were age-matched healthy controls. TT, LH, prolactin, and follicular stimulating hormone (FSH) levels were obtained from medical records.
TT levels differed significantly across the three patient groups (p=0.0001). From a median of 332 ng/dL in controls, concentration dropped to 288.67 ng/mL in non-COVID-19 patients with respiratory infections, and then finally to 185.52 ng/dL in COVID-19 patients.
Similarly, the proportion of patients with testosterone deficiency was highest in the COVID-19 group and lowest among controls (74.2 percent vs 37.8 percent).
Conversely, LH levels were significantly elevated among patients with COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 respiratory infections, as compared with controls (p=0.0003). The same was true for serum prolactin (p=0.0007). FSH concentrations did not differ across the subgroups.
Among the men with COVID-19, infection was mild in 52.8 percent, moderate in 33.7 percent, and severe in 13.5 percent. Serum LH (p=0.0107) and FSH (p=0.0348) were significantly lowered in patients with severe COVID-19; the effect of disease severity on TT was only of borderline significance (p=0.0837).