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Hypogonadism and Sexual Dysfunction in Hemochromatosis: The Effects of Cirrhosis and Diabetes

Department of Medicine London, United Kingdom
Liver Unit London, United Kingdom
Department of Chemical Pathology King's College Hospital London, United Kingdom
Department of Chemical Pathology, St. Thomas's Hospital London, United Kingdom

Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Dr. T. Cundy, Academic Teaching Unit, Green Lane Hospital, Green Lane West, Auckland 3, New Zealand.

The contribution of diabetes and cirrhosis to sexual dysfunction and hypogonadism was evaluated by two-way analysis of variance in a group of 30 men with idiopathic hemochromatosis. The prevalence of severe sexual dysfunction was significantly higher in men with hemochromatosis than in a control group matched for prevalence of diabetes and age (P < 0.001). In both controls and hemochromatosis patients the presence of diabetes was significantly associated with sexual dysfunction (P < 0.005), but the more severe symptoms in the hemochromatosis patients were related to the additive effects of hypoandrogenism (P < 0.01). Sexual dysfunction was a common early complaint in hemochromatosis patients, but these symptoms were frequently overlooked, leading to diagnostic delay. Mean testicular volume was a useful measure of gonadal status, being significantly correlated with indices of serum free testosterone (r_s = 0.83; P < 0.01) and LH (r_s = 0.71; P < 0.001). The presence of cirrhosis did not contribute significantly to symptomatology, but had an effect independent of and additive to hypogonadotropic hypogonadism in reducing serum free testosterone (P < 0.02) and estradiol (P < 0.002), an effect apparently mediated through central rather than testicular mechanisms. Hypoandrogenism was associated with an increase in serum sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) concentrations (P < 0.005), but cirrhosis also had an independent effect in raising SHBG (P < 0.005), which could not be accounted for by changes in circulating sex hormone concentrations.

Thus, the evaluation of sexual dysfunction or hypogonadism in men with hemochromatosis requires consideration of the effects of both diabetes and cirrhosis. Because of the greater variance in SHBG some estimate of free testosterone rather than total testosterone is preferable.

Received November 28, 1988.