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Plasma Free and Non-Sex-Hormone-Binding-Globulin Bound Testosterone Are Decreased in Obese Men in Proportion to Their Degree of Obesity

Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism and the Division of Community Medicine, Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Medical Center, and the Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Medical Center New York, New York 10003

Address requests for reprints to: Dr. Barnett Zumoff, Beth Israel Medical Center, First Avenue at 16th Street, New York, New York 10003.

It is known that plasma total testosterone (T) is decreased in obese men in proportion to the degree of obesity, but similar information is not available for plasma free T and non-sex-hormone-binding globulin (SHBG)-bound T. We measured the 24-h mean plasma total T in 48 healthy (non-weightstable men, aged 18–55 yr, with body mass indexes (BMI) ranging from 21–95 kg/m². Free T and non-SHBG-bound T were calculated using the measured total T, the concentrations of albumin and SHBG, and the association constants of T to albumin and SHBG. Total body fat content was measured by deuterium-water isotope dilution. Findings were as follows. 1) BMI was very highly correlated with total body fat content (r = 0.96; P < 0.001); thus, the degree of obesity can be calculated just as appropriately from simple height and weight measurements as from measurements of total body fat content. 2) Total, non-SHBG-bound, and free T were all highly correlated inversely with BMI; for total T, r = –0.727, P < 0.01; for non- SHBG-bound T, r = 0.677, P < 0.01; and for free T, r = –0.653, P < 0.01. Thus, free T and non-SHBG-bound T are decreased in obese men in proportion to the degree of obesity, just as is the case for total T; percentagewise, the decrease was the same for all 3 parameters.

Received June 9, 1989.

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