Publication
Hypogonadism in HIV-1-infected men is common and does not resolve during antiretroviral therapy
Journal Paper/Review - Jan 1, 2007
Wunder Dorothea M, Furrer Hansjakob, Mueller Bruno, Bernasconi Enos, Schmid Patrick, Elzi Luigia, Cavassini Matthias, Hirschel Bernard, Mueller Nicolas J, Fux Christoph A, Bersinger Nick A, Swiss HIV Cohort Study
Units
PubMed
Citation
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Journal
Publication Date
Issn Print
Pages
Brief description/objective
OBJECTIVES: To assess the prevalence of abnormal testosterone and gonadotropin values in HIV-infected men before and after 2 years of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). DESIGN: Multicentre cohort of HIV-infected adults. METHODS: We identified 139 Caucasian antiretroviral-naive male patients who started zidovudine/ lamivudine-based cART that was virologically successful over a 2 year period. Ninety-seven were randomly chosen and plasma hormone determinations of free testosterone (fT) and luteinizing hormone (LH) at baseline and after 2 years of cART were evaluated. RESULTS: At baseline 68 patients (70%) had subnormal fT levels. In these, LH levels were low in 44%, normal in 47% and high in 9%. There was a trend for an association between lower CD4+ T-cell counts and hypogonadism. Most participants had normal FSH levels. No significant changes of fT, LH and FSH levels were observed after 2 years of cART. CONCLUSIONS: Low fT levels, mainly with normal or low LH levels and thus indicating secondary hypogonadism, are found in the majority of HIV-infected men and do not resolve during 2 years of successful cART.