Hypogonadism in HIV-1-infected men is common and does not resolve during antiretroviral therapy.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the prevalence of abnormal testosterone and gonadotropin values in HIV-infected men before and after 2 years of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART).


METHODS
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.
Wunder
Dorothea M
DM
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University Hospital of Berne, Berne, Switzerland.
Bersinger
Nick A
NA
Fux
Christoph A
CA
Mueller
Nicolas J
NJ
Hirschel
Bernard
B
Cavassini
Matthias
M
Elzi
Luigia
L
Schmid
Patrick
P
Bernasconi
Enos
E
Mueller
Bruno
B
Furrer
Hansjakob
H
D000328:Adult; D019380:Anti-HIV Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D005640:Follicle Stimulating Hormone / Q000097:blood; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007006:Hypogonadism / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D019259:Lamivudine / Q000627:therapeutic use; D007986:Luteinizing Hormone / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D018894:Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013557:Switzerland / Q000453:epidemiology; D013739:Testosterone / Q000097:blood; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D019562:Viral Load; D015215:Zidovudine / Q000627:therapeutic use
D019380:Anti-HIV Agents; D012367:RNA, Viral; D018894:Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors; D019259:Lamivudine; D013739:Testosterone; D015215:Zidovudine; D007986:Luteinizing Hormone; D005640:Follicle Stimulating Hormone