Abstract

Ageing and diabetes mellitus (DM) are known to affect sex hormones. Several studies have reported on sex hormones in male hemodialysis patients (HDPs) and renal transplant recipients (RTRs). None of those studies had excluded the effect of either ageing or DM, which might be one of the reasons why those studies had contradicting results. The aim of this study was to calculate free androgen index (FAI), assess the level of sex hormones in non-diabetic male (NDM) HDPs and RTRs whose ages were below 50 years, and to compare our findings with those of the others. In this study, NDM HDPs and RTRs had equal total testosterone (TT) level that was not significantly different from that of the controls; however, their FAI was significantly lower than that of the controls. Levels of luteinizing hormone (LH), follicular stimulating hormone (FSH), estradiol, prolactin, and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) were higher in those two patients groups than in the control group. In conclusion, NDM HDPs and RTRs had TT level that was not different from that of the controls, but they had abnormally low FAI level and abnormally elevated levels of LH, FSH, estradiol, prolactin, and SHBG.

Key words: Free androgen index, sex hormones, hemodialysis, transplantation.