Changes of sex hormone levels and sexual function in male patients after liver transplantation

Abstract

Objective To investigate changes of sex hormone levels and sexual function in male patients after liver transplantation.Methods Blood samples were taken from 69 male patients receiving liver transplantation pretransplantation and postoperative 3rd,7th,14th day,1st and 3rd month respectively.Serum estradiol and testosterone were measured by radioimmunoassay.Serum sex hormone binding globulin was measured by ELISA.Sixty-nine discharged adult male liver transplant recipients ( age ranging 24 -45 years) with a normally functioning allograft for at least 6 months were questioned on their pre-and post-operative sexual function compared with 23 adult healthy controls.Results Pretransplantation serum estradiol and sex hormone binding globulin were significantly higher (87.56±31.21 vs.26.00 ±9.12,u=9.30,P＜0.0001,134.50±30.68 vs.51.04 ±12.05,u=12.69,P ＜ 0.0001,respectively),and testosterone was lower than normal controls (2.02 ± 1.28 vs.4.82 ± 1.48,u =-8.73,P ＜0.0001 ) and levels were correlated with MELD scores (r =0.80,P ＜0.0001,r =-0.77,P ＜0.0001,r =0.72,P ＜0.0001,respectively).Sex hormone levels were back to normal on postoperative 2nd week (serum estradiol) or 1st month (serum testosterone and sex hormone binding globulin).Compared with pretransplant status,sexual function improved significantly when evaluated on postoperative 6th month.Conclusions Levels of serum sex hormone were correlated with MELD scores before liver transplant.After liver transplant,estradiol was back to normal level on postoperative 2nd week,testosterone and sex hormone binding globulin back to normal level on postoperative 1 st month.Sexual function significantly improves after liver transplantation. Key words: Liver transplantation; Gonadal steroid hormone; Sexual function; Male