A new study suggests that COVID-19 may lead to a decline in men’s testosterone levels. The research also observed that as the male hormone level decreases in the patients, the probability of their being admitted to the ICU significantly increases, according to a Hindustan Times report.

While it has been previously studied that low testosterone levels could be a cause for poor prognosis for a case of COVID-19, this is the first study to determine that COVID-19 can itself be the cause behind the hormone decline, noted Dr Selahittin Cayan, Professor of Urology at the University of Mersin and lead author of the study.

The research, published in the journal The Aging Male, provides a plausible explanation for why the COVID-19 prognosis is worse in men than in women. This finding can aid in the improvement of clinical outcomes through the employment of testosterone-based treatments.

What Was The Study?

The scientists assessed a total of 438 patients, including 232 males, each with a case of laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV-2. The participants of the cohort study were divided into three groups - asymptomatic patients (46), symptomatic patients who were hospitalised in the internal medicine unit (129), and patients who were hospitalized in the intensive care unit (46).

They observed that in the patients who had had a pre-COVID-19 serum gonadal hormones test (24), there was a significant decline in the testosterone levels as compared to the ones observed earlier.

What They Found

“We found, Hypogonadism - a condition in which the body doesn’t produce enough testosterone - in 113 (51.1 per cent) of the male patients,” Dr Cayan said. The researchers found that the mean total testosterone decreased as the severity of the viral infection increased.

The researchers found that the mean serum follicle stimulating hormone level was significantly higher in the ICU group than in the asymptomatic group.

The patients who succumbed to the virus had a significantly lower mean total testosterone than the patients who lived. However, the researchers noted that 65.2 per cent of the 46 male patients who were asymptomatic had a “loss of loss of libido.”

Testosterone is associated with the immune system of respiratory organs. Low levels of the hormone can increase the risk of respiratory infections. “Low testosterone is also associated with infection-related hospitalisation and all-cause mortality in male in ICU patients, so testosterone treatment may also have benefits beyond improving outcomes for Covid-19,” Cayan explained.

“It could be recommended that at the time of Covid-19 diagnosis, testosterone levels are also tested. In men with low levels of sex hormones who test positive for COVID-19, testosterone treatment could improve their prognosis. More research is needed on this,” Cayan added.

(With inputs from The Hindustan Times)