How Does Diabetes Affect Male Hormones?

Dr. Robert Eckel answers the question: 'How Does Diabetes Affect Male Hormones?'

By
Robert Eckel, M.D., Professor of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Diabetes, Division of Cardiology, University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine
August 18, 2008, 2:10 PM ET
1 min read

— -- Question:How does diabetes affect male hormones?

Answer:Patients with diabetes often suffer from erectile dysfunction, and in some patients low levels of testosterone can be detected. This may in part relate to the obesity that often accompanies type 2 diabetes.

Patients with type 1 diabetes can also ultimately have low testosterone levels, but in these patients, which is rare by the way, they often have endocrine disorders that reflect the autoimmunity of type 1 diabetes -- that means they may be making antibodies against the testes that would make their testosterones low. Again, this is a very rare problem for patients with diabetes that must be considered in the patient with type 1 diabetes and low levels of testosterone.

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