Male Gonadal Function in Coeliac Disease: Sex Hormones
February 1983
in “
Gut
”
TLDR Men with coeliac disease may have hormone imbalances that could affect sexual function, but these can improve with better gut health.
In a study of 41 men with coeliac disease, researchers found significant endocrine abnormalities, including increased plasma testosterone and free testosterone index, reduced dihydrotestosterone, and raised serum luteinising hormone, suggesting androgen resistance. These hormonal changes appeared to normalize with the improvement of jejunal morphology. This pattern was not observed in 19 nutritionally-matched men with Crohn's disease or men with rheumatoid arthritis and Hodgkin's disease, indicating that androgen resistance may be specific to coeliac disease and not a result of malnutrition or chronic ill-health. Additionally, 10% of coeliacs and 11% of Crohn's disease patients had modestly raised plasma oestradiol levels, which were not clearly related to jejunal morphology. The study suggests that androgen resistance and hypothalamic-pituitary dysfunction in coeliac disease may be linked to sexual dysfunction, but the connection to disordered spermatogenesis was not definitively established.
