Panach-Navarrete Jorge, Morales-Giraldo Andrés, Ferrandis-Cortés Cristina, García-Morata Francisco, Pastor-Lence Juan Carlos, Martínez-Jabaloyas José María
Department of Urology, University Clinic Hospital of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
Facultat de Medicina i Odontologia, Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain.
Aging Male. 2020 Dec;23(5):592-598. doi: 10.1080/13685538.2018.1550745. Epub 2019 May 9.
The goal of this work was to study the relationship between presence of varicocele and testosterone serum levels in adulthood.
A comparative, cross-sectional study of 387 men who consulted for erectile dysfunction. Age, body mass index (BMI), diabetes (DM), and presence of varicocele were related to testosterone levels through uni- and multi-variate analysis.
A total of 248 cases (70.8%) had no varicocele, 46 (13.1%) had grade I varicocele, 36 (10.3%) grade II, and 20 (5.7%) grade III. The mean total testosterone levels were 4.77 ng/mL in the non-varicocele group and 4.34 ng/mL in the varicocele group ( = .91), while free testosterone levels were 69.81 and 73.24 pg/mL ( = .18), respectively. In the multivariate analysis, BMI> = 30 was related to low total testosterone levels (OR: 2.94, < .001) and low free testosterone (OR: 2.01, = .01), while advanced age associated with low levels of free testosterone (OR: 1.04, < .001).
We were not able to establish a relationship between the presence of varicocele and decreased serum testosterone levels. Other factors already described, such as obesity and age, were related to low levels of total and free testosterone.
