Abstract

Background:Obesity has been associated with various endocrine abnormalities, both in men and women. It is well known that plasma testosterone levels in the obese decline with increasing body weight, particularly in men with central obesity. Method: The present study was performed on 90 male subjects. Anthropometric measurements such as height, weight, hip circumference (HC) and waist circumference (WC) of each subject were recorded.Their waist hip ratio (WHR) and body mass index (BMI) were also calculated. The subjects were then divided into two groups based on BMI and waist hip ratio (WHR);the groups were further subdivided into two sub-categories.3 ml of venous blood was collected in the morningin a plain vial and allowed to clot and then centrifuged to separate the serum. Total testosterone was measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: The study revealed decreased serum total testosterone in obese individuals when they were compared with normal weight individuals. Statistically significant differences were observed in the mean values of BMI (p< 0.0001) and WHR (p= 0.0399) for the testosterone. Significant inverse correlations of serum total testosterone with BMI(r = - 0.289, p =0.0058) and WHR (r = - 0.252, p = 0.0165) were recorded in the study. Conclusion: Adults whoare obese have low level of serum total testosterone than normal weightadults.

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