Levels of reproductive hormones in treatment-naïve hypertensive volunteers in Lagos

Abstract

High blood pressure is a medical condition characterized with persistent elevated systolic and or diastolic blood pressure. It usually presents no symptom in most cases and if untreated it eventually leads to complications. Thus the aim of this study is to evaluate the possible effect of high blood pressure on male reproductive hormones level. A total number of one hundred and ten male volunteers between ages 18-55years participated in this study. Out of this, sixty were hypertensive without previous knowledge of this as at the time of this study hence were not on antihypertensive medication. The hypertensive volunteers served as test group, they were identified through routine check. The remaining fifty served as control group. The anthropometric measurement was carried out on all volunteers. Five millimeters of blood sample was collected from each patient and was assayed for testosterone, luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent assay (ELISA). There was a significant increase (p<0.05) in the mean systolic, diastolic blood pressure, body mass index and waist circumference among treatment naïve hypertensive group. On the other hand, the mean total testosterone value among the test group was significantly lower (p<0.05) than the control group while the mean follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) value was significantly higher among the test group (p<0.05) when compared with control. There was a negative but insignificant (p>0.05) association between age and testosterone, age and luteinizing hormone, follicle stimulating hormone and testosterone, body mass index and testosterone. Based on these findings, this study opined that high blood pressure may disrupt the normal reproductive hormones homeostasis in male and should not be taken for granted.

Keywords: Hypertension, Male, Reproduction hormones and Anthropometric study.