[Plasma testosterone levels of diabetic men]

The authors present the results of clinico-sexological study in 57 patients suffering from diabetes and in 12 apparently healthy men in whom blood plasma testosterone content was studied. The patients with diabetes displayed a significant reduction in the testosterone concentration with the advance of the patients' age, increased duration and severity of diabetes, and also its inadequate compensation during the disease in the presence of microangiopathy and peripheral neuropathy. The role of diabetic metabolic, vascular and innervational disturbances in reduction of the androgenic function of the testes in diabetics was demonstrated. In patients with the late stages of progressive impotence the level of testosterone was sharply decreased. This fall was less pronounced in the patients at the stage of the initial disturbances. It was revealed that the androgenic insufficiency of the testes was of great significance in the complicated pathogenesis of impotence in diabetes. Recommendations are presented on the prophylaxis of androgenic insufficiency of the testes in diabetes, and on the use of the testosterone preparations in the general complex therapy of impotence of men suffering from diabetes.