Andropause phenomenon by measurement of serum free testosterone concentration in Iraqi healthy men. Age related study

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the andropause phenomenon in Iraqi healthy subjects by evaluating serum free testosterone (FT) concentrations in association with age.

METHODS: This study was carried out at the Biochemistry Department, College of Medicine, University of Baghdad, between February 2012 and October 2012. This cross sectional control subject's study included 251 healthy Iraqi men with an age range of 20-82 years. Subjects were divided into variant age groups, group 1 (20-40 years, n=16), group 2 (40-60 years, n=165) and group 3 (60-82 years, n=70), group A-I (<50 years, n=137) and group A-II (>/=50 years, n=114), and group B-I (<60 years, n=215) and group B-II (>/=60 years, n=36). Serum FT concentrations were measured by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique.

RESULTS: The results revealed significant negative correlation between serum FT concentrations and the age values of the studied subjects (r= -0.231, p=0.0001). The mean (+/-SEM) value of serum FT concentrations was significantly decreased in group 3 when compared with that of group 1 (p<0.009) and group 2 (p=0.031) as well as in group BII than in group BI (p=0.043).

CONCLUSION: This study found significant decline in serum FT level, the gold test for andropause phenomenon, in healthy male subjects in age-related changes and the cutoff at which such significant decrease occurred is at 60 years of age and above.