Sex hormone levels are not associated with progression of renal disease in male patients with T2DM

Abstract Background Greater renal function decline (RFD) in type 2 diabetes (T2DM) has been suggested in men compared with women, and imbalances in estrogen/androgen levels have been associated with cardiovascular disease mortality in elderly men, but it remains unclear whether sex hormone disequilibrium is related to diabetic nephropathy (DN) in men with T2DM. Objective This study examined the relationship between sex steroid concentrations and renal outcomes in male T2DM patients. Population and methods Total testosterone (T), total estradiol (E2), sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), and total and calculated free (cf) E2/T ratios were compared in 735 male T2DM patients with ( n  = 513) and without ( n  = 222) DN, using a cross-sectional approach. Also, in a pilot complementary prospective nested case-control cohort, total E2/total T and cfE2/cfT were evaluated according to a hard renal outcome (HRO): end-stage renal disease/doubling of baseline serum creatinine (36 HRO cases, 72 HRO controls) and rate of eGFR decline (68 rapid vs 68 slow RFD). Result With the cross-sectional approach, E2 and cfE2 were higher in DN cases vs DN controls (95.5 vs 86.8 pmol/L [ P  = 0.0246] and 2.59 vs 2.36 pmol/L [ P  = 0.005], respectively). The difference in E2 persisted on multivariate analysis. In the prospective approach, E2 and T concentrations, and total E2/total T and cfE2/cfT2 ratios did not differ in HRO cases vs controls or in patients with rapid vs slow RFD. Conclusion Although positively related to DN in the cross-sectional analysis, progression of renal disease in male patients with T2DM was not related to either sex hormone levels or aromatase index as reflected by E2/T ratio.