Abstract
BACKGROUND: To analyze the effect of long-term thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) suppressive therapy on the gonadal hormones and related symptoms in patients after surgery. METHODS: From 2008 to 2011, totally 238 patients were recruited, who underwent thyroid surgery and subsequent TSH suppression treatment in Department of thyroid Surgery, China-Japan Union hospital, Jilin University. Then their postoperative follow-up data (3-8 years) were collected, including operational method, pathological diagnosis, whether processed radioiodine therapy and the period/dose of TSH suppression treatment. In addition, the menstrual cycle, menstruation quantity, whether accompanied with dysmenorrheal and menstrual disorder or not, date of last menstrual period, ages of menopause and so on were also collected. RESULTS: (I) Neither the level nor the duration of TSH treatment had any function on estradiol (E2) and testosterone (T) in male patients; (II) in the subgroup of patients with TSH treatment for 3-5 years, patients who took high dose of TSH (TSH ≥0.5 U/L) obtained the lower T level compared with the group of medium dose (1.08±0.34 vs. 1.36±0.46 nmol/L, P=0.001); (III) in the medium dose (0.1 IU/L ≤ TSH <0.5 IU/L) of TSH treatment, patients in luteal phase showed significant difference between two separate durations as the E2 level was 196.0 pmol/L in 3-5 years group vs. 442.5 pmol/L in 6-8 years group, P=0.018; (IV) the level of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) did not show any change in terms of the dose and the duration of TSH treatment; (V) the menstrual volume, dysmenorrhea condition, menstrual cycle and menopause related indicators did not show any difference in terms of doses and duration of TSH treatment (P=0.701, 0.412 and 0.507 respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The long term of TSH repressive therapy after surgery did not affect T and E2 level in male patients. As for female patients, the impact was mainly reflected in the T and E2 levels especially in female sexual maturity but not FSH level. In addition, TSH treatment did not play any role on menstruation or menopause.