Eureka 2019: Hypogonadal Young Men and Depression

For the fifth year in a row, Endocrine News spoke with editors from Endocrine Society journals to get the scoop on the top endocrine discoveries of 2019. Here is part 7 of Eureka! 2019.

Former Journal of the Endocrine Society associate editor and soon-to-be editor-in-chief of The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Paul M. Stewart, MD, FRCP, FMedSci, executive dean and professor at the University of Leeds School of Medicine in the United Kingdom, chose “Depression in Nonclassical Hypogonadism in Young Men,” by Korenman, S.G., from November 2018.

The researchers suggest that evaluation and treatment for depression are warranted in young men with nonclassical hypogonadism.

Researchers set out to determine whether men with hypogonadism have increased depression, or if it’s the other way around — that men with depression have a high prevalence of hypogonadism.

After studying 186 young adult men (ages 18–40 years) with eugonadotropic hypogonadism and a depression rate of 22.6% compared to 404 matched controls with a depression rate of 13.4%, they found that depression might be an underlying cause of hypogonadism, possibly due to reduced reactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis.

The researchers suggest that evaluation and treatment for depression are warranted in young men with nonclassical hypogonadism.