Risk factors and the prognosis of sexual dysfunction in male patients with pituitary adenomas: a multivariate analysis

The impact of sexual dysfunction (SD) is distressing to many male patients with pituitary adenomas which affect both physical and psychological health. The research explored to identify risk factors affecting sexual function and the prognosis of male patients with pituitary adenomas. Two hundred and fifty-four male patients, who aged between 18 and 60 (mean ± s.d.: 44.16 ± 10.14) years and diagnosed with pituitary adenomas, were retrospectively analyzed. One hundred and fifty-nine patients (62.6%) complained of SD prior to surgery. The mean International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5) in patients with giant adenomas was 16.13 ± 2.51, much smaller than those with microadenomas or macroadenomas (P < 0.05). All the patients showed significant improvement in terms of erectile dysfunction (ED) following surgery (P < 0.05). In addition, complete resection achieved a higher degree of SD relief than partial resection. The incidence of SD in functioning pituitary adenomas (FPAs) was much higher than that in nonfunctioning pituitary adenomas (NFPAs) (P < 0.05). In addition, compared with NFPAs, males with prolactinomas (82.8%) had the higher prevalence of SD and significantly improvement following surgical intervention (P < 0.05). An inverse relationship was identified between decreasing testosterone levels and increasing incidence of SD before surgery (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference between 6 months and 12 months after surgery in serum testosterone level (P > 0.05). Our results indicated that surgical therapy could be optimized for improvements in SD and that testosterone levels can be used as a sensitive indicator to predict the recovery rate of sexual function in patients with pituitary adenomas following surgery and the serum testosterone level will stay stable in 6 months after surgery.