Hormonal (Im)Balance and Reproductive System’s Disorders in Transplant Recipients—A Review

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Nowadays, the average human life expectancy is increasing. This applies to both healthy and chronically ill people. It is possible due to improvements in technology, living conditions, and better, more accessible medical care. As the number of patients with end-stage organ failure increases and due to great progress in modern transplantology, every year the number of transplantations rises worldwide. Organ transplantation is not only an ultimate form of therapy but also, especially nowadays, a life-saving procedure. Patients who have undergone transplantation need to face the problem of long-term immunosuppressive therapy on a daily basis, which prolongs the proper function of the grafted organ and prevents the development of graft-versus-host disease. On the other hand, numerous side effects are associated with the usage of these medicaments, among these are disturbances in sex-related hormones, therefore influencing fertility. ABSTRACT: The rising need for treatment of end stage of organ failure results in an increased number of graft recipients yearly. The most commonly transplanted organs are kidney, heart, liver, bone marrow, lung and skin. The procedure of transplantation saves and prolongs the lives of chronically ill patients or at least improves the quality. However, following transplantation recipients must take immunosuppressive drugs on a daily basis. Usually, the immunosuppressive therapy comprises two or three drugs from different groups, as the mechanism of their action varies. Although the benefits of intake of immunosuppressants is undeniable, numerous side effects are associated with them. To different extents, they are neurotoxic, nephrotoxic and may influence the function of the reproductive system. Nowadays, when infertility is an urgent problem even among healthy pairs, transplant recipients face the problem of disturbance in the hypothalamic−pituitary axis. This review will provide an overview of the most common disturbances among the concentration of sex-related hormones in recipients of both sexes at different ages, including sexually immature children, adults of reproductive age as well as elderly women and men. We have also focused on the numerous side effects of immunosuppressive therapy regarding function and morphology of reproductive organs both in males and females. The current review also presents the regimen of immunosuppressive therapy and time since transplantation.