Impact of Ferritin Load on Gonadal Reserve among Regular Transfused β-Thalassemia

Background: Iron overload in association with persistent anemia is responsible for endocrine dysfunction in β-thalassemia patients, blood transfusion combined with iron-chelation can modify life quality in these children, but they tend to suffer from delayed maturity and endocrine dysfunction. Aim: This study aims to correlate degree of hypogonadism to ferritin load in regular transfused β-thalassemia patients. Methods: It was carried out on 30 β-thalassemia major (TM) patients aged 12 to 18 years, puberty was assessed clinically, blood picture on Cell-Dyne 2700, ferritin level and pattern of FSH, LH, testosterone and estradiol before and after gonadotropin (GnRH) analogue stimulation test, they were determined on ARCHITECT ABBOTT system. Results: Twenty patients had not yet achieved puberty, FSH level was 1.45 ± 1.88 mIU/ml before (GnRH) analogue and 3.78 ± 4.19 mIU/ml after 4 hours of injection. LH level was 1.91 ± 4.79 mIU/ml before (GnRH) test, while after 4 hours it was 6.52 ± 7.50 mIU/ml, 88.24% of males had low serum testosterone level, 84.6% of girls had low serum estradiol level, FSH, LH, estradiol, testosterone before and after GNRH analogue were statistically insignificant, mean ferritin level was 3344.32 ± 1142.142 ng/ml, with insignificant correlation to hormonal pattern before and after GnRH therapy. Conclusion: Iron overload and hypogonadism are the presenting data in this study, insignificant correlation between ferritin level and hormonal reserve pattern, there may be another etiology in pathophysiology of low gonadal reserve such as severe anemia, chronic disease and may be genetic predisposition underlying susceptibility to iron toxicity, which need further investigations.