Research

Hormonal

Bariatric surgery reverses the sex-specific hormonal imbalances caused by obesity: it increases testosterone in men and decreases testosterone in women, while increasing SHBG and decreasing estradiol in both.

Bariatric surgery normalizes sex hormones in a sex-specific way. Men typically see their testosterone levels rise to normal ranges, while women see their elevated testosterone levels drop. Both groups see an increase in Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG) and a decrease in Estradiol. This hormonal normalization is key to resolving fertility and sexual health issues associated with obesity.

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total testosterone concentration increased in men (8.1 nmol/l... ) but decreased in women (−0.7 nmol/l... ). Sex hormone-binding globulin concentrations increased after bariatric surgery in women... and in men... and serum estradiol concentrations decreased in women... and to a lesser extent in men
Héctor F. Escobar‐Morreale et al. · Human Reproduction Update · 2017

Why this rating

Meta-analysis of hormone changes across multiple studies.

Source

Prevalence of ‘obesity-associated gonadal dysfunction’ in severely obese men and women and its resolution after bariatric surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Héctor F. Escobar‐Morreale et al. · Human Reproduction Update · 2017

DOI 10.1093/humupd/dmx012

Meta-analysis · 29 studiesCited 237×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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