The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between serum progesterone (P) and retinopathy in male patients with type 2 diabetes（T2DM）and to investigate whether P is associated with its progression.
A total of 1376 male participants with T2DM were recruited from Affiliated Hospital of Medical College Qingdao University. Through Logistic regression analysis after adjusting the potential confounding variation, the odds ratio (OR) and the corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) related to the quartiles of progesterone were obtained.
According to the quartiles of P levels, the prevalence rate of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in the last quartile is obviously greater to other quartiles (52.5% to 34.9%, 31.9%, 37.5%, p<0.001, Figure 2). Compared with those in the first quartile, the prevalence of DR for the last quartile had an OR of 1.85 in NPDR while OR was 8.35 in PDR (p<0.001, Unadjusted model).When adjusted for age, BMI, duration of T2DM, HbA1c, BP and other variables, the ORs for DR (95%CI) in Q4 were 2.13 (1.49,3.06) in NPDR and 8.44(2.69,26.43) in PDR (p<0.001). The positive association between P and DR risk is independently in adjusted logistic regression.
High levels of serum progesterone are significantly associated with DR in male hospitalized patients. This could mean that higher P level in men is a potential clinical factor to identify DR, and the causality remains to be further explored.

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