Introduction. The new coronavirus infection remains a pressing health problem today. The new mutagenic strain (omicron) and its variants (stealth-omicron, «centaur»), like its predecessors (beta, delta), also causes multisystem damage to the body. A pressing issue in the study of the pathogenic properties of the pathogen is the effect of the virus on changes in the level of sex hormones in men.

Purpose of the work: to analyze modern ideas about the course of COVID-19 and the level of sex hormones in men.

Materials and methods. A search for publications was carried out in the international MEDLINE database on the PubMed platform, in the scientific electronic library eLibrary.ru and in the GoogleScholar. Search terms included the following combinations of words: «COVID-19», «SARS-CoV-2», «male fertility», «hypogonadism», «testis», «angiotensin converting enzyme 2», «reproductive health», «testosterone», «estradiol», «hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis». A total of 130 publications were analyzed, of which 43 publications were selected for this review. Conference abstracts, short communications, and duplicate publications were excluded.

Results. According to a review of scientific publications, the level of male sex hormones and the course of the new coronavirus infection are interrelated. The novel coronavirus infection has a negative impact on male sex hormone levels via ACE-2 as well as cellular transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2), due to increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines that increase metabolic clearance and suppress the gonadal axis.

Conclusions. COVID-19 and sex hormones have a relationship. There is still debate and there is no consensus on how the level of sex hormones affects the course of COVID-19. Therefore, we believe that this issue remains relevant to this day, given that outbreaks of new strains of SARS-CoV-2 arise periodically.