POMC and hyperprolactinemia: As it is known that hyperprolactinemia (51, 52) and increased activity of the pituitary-adrenal axis (53, 54) disturb gonadotrophs functionality and decrease T production, we inspected the expression profile of Prl and Pomc. Our results revealed a trend of decreased expression of Prl and unchanged expression of Pomc following LTDR, and based on these results, we excluded hyperprolactinemia and increased activity of the pituitary-adrenal axis as factors responsible for decreased T production.