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Testosterone therapies are sometimes prescribed off-label to men whose levels of the hormone have lowered naturally due to ageing.
Uncertain benefits and concerns over cardiovascular safety led the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ask manufacturers in March 2015 to clarify the labelling on such products. The FDA also said doctors should only prescribe them to patients with specific medical conditions.
Now, a study presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions[1]
in November 2015 has found no evidence that testosterone supplementation in otherwise healthy men increases cardiovascular risks.
The research found that 878 men who received testosterone therapy were less likely to experience a major cardiac event (hazard ratio [HR] 0.37, confidence interval [CI] 0.22-0.61; P<0.0001), and less likely to die (HR 0.27, CI 0.14-0.51; P<0.0001) during three years follow up than the 594 men who did not receive testosterone.
The researchers say their findings add further evidence to support the cardiovascular safety of testosterone supplementation in this group of patients.
References
[1] Bair TL, May HT, Le VT, et al. ‘Cardiovascular clinical effects of testosterone supplementation among healthy hypo-androgenic men’. Presented at American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, 7–11 November 2015, Orlando, Florida.
