© Fotolia
If you are a man getting on in years and you bring complaints of decreased well-being, low libido, decreased muscle mass, bone loss, or depressed mood to your doctor, you might get around to talking about testosterone replacement therapy. A study in the BJU International Journal suggests that we don't know enough about the safety of giving older men additional testosterone.
In an analysis from the Baltimore Longitudinal Aging Study, researchers found that higher levels of testosterone were associated with aggressive prostate cancer in older men. They tracked nearly 800 men, who had testosterone hormones measured before they were diagnosed with prostate cancer. The men were followed long term to see if they developed cancer or not, and if they did, was the cancer aggressive.
Testosterone replacement therapy is controversial. Studies of its benefits and harms have been inconsistent. They found that higher testosterone levels were associated with aggressive prostate cancer, but only in older men.
The authors state that their study alone is not definitive. However, they note: "`as recent studies failed to show an improvement in quality of life in men who had androgen replacement therapy...well-defined prospective trials are necessary..."
Has your doctor suggested you consider testosterone replacement therapy? What might attract you to this treatment? Do the uncertainties of risk and benefit trouble you?
They compared men who naturally had higher testosterone levels with men who naturally had lower testosterone levels, right?
They didn’t compare men who were given testosterone by their doctors with men who weren’t. That’s what we’d really want to know.
I wonder if DHEA has any effect on prostate cancer. Lots of men take DHEA.