The American College of Physicians has issued a set of recommendations to clarify the potential benefits and harms of testosterone therapy in men with age-related low testosterone.
Older men receiving testosterone treatment with higher waist-to-hip ratio experience greater increases in noncalcified coronary plaque volume.
For men with and without hypogonadism, testosterone therapy is associated with an increased short-term risk for venous thromboembolism.
More men with long-term opioid use are screened for low testosterone than men taking opioids for a short period of time; however, given the known link between opioid use and low testosterone, these rates were still lower than expected.
The increased opioid use has been associated with a rising incidence of opioid-induced endocrinopathy, most commonly in the form of androgen deficiency.
Long-term treatment with testosterone undecanoate was associated with reduced cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in patients with hypogonadism and type 2 diabetes.
Genetically low 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels are associated with lower testosterone levels.
In a subanalysis, researchers discovered that testosterone deficiency was common in men with a sustained virologic response after being treated for hepatitis C.
Testosterone replacement therapy prevents further bone loss at the lumbar and femoral levels in patients with congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, but it does not reliably elevate bone mineral density out of the osteopenic/osteoporotic range.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Jatenzo (testosterone undecanoate; Clarus Therapeutics) capsules for testosterone replacement therapy in adult males for conditions associated with a deficiency or absence of endogenous testosterone: congenital or acquired primary hypogonadism or hypogonadotropic hypogonadism.
