Testosterone Therapy Isn't All It's Cracked Up To Be, Study Finds

Millions of men, mostly over the age of 50, are now using testosterone therapy to treat a broad array of symptoms -- erectile dysfunction, weight gain, listlessness -- thought to be caused by low testosterone levels, which the pharmaceutical industry in copious advertising calls "Low-T."  But a major new study from a team of researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston -- one of the biggest double-blinded studies of the therapy so far -- indicates that testosterone doesn't work as advertised. The team, led by endocrinologist Dr. Shalender Bhasin, gave 306 men over the age of 60, all of whom had low to normal levels of testosterone, either testosterone gel or a placebo every day for three years. And patients who were given testosterone exhibited no more improvement in sexual function or quality of life than the control group.  The study's authors posit that "increasing testosterone levels above the lower limit of the normal range in healthy men does not further improve sexual function."  Bhasin explained that the benefits of testosterone therapy are clear for men who have "unequivocally low testosterone" because of testicular or pituitary issues. "But what our study shows is that middle aged and older men whose testosterone levels are in the normal range -- or slightly below normal -- do not benefit to the same degree, and that they should not indiscriminately use testosterone," he said.  This finding strikes a blow to the multibillion do...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news