The use of testosterone therapies to deal with low testosterone levels doubles the risk of heart attacks in men under 65 with a history of heart disease, a new study finds.
The study was conducted by University of California - Los Angeles researchers who also confirmed the reports of a previous study suggesting a twofold increase in heart attack risk shortly after testosterone treatment began in men older than 65. This study is reportedly the largest to examine heart disease in men using testosterone supplements, according to a press release.
Sander Greenland, a professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and his colleagues examined the health care records of 55,593 men who had been prescribed testosterone therapy. Of these 48,539 men were under the age of 65 and 7,054 were 65 or older. They noted a double increase in heart attack risks in men under 65 with heart diseases.
Greenland decided on conducting this study after a randomized clinical trial on men older than 65 was stopped in 2010 due to a variety of cardiovascular events.
"We decided to investigate cardiovascular risks of this therapy in a large health care database since these previous studies were modest in size and only focused on men 65 and older," Greenland said. "Our study allowed us to examine cardiovascular risk in men under the age of 65 and to replicate the findings in men over 65."
Marketing for testosterone therapy has been the driving force behind an increase in the number of men who use such therapies. Advertisements of these products claim that "low-T" can result in lost sex drive, diminished energy and moodiness and the best solution to all these problems is applying testosterone through a gel or patch. According to a Drugs.com report, men get so swayed away by these advertisements that the sales of the testosterone gel Androgel exceeded sales of Viagra in 2013.
"The extensive and rapidly increasing use of testosterone treatment and the evidence of risk of heart attack underscore the urgency of further large studies of the risks and the benefits of this treatment," Greenland said. "Patients and their physicians should discuss the risk of heart attacks when considering testosterone therapy."
This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
