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Testosterone therapy and mortality risk

Abstract

Recent data suggest an increased risk of cardiovascular events and mortality in men on testosterone therapy (TT). To date, there are no long-term, prospective studies to determine safety. In such cases, retrospective observational studies can be helpful. We examined our patient database to determine whether TT altered the risk of all-cause mortality in men. We queried our hormone database for all men with a serum testosterone level and then examined charts to determine testosterone status. In all, 509 men had charts available for review. We linked our patient records to the National Death Index to determine mortality. Of the 509 men who met inclusion criteria, 284 were on TT and 225 did not use testosterone. Age (mean 54 years) and follow-up time (mean 10 years) were similar for both groups. In all, 19 men died—10 (4.4%) men not on TT and 9 (3.2%) men on TT. After adjusting for age and year of evaluation, there was no significant difference in the risk of death based on TT (hazard ratio 0.92, 95% confidence interval 0.36–2.35, P=1.0). There appears to be no change in mortality risk overall for men utilizing long-term testosterone therapy.

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Acknowledgements

This study is supported in part by P01HD36289 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health (to DJL and LIL). The project was also partially supported by an investigator-initiated grant from Endo Pharmaceuticals (to MLE and LIL).

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Correspondence to M L Eisenberg.

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Competing interests

Dr Lipshultz is an advisor for Auxilium and has received grant support from Endo Pharmaceuticals. Dr Eisenberg has received grant support from Endo Pharmaceuticals. The other authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Eisenberg, M., Li, S., Herder, D. et al. Testosterone therapy and mortality risk. Int J Impot Res 27, 46–48 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijir.2014.29

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