The most recent issue of Harvard Men’s Health Watch discusses the safety and risks associated with testosterone therapy (TT). The newsletter notes that millions of Americans undergo testosterone therapy, enticed by the myriad promises of lifestyle improvements offered by the “ongoing pharmaceutical marketing blitz.”

However, there are “legitimate safety concerns linger[ing]”, such as new evidence that TT is associated with higher cardiac risks, especially in older men. In particular, Harvard Men’s Health Watch informs that, in 2010, a trial study assessing the effects of TT in older men was halted after “early results showed that men on hormone treatments had noticeably more heart problems.”

The newsletter further warns that there have not been large-scale trials assessing the risks of TT and thus urges that the public should take a “cautious approach” to TT. In the words of Dr. Carl Pallais, an endocrinologist at Harvard Medical School, “[m]en should be much more mindful of the possible long-term complications.”

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