Hypogonadism management and cardiovascular health

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ABSTRACT

In the early days of its use, testosterone therapy faced skepticism regarding its safety and efficacy. After a converging consensus that testosterone therapy was safe and effective for the treatment of hypogonadism, several recent studies showed adverse cardiovascular outcomes associated with testosterone treatment, ultimately resulting in a mandated FDA label warning about the unknown safety of testosterone therapy. Given the clear efficacy of testosterone therapy in the treatment of hypogonadism, establishing the safety of this therapeutic tool is essential. This article summarizes the current evidence regarding the cardiovascular safety of testosterone therapy for the management of hypogonadism, as well as the proposed mechanisms that may explain testosterone’s underlying effects.

KEYWORDS:

• Hypogonadism
• testosterone
• cardiovascular disease
• drug safety

Declaration of interest

The contents of the paper and the opinions expressed within are those of the authors, and it was the decision of the authors to submit the manuscript for publication.

Dr Mohit Khera has worked as a consultant for AbbVie, Boston Scientific, Clarus and Metuchew

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose