THURSDAY, Jan. 11 (HealthDay News) -- A meta-analysis of current data shows there is only weak evidence that testosterone use in men does not cause major cardiovascular events, and the hormone has only a small benefit in terms of erectile function and moderate benefit for sexual desire, according to two studies in the January issue of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
Rudy M. Haddad, M.D., of Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minn., and colleagues performed a meta-analysis of 30 randomized trials that assessed cardiovascular events in 808 men treated with testosterone. The researchers found the trials were limited in terms of reporting methodology that would prevent biased results, enrolled few patients and had short follow-ups, with only four trials following patients for longer than a year.
In the second study, Enrique R. Bolona, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic, and colleagues reviewed 17 trials with 862 men with low testosterone levels. The review showed that testosterone had a moderate non-significant and inconsistent effect on satisfaction with erectile function, a large effect on libido and no significant effect on overall sexual satisfaction. In trials whose patients had baseline low-normal and normal testosterone levels, the treatment showed a small effect on erectile function satisfaction, moderate non-significant effect on libido and no significant overall sexual satisfaction effect.
"Is is appropriate to treat men with borderline testosterone levels to achieve the results shows in these reports?" the authors of an accompanying editorial ask. "We suspect that we have only begun to explore the potential effects and adverse effects of this hormone and related compounds."
Abstract
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