Testosterone therapy ups heart attack risk in men under 65

A new study has revealed that men under the age of 65, who have a history of heart disease, are at a higher risk of a heart attack shortly after beginning testosterone therapy.

The joint study, conducted by UCLA, the National Institutes of Health and Consolidated Research Inc., found that there is a two-fold increase in the risk of a heart attack, confirming earlier studies which claimed the same.

The research was prompted by three small earlier studies that had raised concerns about possible adverse cardiovascular outcomes associated with testosterone therapy.

Sander Greenland, professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and statistics in the UCLA College of Letters and Science, said that the team 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 added that 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 and patient should consider the risk of heart attacks before opting for testosterone therapy.

The study is published online in the journal PLOS ONE.