Men who were treated for low levels of the hormone testosterone had a similar risk of cardiovascular events including arrhythmia, heart attack and heart failure compared to men who received a placebo, according to findings from a meta-analysis of clinical trials reported in the June 1, 2022, issue of The Lancet Healthy Longevity.¹ Additionally, there was a similar incidence of venous thromboembolism in the testosterone and placebo groups, a condition men on testosterone therapy had been thought to be at greater risk of.  

Because testosterone declines with age, many men seek prescription testosterone replacement therapy. In 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration required manufacturers of prescription testosterone products to add label information concerning a potential increased risk of heart attack and stroke associated with testosterone treatment based on the findings of two observational studies, although other studies failed to obtain similar findings.

“We were unable to find evidence from our individual patient data (IPD) meta-analyses that testosterone increases risks of mortality or cardiovascular and/or cerebrovascular events in the short- to medium-term in men with low testosterone,” reported coauthor Channa Jayasena, MD, PhD, who is the Head of Andrology at the Imperial College of London.

The research team pooled data from 35 trials that examined the relationship between testosterone replacement therapy and the risk of cardiovascular events among a total of 5,601 men. A separate analysis was conducted using information from 17 of the trials that provided individual patient data for 3,431 participants.

These findings may open the door for men who had been concerned about the health risks of testosterone therapy. “Ongoing studies should help to determine the longer-term safety of testosterone but, in the meantime, our results provide much-needed reassurance about its short-to-medium term safety,” first author Jemma Hudson of the University of Aberdeen commented.