Effect of Testosterone on Metabolic Syndrome

Another study suggests testosterone therapy can improve metabolic syndrome, decreasing the risk of diabetes and heart disease. It also helped erectile dysfunction. The assumption that therapy with testosterone is adequate when it simply brings testosterone blood levels into the normal range is also not valid. Some testosterone dependent functions require higher plasma levels than others, and, moreover, these thresholds differ among men. Testosterone levels should be optimized within the normal range.

Andrologia. 2008 Feb;40(1):44-8.

Effects of Testosterone Gel Followed by Parenteral Testosterone Undecanoate on Sexual Dysfunction and on Features of the Metabolic Syndrome

Saad F, Gooren L, Haider A, Yassin A

The effects of administration of testosterone (T) gel, resulting in plasma T levels in the low range of reference values, followed by testosterone undecanoate (TU), producing plasma T levels in the mid-normal range, were measured in 27 hypogonadal men aged 47-74 years. T gel had positive effects on the International Index of Erectile Function, the Aging Males' Symptoms Scale and International Prostate Symptoms Score and on the metabolic syndrome. The improvement was larger when TU was administered and plasma T levels were higher. The reduction in waist circumference and plasma cholesterol were larger with TU than with T gel, while the increases in plasma high-density lipoprotein and sex hormone binding globulin (an indicator of the severity of the metabolic syndrome) were larger with TU than with T gel. Both T gel and TU appeared safe on prostate parameters. Plasma haemoglobin and haematocrit were elevated but remained in the normal range.

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PMID: 18211301 [PubMed - in process]