Testosterone Therapy May Be Linked to Blood Clots

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 30, 2016 (HealthDay Information) -- Testosterone therapy can enhance a person's danger of doubtless deadly blood clots, a brand new examine suggests.

Researchers discovered that males taking the male hormone appear to have a 63 p.c elevated danger of a blood clot forming in a vein, a situation generally known as venous thromboembolism (VTE).

These clots could cause a coronary heart assault, stroke, organ harm and even loss of life, in keeping with the American Coronary heart Affiliation.

"Threat peaks quickly within the first six months of therapy and lasts for about 9 months, and fades regularly thereafter," mentioned lead researcher Dr. Carlos Martinez of the Institute for Epidemiology, Statistics and Informatics in Frankfurt, Germany.

Hundreds of thousands of American males at present use testosterone capsules, gels or injections, hoping that the male hormone will enhance their intercourse drive, stamina and power.

It has been identified for some time that the estrogen in contraception capsules will increase a girl's danger of blood clots, and earlier research have raised comparable issues for testosterone remedy, mentioned Dr. Mark Creager. He is director of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Coronary heart and Vascular Middle in Lebanon, N.H., and a previous president of the American Coronary heart Affiliation.

The U.S. Meals and Drug Administration in June 2014 required that every one accepted testosterone merchandise carry a warning about VTE danger, researchers mentioned in background notes.

Since then, the FDA has expanded its testosterone warning to incorporate elevated danger of coronary heart assaults, persona adjustments and infertility.

For this examine, Martinez and his colleagues reviewed information from about 19,000 British sufferers with confirmed VTE. These males had been in contrast with over 909,000 age-matched sufferers in a "management" group.

Inside the first six months of testosterone therapy, a person's danger of blood clots elevated 63 p.c in comparison with these not taking the hormone, the researchers discovered.

The examine did not set up a direct cause-and-effect relationship, nevertheless.

Nor does it imply there is a important further danger of VTE for the common man, because the danger is low to start with, Martinez and Creager mentioned. The general danger enhance interprets to about one further case of blood clots for each 1,000 males a 12 months.