THE LOW-T SCAM

You can't turn on the TV or radio nowadays without seeing a commercial hawking some type of testosterone medication for men who are having problems in the bedroom. I spent most of my medical career treating men with prostate cancer and impotency and I want to share some of the things I learned about these two medical conditions with you in this blog. Early on in my quest to find a treatment for impotency, I discovered that most men who were suffering from erectile dysfunction had below normal levels of testosterone; however, the testosterone levels in impotent men were statistically no different from those, of the same age, that were not impotent. As it turned out most men over 55 years of age have low testosterone levels whether they were impotent or not. Most importantly, I determined that impotent men with low testosterone were not helped by testosterone supplementation irrespective of how the medication was administered. Testosterone is ineffective in the treatment of impotency because, in the vast majority of cases, erectile dysfunction is a result of vascular disease (reduced penile blood flow) and not low testosterone or any other form of hormonal imbalance. My studies showed that testosterone may increase a male's libido but it will not enhance his ability to achieve an erection. This was an extremely important observation because as males age their chances of developing prostate cancer increases with each passing year. Early on the cancer most often is slow growing, difficult to detect, and not of any significance to them. In fact, autopsy studies of males in their eighties, who died of non prostate related causes, have shown that 80% of them have undetected and asymptomatic foci of low grade cancer in their prostate glands. The significance of this finding, and why I am writing this blog, is that there is every reason to believe that the administration of testosterone to men with asymptomatic undetected prostate cancer will stimulate the growth of the cancer. I hasten to add that this belief is not supported by any study, that I am aware of, because no one in his right mind would give testosterone to a male with known prostate cancer. We do know, however, that eunuchs do not develop the malignancy, most likely because they do not have significant levels of testosterone. Thus, think twice before trying to solve your problems in the bedroom with over the counter testosterone preparations that have little or no chance of working and maybe potentially very harmful.