Among men with and without hypogonadism, testosterone therapy linked to elevated VTE risk
TUESDAY, Nov. 12, 2019 (HealthDay News) — For men with and without hypogonadism, testosterone therapy is associated with an increased short-term risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE), according to a study published online Nov. 11 in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Rob F. Walker, M.P.H., from the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and colleagues conducted a case-crossover study involving data on 39,622 men to examine whether short-term testosterone therapy exposure is associated with VTE risk. Men with VTE cases who were free from cancer at baseline and had 12 months of enrollment before the VTE event were identified. The patients were matched with themselves in the control period. Case periods of six, three, and one month before the VTE event were defined and matched with equivalent control periods before the case period.
Of the men enrolled in the study, 7.8 percent had evidence of hypogonadism. The researchers found that in all case periods, testosterone therapy use correlated with an elevated risk for VTE among men with and without hypogonadism (odds ratios, 2.32 and 2.02, respectively). In the three-month case period, the point estimate for testosterone therapy and VTE risk was higher for men aged younger than 65 years than for older men among those without hypogonadism, although the interaction was not significant.
“These data combined with prior data suggest that future clinical trials of testosterone therapy, regardless of the indication, should capture VTE events as part of safety end points,” the authors write.
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