Testosterone therapy may increase VTE risk in men reveals JAMA study

The researchers conducted the study to evaluate whether clinical prescription of testosterone therapy was associated with short-term risk of venous thromboembolism in men with and without hypogonadism or not.

They found that Testosterone therapy is associated with increased risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE) men.The case-crossover study has been published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

The researchers using insurance claims databases, researchers identified roughly 40,000 men without cancer who'd experienced a VTE. Out of them nearly 8% were diagnosed with hypogonadism. Each patient served as his own control. The immediate 6 months before the VTE was the case period, and the 6 months before that was the control period.

A claim for testosterone therapy was more common in the 6 months before VTE, compared with the control period, both for men without hypogonadism (0.8% for case period vs. 0.5% for control period) and for those with (34% vs. 22%).

It was found that use of testosterone therapy in the 6-month case period was associated with an increased risk of venous thromboembolism among men with and without hypogonadism. The testosterone prescription during the case period was associated with roughly double the risk for VTE. Risk was highest in the first 3 months of starting testosterone.

The authors concluded that testosterone therapy was associated with an increase in short-term risk for VTE among men with and without hypogonadism, with some evidence that the association was more pronounced among younger men. These findings suggest that caution should be used when prescribing testosterone therapy.

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JAMA Intern Med. Published online November 11, 2019. doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2019.5135