Testosterone is essential for bone health in males. It helps preserve bone density and enhance bone microarchitecture, stopping fractures. So treating older males with hypogonadism — a situation that causes low testosterone ranges — with the hormone ought to lower their probability of getting fractures, proper?
Surprisingly not, in keeping with a study printed Wednesday within the New England Journal of Drugs. The analysis was carried out on 5,204 males between the ages of 45 and 80 with hypogonadism. Half acquired a low-dose testosterone gel day by day, whereas the opposite half was given a placebo. The trial is a part of a larger ongoing study sponsored by AbbVie, the maker of AndroGel, a testosterone gel.
Forward of the trial, researchers estimated that the testosterone group would have a 30% decrease danger of fracture than the placebo group, in keeping with the paper’s authors, led by Peter Snyder, the medical director of Penn Pituitary Middle. As a substitute, three years into the examine, the cumulative incidence of fractures was 3.8% within the testosterone group, in comparison with 2.8% within the placebo group.