Testosterone is claimed to cause prostate cancer, heart disease, and stroke. This is all false.
In 1990, Congress made testosterone and other anabolic steroids class III controlled substances. The penalties for selling and even possessing them became felonies like those for cocaine. At the Senate hearings, representatives for the FDA, DEA, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and even the American Medical Association all testified that these medications were safe and had important medical uses. But grandstanding about sports use prevailed. Anabolic steroids became the first Schedule III drugs without euphoric or consciousness-altering properties.
In 2016, the Food and Drug Administration tightened the regulatory pressure by slapping a “black box warning” on testosterone. It claimed that the hormone caused strokes and heart disease. From then on, they only sanctioned its use for patients with genetic, cancerous, traumatic, or chemotherapy-related damage to the testicles or brain. The FDA also alleged that it should only be used for men with blood levels below 300 ng/dl, confirmed on at least two occasions. In their eyes, other applications were illegitimate.
Two clumsily concocted articles supported this stance. But Mark Richards, MD, and Abraham Morgentaler, MD, debunked these with letters to the journals demanding their retraction. Morgentaler is the Harvard physician representing the Androgen Study Group, and Richards is a practicing hormone specialist. Both physicians also wrote letters to the FDA. Dr. Rouzier wrote a review of this issue as well. All this was ignored.
Richards’ well-referenced article tells the entire story. He writes that low, not high testosterone is the major risk for heart disease. And according to a comprehensive Mayo Clinic review, testosterone decreases the chance of dying of heart disease.
What about prostate cancer? Dozens of studies show no relationship to testosterone, and men with higher levels have a reduced risk. The medical literature says testosterone supplementation is healthy. The Mayo Clinic’s International Expert Consensus Resolution statement ratifies this view. A review in the Journal of the Endocrine Society (2019) describes the hormone as an anti-inflammatory.
Testosterone converts to estrogen in the body. This not only suppresses prostate cancer but has been used to treat it. In addition, prostate cancer is much more common