New research covering 11 years of data presented at this year’s European and International Congress on Obesity (ECOICO 2020) show that, in obese men suffering from hypogonadism (low testosterone), treatment with testosterone injections lowers their weight and improves a wide range of other metabolic parameters. The research has been led by Dr. Farid Saad, Consultant, Medical Affairs Andrology, Bayer AG, Berlin, Germany, and Gulf Medical University School of Medicine, Ajman, UAE, and colleagues.
Across the last decade, Dr Saad’s team has presented multiple pieces of research on the effects of testosterone at other congresses, including previous years of the European Congress on Obesity. In these latest updates, they provide the newest data on the long-term benefits, and also suggest testosterone therapy (TTh) could be an effective alternative to bariatric (obesity) surgery.
The researchers collected data from a German registry of men in 2004 from a urological practice based in Bremerhaven. The men all had functional hypogonadism (low testosterone without a known organic cause), and 471 of 773 men (61%) had obesity. Of these men with obesity, 276 men received TTh with testosterone undecanoate (TU) (a 1000 mg injection in the clinic every 3 months) for up to 11 years (T-group). The other 195 men opted against TTh and served as controls (CTRL). Since injections were administered in the doctor’s office and documented, there was a 100% adherence to testosterone therapy. No patients dropped out of the study.
Changes over time between groups were compared and adjusted for age, weight, waist circumference, fasting glucose, blood pressure, blood fats, and quality of life to account for baseline differences between the two groups. The mean follow-up period was 8.8 years for the T-group and 8.4 years for controls, and the average age 60.6 years in the T-group and 63.5 years in the control group.