Testosterone Therapy has been found to lower heart risk. However, it can lead to irresponsible behavior and an increased likelihood of developing
cardiovascular disease. The study’s researchers say this is because these men are now able to compensate for their naturally low testosterone levels with VAs or other drugs. These treatments make the patient more aggressive and impulsive than before treatment started.,
(This page was last updated on March 28, 2018)
Men with low testosterone levels caused by certain medical disorders may benefit from prescription testosterone medications like AndroGel and Androderm. These drugs’ popularity has soared in recent years, owing in large part to the fact that they are advertised and prescribed to older men. However, the effectiveness and safety of testosterone therapy for age-related low testosterone have yet to be shown.
Testosterone drugs like AndroGel and Androderm have been linked to an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
A increasing amount of evidence demonstrates that testosterone supplements raise the risk of heart attack and stroke. Manufacturers, on the other hand, have just lately added cardiovascular warning labels to their goods. They’ve been promoting testosterone treatment for unapproved reasons for years, exposing millions of men to potentially fatal adverse effects.
Have you had a heart attack, stroke, pulmonary embolism, or other cardiovascular harm after using AndroGel or a comparable testosterone treatment? Please contact us to learn more about your legal alternatives.
Synthetic Testosterone’s Brief History
Manufacturers like AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and GlaxoSmithKline have dominated the current testosterone industry, although synthetic testosterone has been present for over a century, and scholarly interest in its usage and effects dates back to the nineteenth century.
Edouard Brown-Séquard, a French physiologist, lay the framework for current testosterone research with a self-experiment. Brown-Séquard, then 72 years old, told the Société de Biologie in Paris in 1889 that he had reversed the ravages of aging by injecting himself with an extract produced from dog and guinea pig testicles. Brown-Séquard inspired subsequent studies and contributed to establish contemporary endocrinology, despite the fact that his claim that the extract boosted his physical and mental skills could not be verified and may easily have been a placebo.
For isolating the male hormone testosterone, two Dutch researchers received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1939.
During Brown-time, Séquard’s testosterone products were already popular and profitable—and causing unexpected side effects. Within months of the Frenchman’s experiment, “more than 12,000 physicians were administering his extract, and chemists were making fortunes selling the new ‘Elixir of Life’” for ailments like tuberculosis, epilepsy, influenza, migraines, and hysteria, according to an article in The Journal of Urology. However, several early patients developed infection and inflammation as a result of the dubious treatment.
Competing pharmaceutical corporations supported the race to isolate the hormone we now know as testosterone when studies discovered that the testicles are responsible for male hormone release. The now-famous study “On Crystalline Male Hormone from Testicles (Testosterone)” was published in 1935 by Dutch researchers supported by the Organon Company, giving the freshly discovered hormone its name. In 1935, German scientists released a paper outlining how to make testosterone. For this discovery, the researchers shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1939.
Human clinical trials using synthetic testosterone began in 1937, with early research concentrating on the treatment of hypogonadism, or a lack of testosterone in the body. Yet, as Brown-early Séquard’s investigations reveal, there has long been a fascination with testosterone’s rejuvenating benefits.
Researchers all across the globe followed in Brown-footsteps, Séquard’s pursuing the new area of “organotherapy,” or injecting testicular derivatives and transplanting animal and human testicles into patients. In the 1940s, researchers discovered that testosterone enhances lean muscle mass and improves athletic performance, leading to the usage of testosterone by Olympic competitors and bodybuilders.
Researchers focused on the effects of testosterone on aging men in the 1980s and 1990s. Men over the age of 54 with low or normal testosterone levels were given testosterone supplements in pilot trials, and the results were generally good, with men reporting greater musculature, increased reported sexual drive, and improved cognition.
T-Therapy Is Increasing Due to Pharmaceutical Companies’ Efforts
Testosterone use is nothing new. What’s new is the vast number of guys who are now taking these drugs, as well as the broad spectrum of symptoms for which they are recommended.
Men were taken testosterone largely to treat the uncommon disorder hypogonadism until roughly 2000. Drug corporations, on the other hand, have pushed testosterone products to the forefront of male health. They have pushed medications to treat natural dips in testosterone that occur as a result of aging, a far more vague disease known as “Low T,” the symptoms of which, according to advertising, may include merely feeling sleepy or cranky.
“This is a fantastic experiment, and the guinea pigs are American males.”
Annual testosterone prescriptions more than doubled from 1 million to 6.5 million between 2000 and 2014. This isn’t because men’s testosterone requirements have skyrocketed in recent years. According to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel study, pharma firms have poured billions of dollars into medical education courses that exaggerate the health advantages of testosterone while downplaying the danger.
Pharmaceutical firms alone contributed $676 million to testosterone courses in 2014. The Journal Sentinel discovered that pharma corporations pay third-party groups to create and deliver the courses in order to hide their participation in the program.
“CME has become an insidious vehicle for aggressive advertising of pharmaceuticals and medical devices,” a Cleveland Clinic doctor said during a congressional probe into drug industry sponsorship of continuing medical education (CME) courses in 2009. CME has mostly devolved into marketing masquerading as teaching.”
When it comes to testosterone supplements, the same doctor was blunt: “This is a brilliant experiment with American guys as the guinea pigs.”
Cardiovascular Side Effects were never warned about by drug companies.
Off-label prescription is the practice of providing testosterone for “Low T.” Off-label drug usage are those that have not been examined by the FDA for safety and effectiveness. While physicians are allowed to administer medications as they see appropriate, drug corporations are prohibited from promoting their medicines for purposes that have not been recognized by the FDA.
Only testosterone treatment for hypogonadism has been authorized by the FDA. While it acknowledges that these products do raise testosterone levels, clinical evidence to support their usage for “Low T” is lacking.
According to studies, testosterone treatment raises the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots.
Studies on testosterone products, including those published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and PLOS ONE, reveal that they raise the risk of cardiovascular events such heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots considerably. Furthermore, a three-year JAMA research indicated that testosterone had no effect on sexual function or quality of life when compared to a placebo.
However, it wasn’t until 2015 that testosterone treatment manufacturers put product labels warning of an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes at the FDA’s request. “The benefit and safety of [testosterone] medicines for the treatment of low testosterone levels related to aging have not been demonstrated,” the FDA said in a March 2015 safety statement.
Over the last five years, testosterone-based drugs have been associated to roughly 4,000 significant health issues, thousands of hospitalizations, and hundreds of fatalities. Cardiovascular problems accounted for around a quarter of the complications.
Products for Testosterone Therapy
Testosterone treatment is offered in the form of gels, patches, injections, creams, nasal gels, capsules, tablets, subcutaneous implants, and buccal systems (applied to the upper gums) and is marketed under the following brand names:
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Compensation is sought in testosterone therapy lawsuits.
Suits have been filed against AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Endo Pharmaceuticals, and other testosterone manufacturers, alleging that they failed to adequately warn consumers about the cardiovascular dangers of their medications and aggressively promoted them for unapproved applications.
Punitive damages of $3 million were levied against AbbVie.
A multidistrict litigation in Illinois federal court has pooled thousands of testosterone treatment product cases. Men who were taken testosterone for Low T and had cardiovascular damage, as well as those who feel testosterone treatment contributed to the death of a loved one, may be qualified to pursue a case.
An Illinois federal jury decided that AbbVie’s AndroGel caused a heart attack in an Oregon man in March 2018. AbbVie was forced to pay $200,000 in compensatory damages and $3 million in punitive penalties.
Our lawyers are pursuing legal action on behalf of testosterone treatment victims all around the country. During a free consultation, find out whether you qualify for legal action.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can low testosterone cause heart problems?
A: A recent study has shown that low testosterone can lead to some serious heart problems such as left ventricular hypertrophy, which is a very common cause of heart failure. This also leads to the enlargement of your hearts chambers and valves, increasing its workload. Additionally, it has been found that people with high levels of testosterone are less likely to get coronary artery disease than those with lower levels.
Can testosterone injections cause heart problems?
A: No, testosterone injections will not cause heart problems.
Can you take testosterone with heart failure?
A: Yes, a person with heart failure can take testosterone.