Testosterone (Absorbed through the skin) - National Library of Medicine. Micromedex Consumer Medication Information. Testosterone is a male hormone responsible for the growth and development of the male sex organs and maintenance of secondary sex characteristics. This medicine is available only with your doctor's prescription. Other uses. (Pub. The promise of testosterone therapy may seem enticing, but there are a lot of misconceptions about what the treatment can and can't do for you. As you get older, testosterone therapy may sound like the ultimate anti-aging formula. Yet the health benefits of testosterone therapy for age-related. Testosterone patch elevates libido, energy, testosterone patch for men increase sex performance and build muscle. Testosterone is a sex hormone that's also available as a prescription medicine to treat male hypogonadism and symptoms of low testosterone levels (low T). Symptoms of low T may include sexual dysfunction, low energy, and the loss of some male characteristics. Testosterone works by supplanting the. Testosterone 101 Before we get into what testosterone does, we need to understand what it is. Testosterone is part of a group of hormones called androgens, or steroid hormones. It is mostly thought of as a male hormone, although women produce it — albeit to a. In this article we will discuss the general indications of transdermal testosterone replacement therapy, available formulations, dosage, application sites, and recommended titration schedule. Testosterone is the sex hormone that helps boys become men. This hormone is key during puberty and the development of male physical features. Testosterone helps to maintain men's muscle strength and mass, facial and body hair, and a deeper voice. Testosterone levels can affect men's sex drive. Testosterone treatment is controversial for men and even more so for women. Although long-term outcome data are not available, prescriptions for testosterone are becoming more common. Testosterone is used primarily to treat symptoms of sexual dysfunction in. Med Health). How To Use. Patch. Your doctor will tell you how many patches to use, where to apply them, and how often to apply them. Do not use more patches or apply them more often than your doctor tells you to. Read and follow the patient instructions that come with this medicine. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist if you have any questions. Wash your hands with soap and water before and after applying a patch. Leave the patch in its sealed wrapper until you are ready to put it on. Tear the wrapper open carefully. NEVER CUT the wrapper or the patch with scissors. Do not use any patch that has been cut by accident. The patient instructions will show the body areas where you can wear the patch. When putting on each new patch, choose a different place within these areas. Do not put the new patch on the same place you wore the last one. Be sure to remove the old patch before applying a new one. Apply the patch to clean, dry skin with very little hair, on your back, abdomen, upper arms, or thighs. Apply the patch at about the same time every night. Do not put the patch over burns, cuts, or irritated skin. Do not put the patch on oily or sweaty skin or on a spot that might put extra pressure on it (such as over a joint). Bathing or swimming should not affect the patch. However, wait at least 3 hours after you apply the patch before you wash the skin area or shower or swim. Heavy exercise and sweating may cause the patch to fall off. If the patch becomes loose, smooth it down and press it back onto your skin. If the patch comes off before 1. If the patch comes off after noon, just wait and put on a new patch at your next regular time. Testosterone levels drop as a man ages. New drugs promise help but may not be right for many men. In case you haven’t noticed, advertisements aimed at treating low levels of testosterone, or “low T,” have displaced those erectile dysfunction commercials with. Do not tape the patch to your skin. Missed dose: If you forget to wear or change a patch, put one on as soon as you can. If it is almost time to put on your next patch, wait until then to apply a new patch and skip the one you missed. Do not apply extra patches to make up for a missed dose. Store the patches at room temperature in a closed container, away from heat, moisture, and direct light. Fold the used patch in half with the sticky sides together. Throw any used patch away so that children or pets cannot get to it. You will also need to throw away old patches after the expiration date has passed. Drugs and Foods to Avoid. Ask your doctor or pharmacist before using any other medicine, including over- the- counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal products. Some foods and medicines can affect how testosterone works. Tell your doctor if you are using any of the following: When Not To Use. This medicine is not right for everyone. Do not use it if you had an allergic reaction to testosterone, or if you have breast cancer or prostate cancer. Warnings. Tell your doctor if you have kidney disease, liver disease, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, an enlarged prostate, lung disease, sleep apnea, or a history of heart attack or stroke. This medicine may cause the following problems: The skin patch contains aluminum, which may cause skin burns if you have an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan. You must remove the patch before an MRI. This medicine is not indicated for use in women and should never be used by a pregnant woman. Your doctor will do lab tests at regular visits to check on the effects of this medicine. Keep all appointments. Keep all medicine out of the reach of children. Never share your medicine with anyone. More side effects of this drug Brand names. Androderm, Androplex. There may be other brand names for this medicine. More detailed version of this drug page. The information contained in the Truven Health Analytics products is intended as an educational aid only. It is not intended as medical advice for individual conditions or treatment. It is not a substitute for a medical exam, nor does it replace the need for services provided by medical professionals. Talk to your doctor, nurse or pharmacist before taking any prescription or over the counter drugs (including any herbal medicines or supplements) or following any treatment or regimen. Only your doctor, nurse or pharmacist can provide you with advice on what is safe and effective for you. The use of the Truven Health Analytics products is at your sole risk. These products are provided . Truven Health Analytics makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy, reliability, timeliness, usefulness or completeness of any of the information contained in the products. Additionally, TRUVEN HEALTH ANALYTICS MAKES NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE OPINIONS OR OTHER SERVICE OR DATA YOU MAY ACCESS, DOWNLOAD OR USE AS A RESULT OF USE OF THE TRUVEN HEALTH ANALYTICS PRODUCTS. ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE ARE HEREBY EXCLUDED. Truven Health Analytics does not assume any responsibility or risk for your use of the Truven Health Analytics products. Truven Health Analytics, an IBM company. A Harvard expert shares his thoughts on testosterone- replacement therapy - Harvard Prostate Knowledge. An interview with Abraham Morgentaler, M. D. It could be said that testosterone is what makes men, men. It gives them their characteristic deep voices, large muscles, and facial and body hair, distinguishing them from women. It stimulates the growth of the genitals at puberty, plays a role in sperm production, fuels libido, and contributes to normal erections. It also fosters the production of red blood cells, boosts mood, and aids cognition. Over time, the testicular “machinery” that makes testosterone gradually becomes less effective, and testosterone levels start to fall, by about 1% a year, beginning in the 4. As men get into their 5. Taken together, these signs and symptoms are often called hypogonadism (“hypo” meaning low functioning and “gonadism” referring to the testicles). Researchers estimate that the condition affects anywhere from two to six million men in the United States. Yet it is an underdiagnosed problem, with only about 5% of those affected receiving treatment. Studies have shown that testosterone- replacement therapy may offer a wide range of benefits for men with hypogonadism, including improved libido, mood, cognition, muscle mass, bone density, and red blood cell production. But little consensus exists on what constitutes low testosterone, when testosterone supplementation makes sense, or what risks patients face. Much of the current debate focuses on the long- held belief that testosterone may stimulate prostate cancer. Dr. Abraham Morgentaler, an associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and the director of Men’s Health Boston, specializes in treating prostate diseases and male sexual and reproductive difficulties. He has developed particular expertise in treating low testosterone levels. In this interview, Dr. Morgentaler shares his views on current controversies, the treatment strategies he uses with his own patients, and why he thinks experts should reconsider the possible link between testosterone- replacement therapy and prostate cancer. Symptoms and diagnosis. What signs and symptoms of low testosterone prompt the average man to see a doctor? As a urologist, I tend to see men because they have sexual complaints. The primary hallmark of low testosterone is low sexual desire or libido, but another can be erectile dysfunction, and any man who complains of erectile dysfunction should get his testosterone level checked. Men may experience other symptoms, such as more difficulty achieving an orgasm, less- intense orgasms, a smaller amount of fluid from ejaculation, and a feeling of numbness in the penis when they see or experience something that would normally be arousing. The more of these symptoms there are, the more likely it is that a man has low testosterone. Many physicians tend to dismiss these “soft symptoms” as a normal part of aging, but they are often treatable and reversible by normalizing testosterone levels. Aren’t those the same symptoms that men have when they’re treated for benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH? Not exactly. There are a number of drugs that may lessen sex drive, including the BPH drugs finasteride (Proscar) and dutasteride (Avodart). Those drugs can also decrease the amount of the ejaculatory fluid, no question. But a reduction in orgasm intensity usually does not go along with treatment for BPH. Erectile dysfunction does not usually go along with it either, though certainly if somebody has less sex drive or less interest, it’s more of a challenge to get a good erection. How do you determine whether a man is a candidate for testosterone- replacement therapy? There are two ways that we determine whether somebody has low testosterone. One is a blood test and the other is by characteristic symptoms and signs, and the correlation between those two methods is far from perfect. Generally men with the lowest testosterone have the most symptoms and men with highest testosterone have the least. But there are some men who have low levels of testosterone in their blood and have no symptoms. Looking purely at the biochemical numbers, The Endocrine Society* considers low testosterone to be a total testosterone level of less than 3. I think that’s a reasonable guide. But no one quite agrees on a number. It’s not like diabetes, where if your fasting glucose is above a certain level, they’ll say, “Okay, you’ve got it.” With testosterone, that break point is not quite as clear.*Note: The Endocrine Society publishes clinical practice guidelines with recommendations for who should and shouldn’t receive testosterone therapy. See “Endocrine Society recommendations summarized.” For a complete copy of the guidelines, log on to www. Is total testosterone the right thing to be measuring? Or should we be measuring something else? Well, this is another area of confusion and great debate, but I don’t think it’s as confusing as it appears to be in the literature. When most doctors learned about testosterone in medical school, they learned about total testosterone, or all the testosterone in the body. But about half of the testosterone that’s circulating in the bloodstream is not available to the cells. It’s tightly bound to a carrier molecule called sex hormone–binding globulin, which we abbreviate as SHBG. The biologically available part of total testosterone is called free testosterone, and it’s readily available to the cells. Almost every lab has a blood test to measure free testosterone. Even though it’s only a small fraction of the total, the free testosterone level is a pretty good indicator of low testosterone. It’s not perfect, but the correlation is greater than with total testosterone. Endocrine Society recommendations summarized. This professional organization recommends testosterone therapy for men who have bothlow levels of testosterone in the blood (less than 3. Therapy is not recommended for men who haveprostate or breast cancera nodule on the prostate that can be felt during a DREa PSA greater than 3 ng/ml without further evaluationa hematocrit greater than 5. III or IV heart failure. Do time of day, diet, or other factors affect testosterone levels? For years, the recommendation has been to get a testosterone value early in the morning because levels start to drop after 1. But the data behind that recommendation were drawn from healthy young men. Two recent studies showed little change in blood testosterone levels in men 4. One reported no change in average testosterone until after 2 p. Between 2 and 6 p. Most guidelines still say it’s important to do the test in the morning, but for men 4. There are some very interesting findings about diet. For example, it appears that individuals who have a diet low in protein have lower testosterone levels than men who consume more protein. But diet hasn’t been studied thoroughly enough to make any clear recommendations. Exogenous vs. Depending on the formulation, treatment can cause skin irritation, breast enlargement and tenderness, sleep apnea, acne, reduced sperm count, increased red blood cell count, and other side effects. Preliminary research has shown that clomiphene citrate (Clomid), a drug generally prescribed to stimulate ovulation in women struggling with infertility, can foster the production of natural testosterone, termed endogenous testosterone, in men. In a recent prospective study, 3. Within four to six weeks, all of the men had heightened levels of testosterone; none reported any side effects during the year they were followed. Because clomiphene citrate is not approved by the FDA for use in men, little information exists about the long- term effects of taking it (including the risk of developing prostate cancer) or whether it is more effective at boosting testosterone than exogenous formulations. But unlike exogenous testosterone, clomiphene citrate preserves — and possibly enhances — sperm production. That makes drugs like clomiphene citrate one of only a few choices for men with low testosterone who want to father children. Formulations. What forms of testosterone- replacement therapy are available?*The oldest form is an injection, which we still use because it’s inexpensive and because we reliably get good testosterone levels in nearly everybody. The disadvantage is that a man needs to come in every few weeks to get a shot. A roller- coaster effect can also occur as blood testosterone levels peak and then return to baseline. The first form of topical therapy was a patch, but it has a very high rate of skin irritation. In one study, as many as 4. That limits its use. The most commonly used testosterone preparation in the United States — and the one I start almost everyone off with — is a topical gel. There are two brands: Andro. Gel and Testim. The gel comes in miniature tubes or in a special dispenser, and you rub it on your shoulders or upper arms once a day. Based on my experience, it tends to be absorbed to good levels in about 8. How long does it take for them to work? Men who start using the gels have to come back in to have their testosterone levels measured again to make sure they’re absorbing the right amount. Our target is the mid to upper range of normal, which usually means around 5. The concentration of testosterone in the blood actually goes up quite quickly, within a few doses. I usually measure it after two weeks, though symptoms may not change for a month or two. Comparison of forms of testosterone therapy. Formulation. Generic (brand)Regimen. Advantages. Disadvantages. Testosterone enanthate (Delatestryl) and testosterone cypionate (Depo- testosterone) injections. Relatively inexpensive. Peaks and valleys in blood testosterone levels; frequent office visits for injections. Scrotal testosterone patch (Testoderm)One 6- mg patch/day. May be less irritating to skin than nonscrotal patches. Scrotum must be shaved in order for patch to adhere to skin. Nonscrotal testosterone patch (Testoderm TTS and Androderm)One or two patches/day, depending on strength (2.
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