Research

Hormonal

Testosterone treatment in older men with low testosterone increases coronary artery noncalcified plaque volume, but was not associated with more cardiovascular or prostate adverse events over 12 months.

If you are an older man with confirmed low testosterone, testosterone therapy may increase your coronary artery noncalcified plaque volume, but this was not associated with more cardiovascular or prostate adverse events over 12 months. The treatment involves daily application of a gel, with dose adjustments to keep levels in the normal range for young men. Long-term safety requires more data.

GoodQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
In the Cardiovascular Trial, testosterone increased the coronary artery noncalcified plaque volume as assessed using computed tomographic angiography. Although testosterone was not associated with more cardiovascular or prostate adverse events than placebo, a trial of a much larger number of men for a much longer period would be necessary to determine whether testosterone increases cardiovascular or prostate risk.
Peter J. Snyder et al. · Endocrine Reviews · 2018

Why this rating

Based on a large, placebo-controlled, double-blind randomized trial, but the effect on plaque volume is a surrogate marker, and the clinical significance is uncertain.

Source

Lessons From the Testosterone Trials

Peter J. Snyder et al. · Endocrine Reviews · 2018

DOI 10.1210/er.2017-00234

narrative_review · n=788Cited 265×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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