Long-acting testosterone treatment improves health-related quality of life in men with low testosterone levels compared with a placebo

Key Findings

• Testosterone levels returned to normal in the men who received testosterone treatment (intramuscular testosterone undecanoate) but not in men who received placebo injections (as expected)
• The health-related quality of life of treated men improved significantly more than that of men receiving the placebo treatment (see figure)
• The greatest improvements, compared with placebo, were seen in physical and psychological symptoms, although sexual symptoms also improved.

Source: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial on the effect of long-acting testosterone treatment as assessed by the Aging Male Symptoms scale. Ho CC, Tong SF, Low WY, et al. BJU International 2011; Published ahead of print November 17, 2011.

Background information

Low testosterone levels are common in older men and are associated with a range of physical, psychological and sexual symptoms. Testosterone replacement treatment (TRT) has been shown to improve symptoms and the health-related quality of life in these men. The Aging Male Symptoms scale is a tool for measuring quality of life in hypogonadal men and studies have shown that the output of the scale can match testosterone levels, and can identify hypogonadism and measure how well treatment is working.
The improvements in quality of life that came about as a result of testosterone treatment in this study are similar to those seen in other studies including Asian and European men.