Is testosterone supplementation dangerous for the heart? This is the question that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will try to answer by reassessing the benefit-risk ratio of this product used to increase muscle mass or to boost sports or sexual capacities.
Does testosterone increase the risk of stroke?
A few months ago, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the equivalent of our National Drug Safety Agency in the United States, had already decided to monitor these products. But she still didn’t conclude that the treatments increased the risk of heart attack or stroke.
However, and even if the consumption of testosterone is less widespread in Europe than in the United States, the European Medicines Agency, through its Committee for the Evaluation of Risks in Pharmacovigilance (PRAC) wants to in turn ensure that men who take it do not run any real risk to their health.
Twice as many heart attacks in people over 65
What alerted the European Medicines Agency was a recent study, published in the online journal Plos One, which followed 56,000 men, some over the age of 65 but without a history of heart disease, and others younger but with a known history of heart disease. Results of this study: Men aged 65 and over, on testosterone, had twice as many heart attacks in the months after starting their supplementation.
One of the questions that European researchers will try to answer is whether testosterone supplementation generates an increased cardiac risk or if it is the behavior (sporting or sexual) of the men who take it that increases this risk.
In general, in healthy men, testosterone levels peak around the age of 30. It then drops by around 1% each year. However, testosterone levels can drop dramatically due to stress.
