THURSDAY, May 10 (HealthDay News) -- Parenterally administered testosterone injections in overweight or obese men with low testosterone levels lead to significant weight loss and improved waist circumference, blood pressure, and metabolic parameters, according to a study presented at the European Congress on Obesity, held from May 9 to 11 in Lyon, France.
Farid Saad, M.D., of Bayer Pharma in Berlin, and colleagues conducted a prospective study involving 251 men aged 38 to 83 (mean age, 60.6 years) with testosterone levels between 0.14 to 3.4 ng/mL who were treated with parenteral testosterone undecanoate 1,000 mg for 12 weeks. Of the cohort, 214 men were followed for two years or more, and 115 were followed for five years or more.
After five years of treatment, the researchers found that average weight decreased from 106.27 to 90.04 kg; waist circumference from 107.21 to 98.43 cm; body mass index from 33.95 to 29.17 kg/m²; serum cholesterol from 281 to 188 mg/dL; low-density lipoprotein from 163 to 109 mg/dL; triglycerides from 276 to 189 mg/dL; glucose from 103 to 94 mg/dL; and systolic and diastolic blood pressure from 153 to 137 mm Hg and 93 to 79 mm Hg, respectively.
"Raising serum testosterone to normal reduced body weight, waist circumference, and blood pressure, and improved metabolic profiles. These improvements were progressive over the full five years of the study," the authors conclude.
Several authors disclosed financial ties to pharmaceutical companies, including Bayer Pharma, which paid for structuring and analyzing of the database.
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