Can Men Live Longer By Taking Testosterone Therapy?

Testosterone therapy can safely and efficiently help prevent and reduce the severity of many age-related disorders

Medical research has now shown that it is safe to treat with testosterone therapy all types of testosterone-deficient patients, even those with active (untreated) prostate cancer, a topic we will talk about in another article. Testosterone therapy has also been found to make the mind stronger, reducing the incidence and impacts of anxiety and depressive disorders. It also helps mental functioning, boosting memory and even serving as one of the tools to slow down and oppose the development of Alzheimer’s disease. More than 80% of the studies published on the topic in peer-reviewed medical journals have shown that testosterone therapy improves heart conditions. Moreover, testosterone therapy has been reported to help prevent, oppose, and even reverse the development of obesity, type II diabetes, sarcopenia, osteoporosis, stroke, cachexia, etc. By preventing and alleviating age-related disorders testosterone therapy may make men also live longer.

Recent evidence that testosterone deficiency may shorten life and supplementation of it may extend life

Paucity of studies on the effects of testosterone deficiency and therapy on longevity two decades ago

Two decades ago, there were almost no studies showing that testosterone deficiency could increase the risk of premature death and that testosterone therapy could potentially extend the life span. Now, we have the studies. In medicine, researchers seldom write down in a publication that the therapy they used could improve longevity in their patients. It sounds too positive, not serious enough to publish in medical journals. Most investigators prefer using the less positive terminology of reducing mortality, which produces a more scientific impression. However, increasing longevity and reducing mortality are basically the same.

I found 35 studies published in peer-reviewed medical journals that show that higher blood levels of testosterone (within the reference range) are associated with a significantly increased longevity. “Low” testosterone levels that may increase mortality are usually “low-normal” within the reference range (in the lower two-thirds, lower half, lower third, lower quartile, or lower quintile of the reference range), and below the lower reference limit for testosterone is below the lower reference limit for testosterone in a laboratory test or a. The association of increasingly greater longevity at progressively higher testosterone levels suggests that the lack of testosterone causes or contributes to premature death. Furthermore, 9 studies have shown that testosterone therapy significantly increases longevity (or, if you prefer “lowers mortality”). In other words, older men who take testosterone may live longer. 

There are a few studies showing no effects of testosterone therapy, and almost no study showing the opposite. The balance is visibly in favor of providing testosterone therapy to men with mild to severe testosterone deficiencies to keep them alive longer.

To access the relevant data on testosterone deficiency, testosterone therapy, and their association with longevity visit the International Hormone Society website, in the Evidence-based hormone therapies section.

To get more references and practical information on testosterone therapy, read my 600-page book for physicians, “Testosterone, the Therapy for Real Gentlemen”.

To get practical and in-depth training in testosterone therapy, attend the hormone therapy workshop in Orlando, August 21-22, 2020. Check out the Evidence-based hormone therapy workshop here, which will be available at the A4M 28th Annual Spring Congress being held in Orlando, Florida on August 20-22, 2020.