What Doctors Don't Tell YouAt an international symposium in June, Professor Louis Gooren announced success with male hormone replacement therapy to combat male menopause often referred to as “andropause”.
With Professor Gooren’s treatment, a dose of testosterone is delivered to the man via injection, pill or scrotal film patch.
The male HRT is suppose to counteract hormone level declines of 20 per cent,and to reawaken sexual desire, improve sexual functioning and in general to make men aged 50 and upwards feel and act randier.
Nevertheless, said Prof Gooren, there is a catch: “Benign prostatic hyperplasia and cancer of the prostate have both been clearly linked to the presence of testosterone. “We need to find out if extra testosterone will lead to earlier or more severe manifestations of these diseases.”
Nevertheless, he added, the good news is that if you get breast cancer with HRT, you’ll get a better brand of it than otherwise. “Women getting cancer on HRT tend to have a lower stage and grade of tumour the percentage relative survival is higher,” said Siddle.
Siddle and others have decried the fact that a survey of 2,000 GPs revealed a reluctance to prescribe HRT for women with benign breast disease.
Maryon Stewart
Daniel Redwood DC