As lawsuits over testosterone product side effects grow, at the very least people are becoming more aware of the potential risks of using testosterone replacement therapy. Today, these drugs make over $2 billion each year in sales. A November 2013 study featured in the Journal of the American Medical Association that highlighted the risk of testosterone gel heart events kick-started other research (and lawsuits) regarding this risk.

There are a number of testosterone gel products and creams, from a myriad manufacturers, currently acting as Defendants in a testosterone gel MDL. While AndroGel by AbbVie is just one of many products, it’s the most commonly used. Heart attacks, strokes, pulmonary embolisms, and deep vein thrombosis (DVT) are at the “heart” of testosterone gel lawsuits right now, but recent studies suggest that these drugs may also be linked to colon cancer.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already stepped in numerous times, requiring the companies to change their “overly aggressive” marketing of low-t products.

Background on Low-T Industry

Beginning in 2001, drug manufacturers allegedly saw profitable potential in men suffering from low testosterone or “low-t.” When these products first became popular in the market, AbbVie estimated that around one million men in the U.S. suffered from low-t. Three years later, when the products were making millions, it was suggested that four million men had this issue.

There was a simple self-diagnosis test (which doctors also received from AbbVie and other companies) to see whether or not a patient had low-t potential. These symptoms included things like being tired or having a lower sex drive than in the past. The doctor who created this test admits to having done so in less than 30 minutes.

Testosterone Gel and Colon Cancer

Testosterone gel lawsuit plaintiffs have alleged that the medication causes serious heart issues, up to and including death from cardiac arrest. It’s not just men who are alleged victims. Women and children who came into contact with the creams, whether from washing clothes or physical contact such as hugs, have also been impacted.

Now, University of Missouri researchers discovered that testosterone itself might be a major colon cancer cause. The full findings of one study can be found in the December 2014 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This, the researchers explain, might be why men are generally at a higher risk of colon cancer than women. It’s not necessarily testosterone drugs that may be linked to this type of cancer, but testosterone itself (which, whether natural or artificial, the researchers suggest plays a big role in colon cancer).

For their findings, the Missouri researchers considered male rats, taking testosterone from the rats in one group and then seeing a decline in colon cancer rates. As testosterone levels were returned, the colon cancer rates were restored to normal.

According to the lead researchers and Assistant Professor of Veterinary Pathobiology James Amos-Landgraf, “Previously, scientists believed that female hormones may have lent some sort of protection against tumor susceptibility. However, by showing that removing testosterone from rats leads to a drastic decrease in colon cancer susceptibility, it appears that male hormones may actually contribute to colon tumor growth rather than female hormones being protective.”