Recent studies indicate that various low testosterone (low-T) products could induce cardiac complications in unsuspecting patients.

The fear of testosterone depletion has been rampant in America for quite some time. Despite the revelations of potential heart attacks, statistics show that men continuously ask their doctors for low-T prescriptions in the hopes of preventing their testosterone levels from falling further.

When men age there are various physical changes in their bodies, such as fatigue, weight gain, irritability, loss of muscle mass, and low sex drive. These are all natural signs of aging, but low-T manufacturing companies have allegedly told men for years, that this is not the case and they can prevent it, by using low-T products.

These companies had allegedly used these symptoms as warning flags to describe fictional testosterone-lowering conditions, which chip away heavily on their sex drive. This had spurred a successful fear campaign, which convinced men that they needed these low-T product to help maintain their youth and sex drive.

Due to the recent concern of cardiac complications, experts advise that doctors only prescribe these products to patients who are truly in need of the hormonal assistance. Furthermore, several advocacy groups are calling for a black-box warning to be placed on these low-T products, petitioning the FDA to require manufacturing companies to add more specific warnings to the packaging.

Overview of Low-T Products Complications

Several studies have indicated there is a significant increase of cardiac complications in correlation with testosterone replacement therapy. One watchdog group stated that there is a 50% increase in cardiac complications. Fourteen studies that were not funded by pharmaceutical companies showed there was more than twice the risk than the studies sponsored by the drug industry showed.

One of the most famous testosterone studies was published in the January 2014, which showed that the risk was prevalent in many patients. Cardiac complications in testosterone patients were traditionally associated with older patients’ cardiac complications, because the physical side effects can be devastating.

However, this study found that younger patients with heart conditions were vulnerable to these adverse effects, and that older patients were at risk regardless of the state of their heart. The study’s author, epidemiologist William Finkle, stated that the risk of cardiac complications should be discussed if the patient requests a low-T prescription.

The first low-t lawsuits were filed four days after the FDA issued a public warning regarding testosterone cardiac complications in 2014. They were filed by five men in a federal court in Chicago against Abbott Laboratories and its subsidiary, AbbVie Inc. The low-T product AndroGel was at the center of the allegations.