Testosterone Therapy for the Treatment of Unexplained Anemia in Men With Hypogonadism

Decreased testosterone levels are often under-recognized as a cause of anemia in males with hypogonadism. Men, as a subset, are less likely to seek medical care, especially those who struggle with complex psychiatric and social conditions, where they may lack full autonomy. Increasing testosterone l...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) Vol. 16; no. 8; p. e66887
Main Authors:	Ali, Kabeer, Talati, Jay, Mikulas, Christopher, Quan, Austin, Reddy, Pramod
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States Cureus Inc 01-08-2024
Subjects:	Anemia Cardiovascular disease Chronic illnesses Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Clinical trials Convulsions & seizures Coronary vessels Hemoglobin Hospitals Hypertension Hypothyroidism Iron Laboratories Medical history Metabolic disorders Patients Psychotropic drugs Puberty Schizophrenia Testosterone Traumatic brain injury Vein & artery diseases Vitamin B Vitamin deficiency low testosterone testosterone replacement andropause male hypogonadotropic hypogonadism unexplained anemia
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Summary:	Decreased testosterone levels are often under-recognized as a cause of anemia in males with hypogonadism. Men, as a subset, are less likely to seek medical care, especially those who struggle with complex psychiatric and social conditions, where they may lack full autonomy. Increasing testosterone levels leads to erythrocytosis by elevating erythropoietin and soluble transferrin receptor levels and suppressing hepcidin and ferritin levels. While practice guidelines on testosterone therapy for hypogonadism exist, there are no large-scale, randomized clinical trials assessing the use of testosterone replacement therapy in men with hypogonadism to evaluate its effect on anemia. Testosterone replacement therapy is also not wholly benign, and patients may be at increased risk for nonfatal cardiac arrhythmias, venous thromboembolism, and acute kidney injury. We explore two cases of patients with similar prior medical history, both of whom were found to have hypogonadism and anemia that were not otherwise explained. Both patients experienced significant improvement in their anemia following testosterone supplementation.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Case Study-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-4 content type line 23 ObjectType-Report-1 ObjectType-Article-3
ISSN:	2168-8184 2168-8184
DOI:	10.7759/cureus.66887