Testosterone deficit syndrome is a clinical and biochemical syndrome associated with advanced age and characterized by some symptoms associated with serum testosterone levels deficiency, which may result in a decrease of quality of life and negatively affect the function of multiple organs or systems.
Clinical guidelines recommend testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) in patients with testosterone decrease that associate muscle mass and strength loss, lumbar spinal column bone density decrease, or libido and erection decrease. Contraindications for treatment would include active prostate cancer or without treatment, PSA >4 ng/ml waiting for diagnostic workup, breast cancer, severe sleep apnea, infertility, hematocrit over 50% or severe lower urinary tract symptoms secondary to benign prostatic hypertrophy. In certain situations there is still great controversy, without enough evidence to establish an action. References in case of patientstreated with brachytherapy or radiotherapy are unspecific: they only recommend caution in the treatment with TRT in these patients and strict monitoring of the possible recurrence. In our opinion, low-intermediate risk prostate cancer patients treated with radiotherapy only, without evidence of residual or recurrent disease, are candidates for TRT if symptoms justify it, leaving a free period of never less than one year after nadir (or 24 months after the end of therapy) which guarantees, on the possible means, the absence of biochemical or clinical recurrence,with strict follow up of clinical and biochemical usual parameters (hematocrit, hemoglobin, DRE, PSA ).
Written by:
Estrada Dominguez F, Borque A, Rodriguez Vela L. Are you the author?
Servicio de Urologia. Hospital General de la Defensa, Zaragoza; Urology Department, Hospital Miguel Servet, Zaragoza, Spain.
Reference: Arch Esp Urol. 2013 Sep;66(7):669-74.
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 24047625
Article in Spanish.
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