Who Gets Testosterone?

Excerpt

Hypogonadism in males is common, with a prevalence of symptomatic androgen deficiency of 5–12% in males between 40 and 70 years of age.1, 2 Jasuja and colleagues explored the pattern of testosterone prescribing using VA administrative data, linking prescription fills to ICD-9 codes 1. In previous work, this group demonstrated that 16% of VA veterans are prescribed testosterone without undergoing the recommended workup 2. In this study, they found that only 6% of men had a diagnosis that would justify receiving testosterone treatment. They conclude that 94% of testosterone receipts in the VA are off-label purposes 3. If this were true, it would be disturbing . It would also fly in the face of most measures demonstrating that the VA matches or exceeds care quality indicators compared to non-VA settings and would contradict the groups own previous work, in which 84% of veterans given testosterone had an appropriate workup prior to testosterone initiation 4. …