On the list of normally cited side effects for hormone replacement therapy as a cure to low testosterone in males is an elevated risk of prostate cancer. But, just like with the Million Woman Study that linked HRT and breast cancer, the evidence corroborating this belief is dated and likely false. In reality, according to some contemporary research, low testosterone is really a risk factor FOR types of male cancer.

The origins of the concept that testosterone replacement increased the chance of prostate cancer go back to research done at the University of Chicago in the 1940s by a team led by urologist Charles Huggins. Based on tests performed first on dogs after which you can on humans, Huggins’ team concluded that prostate cancer was androgen dependent – when testosterone levels were high, the cancer worsened, but when the levels were decreased, the cancer shrank. Huggins’ principle led to medical castration – removal of the testicles – becoming the conventional treatment for prostate cancer because of the available drop in testosterone. Huggins was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1966 for these contributions to medical research.

Huggins’ findings led scientists and doctors to believe for a long time that testosterone levels and prostate cancer occurrence were linked, despite the point that his experiments did not test nor prove this and were limited to little amounts of test subjects. This caused medical professionals to be skeptical of hormone replacement therapy, fearing that it might cause the development of prostate cancer. Many folks shied from prescribing HRT, despite the benefits of its.

As time went on, more research was completed, and studies showed that men with low testosterone seemed to develop prostate cancer in a greater compared to typical speed, which testosterone only caused progress of cancer of the prostate in men that was castrated, without having it in males who nevertheless produced testosterone naturally. The supposed link between testosterone as well as prostate cancer needed to be reexamined.

Ultimately, the medical community started to change its tune as it was presented with new evidence. A variety of research done in the 2000s, including ones published by the new England Journal of Medicine as well as the Mayo Clinic, showed virtually no correlation between elevated testosterone levels and cancer of the prostate. Separate scientific studies done by Abraham Morgentaler, a prominent doctor in the field, showed that raising the amounts of testosterone in men now diagnosed with prostate cancer caused no further progression of the disease, and that men in the low range of testosterone levels are actually more in danger of developing prostate cancer than males with higher amounts. It’s now become apparent the relationship between cancer and testosterone of the prostate was misunderstood for most of the 20th century, which hormone replacement as a way of supplementing low testosterone levels in men will not trigger the illness.

So in case you’re a male that suspects he could have very low testosterone, Here and tend to be thinking about hormone replacement therapy, you are able to rest easy. HRT will not offer you prostate cancer; actually, it may help prevent it.