One of the usually cited unwanted side effects for hormone replacement therapy as a solution to low testosterone of males is an increased risk of prostate cancer. However, much like together with the Million Woman Study which linked HRT as well as breast cancer, the research corroborating this particular idea is dated and likely false. In fact, according to several modern investigation, low testosterone is actually a risk factor FOR types of male cancer.
The roots of the theory that testosterone replacement increased the danger of prostate cancer do research done at the University of Chicago in the 1940s by a team led by urologist Charles Huggins. Based on tests performed initially on dogs then on humans, Huggins’ group came to the realization that prostate cancer was androgen dependent – when testosterone levels have been high, the cancer worsened, Find out how (click the next web site) but when the levels had been decreased, the cancer shrank. Huggins’ principle led to surgical castration – removal of the testicles – becoming the standard treatment for prostate cancer due to the resultant fall of testosterone. Huggins was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1966 for these efforts to medical research.
Huggins’ findings led scientists and doctors to believe for many years that testosterone levels and prostate cancer occurrence had been linked, in spite of the point that his experiments did not test neither prove this and were confined to little numbers of test subjects. This caused medical professionals to be suspicious of hormone replacement therapy, fearing that it may lead to the enhancement of prostate cancer. Many shied from prescribing HRT, despite its benefits.
As time went on, more exploration was done, as well as studies proved that males with low testosterone seemed to develop prostate cancer at a higher than typical rate, and that testosterone only caused growth of cancers of the prostate in men that had been castrated, and never in men who still produced testosterone naturally. The supposed link between testosterone as well as prostate cancer had to be reexamined.
Ultimately, the medical community started to change the tune of its as it was presented with new evidence. A number 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 performed by Abraham Morgentaler, a prominent doctor in the area, showed that raising the amounts of testosterone in men already identified as having prostate cancer caused no further progression of the illness, which males in the low range of testosterone levels are actually more at risk of developing prostate cancer than males with higher amounts. It’s now be clear the partnership between cancer and testosterone of the prostate was misunderstood for a lot of the 20th century, and that hormone replacement as a means of supplementing lower testosterone levels in men won’t cause the disease.
So if you’re a male who suspects he could have low testosterone, and are thinking about hormone replacement therapy, you can rest easy. HRT won’t offer you prostate cancer; the truth is, it might assist in preventing it.