New study shows testosterone therapy in older men does not increase heart attacks.

A new University of Texas Medical Branch study evaluated the risk of myocardial infarction in a cohort of men receiving intra muscular testosterone. The researchers used a sample of Medicare benficiaries who were clinically and socioeconomically diverse and who were treated with testosterone from 1997-2005. Men of the same age, race, Medicaid eligibility, and health status who did not receive testosterone therapy were used as a control group.

The analyses show that in a Cox regression analysis adjusting for demographic and clinical characteristics, receipt of testosterone therapy was not associated with an increased risk of MI (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.84; 95% CI = 0.69-1.02). In this analysis, there was an interaction between receipt of testosterone and quartile of risk of MI (P = 0.023). For men in the highest quartile of the MI prognostic score, testosterone therapy was associated with a reduced risk of MI (HR = 0.69; 95% CI = 0.53-0.92), whereas there was no difference in risk for the first (HR = 1.20; 95% CI = 0.88-1.67), second (HR = 0.94; 95% CI = 0.69-1.30), and third quartiles (HR = 0.78; 95% CI = 0.59-1.01). Conclusions: Older men who were treated with intramuscular testosterone did not appear to have an increased risk of MI. For men with high MI risk, testosterone use was modestly protective against MI.

See -"Risk of Myocardial Infarction in Older Men Receiving Testosterone Therapy"- Jacques Baillargeon, Randall J. Urban, Yong-Fang Kuo, Kenneth J. Ottenbacher, Mukaila A. Raji, Fei Du, Yu-li Lin, and James S. Goodwin-Ann Pharmacother, 1060028014539918, first published on July 2, 2014.