Testosterone deficiency is being diagnosed in more and more men annually with symptomatic and health repercussions which are motivating men to seek treatment. The newest modality of treatment are oral testosterone pills that are safe for the liver, as opposed to the older types of pills in the 1970s that were harmful. As an expert in men’s hormonal and reproductive health, Dr. Parviz Kavoussi was charged with the task to lecture on oral testosterone replacement and the good and bad of it at the University of California at Irvine’s annual men’s health course. Dr. Kavoussi states, “Oral testosterone replacement is being shown to be a safe and fairly easy treatment option for men with testosterone deficiency but should be avoided at this time in men that want to father children or are interested in future fertility potential, as should all forms of testosterone replacement, as they are detrimental to sperm production. Currently, there is no data indicating that oral formulations would be an exception. For men, wanting to maintain fertility, other medications are available to stimulate testosterone production in a fertility preserving manner and should be considered rather than testosterone therapy.”
