Hormone Therapy

The Impact of Testosterone Therapy on Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia in Hypogonadal Males.

TL;DR

In the long term, testosterone therapy increased the risk of receiving a diagnosis of BPH in hypogonadal males, but did not change the need for prostatic interventions in hypogonadal males with BPH.

Key Findings

In a large cohort of hypogonadal males, 17.8% were diagnosed with benign prostatic hyperplasia.

  • Total cohort consisted of 882,570 hypogonadal males identified from the 2011-2020 IBM MarketScan database.
  • 157,185 of these patients (17.8%) were diagnosed with BPH.
  • Patients were above 18 years old.
  • Models were adjusted for age, region, population density, and comorbidities.

For the first 2.5 years after hypogonadism diagnosis, testosterone therapy was not associated with a significant difference in BPH diagnosis compared to no testosterone therapy.

  • HR: 1.00, 95% CI: 0.98-1.01, P = .66.
  • TT within the last 6 months was considered a time-varying covariate in Cox proportional hazard models.
  • ICD-9, ICD-10, CPT, HCPCS, and NDC codes were used for diagnoses, interventions, and medications.

From 2.5 years onward, males on testosterone therapy had a 32% higher risk of receiving a diagnosis of BPH compared to those not on testosterone therapy.

  • HR: 1.32, 95% CI: 1.28-1.36, P < .001.
  • This finding emerged only after the 2.5-year threshold following hypogonadism diagnosis.
  • Cox proportional hazard models were used with TT as a time-varying covariate.

Hypogonadal males with BPH who received testosterone therapy showed no significant difference in prostatic interventions compared to those who did not receive testosterone therapy.

  • HR: 0.95, 95% CI: 0.89-1.00, P = .08.
  • The analysis evaluated the relationship between TT in hypogonadal males with BPH and prostatic interventions.
  • CPT and HCPCS procedure codes were used to identify interventions.

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Citation

Fendereski K, Horns J, Dehghanbanadaki H, Watkins C, Hotaling J. (2025). The Impact of Testosterone Therapy on Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia in Hypogonadal Males.. Urology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urology.2024.11.006