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Testosterone addition to estrogen therapy - effects on inflammatory markers for cardiovascular disease.

Author(s): Kocoska-Maras L, Hirschberg AL, Bystrom B, Schoultz BV, Radestad AF

Affiliation(s): Department of Woman and Child Health, Division of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. ljiljana.kocoska-maras@karolinska.se

Publication date & source: 2009-12, Gynecol Endocrinol., 25(12):823-7.

Publication type: Randomized Controlled Trial; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the effects of testosterone addition to estrogen therapy in comparison with estrogen alone on cardiovascular risk factors in postmenopausal women. METHODS: Fifty surgically postmenopausal women were included in this double-blind, placebo-controlled and randomized study to receive daily oral treatment with estradiol valerate 2 mg + placebo (E/P) or estradiol valerate 2 mg + testosterone undecanoate 40 mg (E/T) for 24 weeks and then switched to the other regimen for another 24 weeks. Sex hormones, High sensitivity CRP (hsCRP), Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Tissue necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, Insulin-like growth factor binding globulin (IGFBP-1), vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM)- 1, and homocysteine were analyzed at baseline and after 6 and 12 months. RESULTS: Estradiol and androgens increased as expected during the treatments. After 6 months of E/P, increases of hsCRP and IGFBP-1 and a decline of VCAM were recorded, whereas IL-6, TNF-alpha, and homocysteine were unchanged. When testosterone was added to estrogen, the increase of IGFBP-1 and decline in VCAM was similar as with estrogen treatment alone. However, testosterone addition counteracted the estrogen-induced rise in hsCRP but had no effects on IL-6, TNF-alpha, and homocysteine. CONCLUSION: Data suggest that testosterone addition to estrogen treatment in postmenopausal women has a modest influence on inflammatory markers and there were no apparent adverse effects. On the contrary, the estrogen-induced increase in hsCRP was suppressed.

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