A recent study was performed on 558 men who averaged 55 years old to show the effects of extended testosterone use has been completed and has demonstrated some interesting results.

The most interesting to many men was the discovery that treating men who have androgen deficiency with a 2% testosterone solution helped improve their sex drive and energy for at least 9 months without adding adverse effects. Results from the study by Gerald Brock, MD, in the department of surgery, University of Western Ontario, London, and colleagues, were published online in the Journal of Urology, scheduled for its November issue. 

However, accurate data related to specific age groups is still not reliable. This means that testosterone levels in men of a certain age may naturally only need to be at a specific level whereas for men close to 40, their testosterone levels may be normative at a different level. This means that simply having less libido or diminished testosterone numbers may not mean you are in need of HRT. There are other factors that can contribute to a diminished sex drive besides low T.

Finally, one potential point of optimism found that while the study was not designed to observe the cardiovascular effects of using testosterone, they did find that recipients showed no noticeable changes in the cardiovascular condition after 9 months.

It is advisable that you talk to a doctor about your numbers and see if hormone replacement therapy is right for you.