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Testosterone Therapy Injury Lawyer Asks if Low T Treatment Plan Was “Made Up”
Dr. Larry Mulkerin is a retired clinical professor and oncologist who lives in Walla Walla. He is a former U.S. Army Green Berets medical officer with experience in the Middle East, and he also is the author of “The Ayatollah’s Suitcase,” a novel available at amazon.com and other online book retailers. Dr. Mulkerin explains in his article that “The pharmaceutical industry wants men to think their sex lives, muscle mass and energy levels are in trouble because of — oh my goodness — low testosterone.”
He gives six examples on why this is only a fiction:
- AbbVie, the manufacturer of AndroGel spent $80 million of the $3.47 billion the industry spent in 2012, according to The New York Times in an Oct. 15, 2013, article. Direct-to-consumer advertising is a strong driver of medical costs and it often promotes ineffective or dangerous products. It’s hard to convince patients that they were suckers of a sales pitch.
- The cost of one bottle, about one month’s supply, is quoted at more than $400.
- The risks from treatments are uncertain, but the list extends from prostate cancer to shortened life expectancy. Other concerns have included liver damage, overproduction of red cells, prostate enlargement, sleep apnea and worsening heart failure. A study of 8,709 men was published Nov. 6, 2013 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The men in that study all had risks for vascular disease and testosterone levels below 300 nanograms per milliliter. The study was stopped because the testosterone-treated group had more heart attacks and strokes, and they also had a higher death rate — 27.7 percent compared to 19.9 percent in the untreated group.
- Doctors use average testosterone levels in young men as the standard for determining what is normal and what is not. It’s not reliable. Individuals vary and the response to treatment is different depending on what you measure: muscle mass, strength, sexual function and so on.
- There’s a lot we don’t understand about possible benefits and risks. The chemistry is complicated. For example, 80 percent of the female hormones in men arise from a chemical reaction with testosterone. More testosterone means more female hormones.
- I suspect the most important thing we have to learn is that the basic concept was a mistake, one we’ve made before. We haven’t seemed to benefit from history. What warnings did we have?
Dr. Mulkerin goes on in his study to examine what may be causing other problems with Low T and hormone/growth therapy, which costs thousands of dollars and may have limited benefits.
Testosterone medications, like AndroGel, Androderm, Axiron, Depotestosterone, Fortesta, and Testim, could increase the percentage of red blood cells in your blood. The increase in red blood cells can cause strokes, blood clots, and possibly death.
If you or a loved one have experienced a testosterone replacement therapy injury after being diagnosed with Low T, please contact our team of lawyers today for a free case evaluation at:
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