‘Low T’ and the Peril of Medicating Grumpy Old Men

Los Angeles Times - In this op-ed, Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz discuss a recent article they wrote in JAMA Internal Medicine that looks at how marketing advertisers target middle-aged men with low testosterone, or "low T." "By targeting men worried about weight, muscle tone, energy levels, mood and sexual satisfaction, the campaigns imply that treatment will help them become thinner, more muscular, more energetic, less grumpy and more sexually satisfied," they write. "But there's a big problem: We really don't know if diagnosing and treating 'low T' does any good. More important, there is some evidence it may cause harm." Schwartz and Woloshin are both professors of medicine and of community and family medicine, as well as co-directors of the Medicine and the Media program. Read more...