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Testosterone Therapy: Transdermal Androgens

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Testosterone

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Abstract

Transdermal testosterone administration delivers testosterone through the intact skin surface via a patch or a permeable membrane or directly on the skin as a gel or lotion. The subcutaneous tissues serve as a depot under the skin releasing small doses of testosterone into systemic circulation, thus achieving sustained “steady state” serum testosterone levels. There is usually a small peak of serum testosterone within the first few hours after application followed by levels within the physiological adult male range for 24 hours. In some preparations, depending on the time of application, serum testosterone profile mimics normal circadian variation observed in healthy younger men. Transdermal testosterone avoids first-pass metabolism by the liver and has less effect on the lipoproteins. For many hypogonadal men, transdermal testosterone is an attractive non-provider dependent and non-invasive way for testosterone replacement. The main problems of transdermal gels/lotions is the skin to skin transfer of testosterone to women and children on close skin contact and requirement that the gels must be applied over a large skin area. Despite these issues, transdermal testosterone is the most popular method of androgen replacement in some countries such as the United States.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute, 1000 W. Carson Street, Torrance, CA, 90509, USA

    Jonas Čeponis MD, Pavan Yadav MD, Ronald S. Swerdloff MD & Christina Wang MD

  2. Division of Endocrinology, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Eiveniu 2, Kaunas, LT-50009, Lithuania

    Jonas Čeponis MD

Authors
  1. Jonas Čeponis MD
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  2. Pavan Yadav MD
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  3. Ronald S. Swerdloff MD
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  4. Christina Wang MD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christina Wang MD .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Brazilian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism (SBEM), Humaitá, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Alexandre Hohl

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Čeponis, J., Yadav, P., Swerdloff, R.S., Wang, C. (2017). Testosterone Therapy: Transdermal Androgens. In: Hohl, A. (eds) Testosterone. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46086-4_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46086-4_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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