Study identifies trends in testosterone use in young adult men

In this video, Justin Dubin, MD, discusses the study “Utilization Patterns of Testosterone Supplementation and Replacement in Young Adult Men,” which he presented at the 2024 Sexual Medicine Society of North America Fall Scientific Meeting. Dubin is a urologist with Memorial Healthcare System in Aventura, Florida.

Transcription:

Given the significant differences in usage patterns observed across racial and insurance status groups, could you elaborate on the potential underlying factors that contribute to these disparities?

When we were looking at the people in our study, men under 40, we did see there was a large portion of African American younger men under the age of 40 who were taking testosterone replacement supplements or testosterone boosters. We also saw there was a large portion of uninsured people, and I think that really stands to show us how people are getting these things. A lot of the people we know are not getting it from urologists. They're getting it from friends, they're getting it from family. They're getting it from direct to consumer, which is often cash based. And so we really need to educate our patients, or men in general, about the risks and benefits of these therapies, so at least if they can't even come see us, we can at least give them the opportunity to know what they're getting into. Because when we know that a lot of men are doing things like SARMS, they're doing a lot of things like anabolic steroids, we know that they're probably not getting these things from a true health care provider. And if we can educate them on those risks of taking those things, we can hopefully motivate them to actually see the people that they should be seeing.

This transcript was AI generated and edited by human editors for clarity.