Changes in testosterone prescribing patterns after FDA warning

The research letter by Baillargeon et al. addresses the trends of testosterone prescription in the United States between 2002 and 2016. The investigators utilized data from Clinformatics Data Mart (CDM) and reported on the records of 9,962,538 men, ages 30 and above. The trends are reported as the total percentage of men who were prescribed testosterone therapy and the percentage of new testosterone users (no use in the prior year). Furthermore, the data was stratified for new users by age and region to account for testosterone prescription variation. The investigation found that testosterone use increased from 2002 to 2012 in both total and new users and then decreased from 2013 to 2016. The decrease was evident after stratification in all four regions and age groups of new users. By virtue of this study population from a commercial insurance database, the data is limited to employed men, and therefore not generalizable to elderly men.