THURSDAY, June 3, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Testosterone therapy can improve non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in obese men with functional hypogonadism and type 2 diabetes, according to a study presented May 25 at the 23rd European Congress of Endocrinology.
Kristina Groti Antonic, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, and colleagues examined the effects of testosterone therapy on morphology and grade of NAFLD in a two-year trial involving 55 obese men with functional hypogonadism and type 2 diabetes. Participants were randomly assigned to receive 1,000 mg of testosterone undecanoate (TU) for both years of the study or to receive placebo in the first year and TU in the second year (28 and 27 participants, respectively).
The researchers found that after two years of TU, liver assessment showed statistically significant improvement in NAFLD grades. Testosterone therapy normalized testosterone levels within the first year, and after the second year of the study, they remained in the normal range. During the two-year trial, there were no adverse events or side effects for TU.
“Our study shows that testosterone therapy could be used as a suitable therapy for obese men living with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and therefore the findings can be used to tackle this growing pandemic,” Groti Antonic said in a statement.
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