Metabolic Response of Aged Men to Testosterone Propionate12

Abstract

Testosterone propionate, 25 mg. daily intramusc, reduced the urinary excretion of N, inorganic P, sulfate and N in two 76-year-old [male][male] and caused an increase in body wt. Urinary K was decreased in 1 subject. Basal heat production was increased slightly, if at all. The pattern of response was much the same as in younger individuals. The amt. of N retained (25 mg./kg./day at the time of maximal effect) equaled that retained by normal young men, and was less than that retained by younger eunuchoids. Other urinary constituents were affected as much in the aged as in younger subjects, if due allowance is made for individual variations. Senescence, accordingly, does not distinctly modify the metabolic response to androgens. Such testicular insufficiency as exists in the aged may be conceived as having metabolic consequences, the functional importance of which remains to be detd.