(334) Worldwide Interest in Testosterone Replacement Therapy
S Lumbiganon, M Hammad, J Miller, E Chawareb, B Azad, F Yafi- Urology
- Reproductive Medicine
- Endocrinology
- Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
- Psychiatry and Mental health
Abstract
Introduction
Testosterone therapy has gained popularity in recent decades, with various methods of administration available, such as oral, topical, injection, and implantable routes. As a wider variety of treatment options arise, knowledge regarding the public interest in varying modalities may give providers an insight to patient preferences and assist in the counseling of patients seeking to initiate testosterone replacement therapy.
Objective
To examine public interest in the different methods of testosterone administration across the United States and compare their relative popularity to intramuscular injections.
Methods
Utilizing Google Trends, data pertaining to searches related to diverse testosterone administration methods were collected over a ten-year duration. The categories under analysis encompassed 1) testosterone injections, 2) implanted testosterone, 3) oral testosterone, and 4) topical testosterone. Controlled search terms, including news and weather queries, were employed. Search term trends were quantified in arbitrary units (a.u.) and plotted against the corresponding time period.
Results
Testosterone injection had the highest average search intent from Google Trends during the past 10 years (63.08 +/- 12.7 a.u.), followed by testosterone pills (60.56 +/- 13.4 a.u.), testosterone pellets (53.14 +/- 19.4 a.u.), testosterone patches (51.03 +/- 16.2 a.u.), and lastly testosterone gel (17.29 +/- 21.5 a.u.) A notable upward trend was recorded for all searches, with the highest increase in searches seen for implanted testosterone (m = 0.433), testosterone injections (m = 0.297), oral testosterone (m = 0.222), and lastly topical testosterone (m = 0.050) (Figure 1).
Conclusions
This study provides compelling evidence that all modes of testosterone administration had increasing search trends, most notably implantable testosterone therapies followed by testosterone injections, and oral testosterone, which may be in line with recent FDA approvals since 2019 for newer oral (Jatenzo, Tlando, Kyzatrex) and implantable (ex: Xyosted) options.
Disclosure
Any of the authors act as a consultant, employee or shareholder of an industry for: Antares Pharma, Clarus Therapeutics, Coloplast.