For many decades, doctors have prescribed testosterone for the treatment of testosterone deficient males. With the advent of new technology, doctors now have to choice of gels, creams, injectibles, transdermal skin patches, subcutaneous implants, and oral capsules.

Injectibles, such as Testosterone esters (Sustanon®), must be administered every 2 to 4 weeks, customarily in doses of 250mg. Since the needle must penetrate deep into the muscle tissues, injections can be quite painful. While in the bloodstream, testosterone levels will tend to shoot up during the first week of administration and fall gradually within the next 2 to 3 weeks. The rise and fall of testosterone levels may be accompanied by a shift from symptoms associated with excess to symptoms associated with deficiency.

While longer-acting injectibles (Nebido®/Reandron®) have already become available, they are still quite painful for patients. Furthermore, these kinds of treatments result in unwanted side effects that are sometimes irreversible.

Skin patches, such as Androderm®, offers a more convenient method of assimilating testosterone into the body compared with injectibles. Since these are applied on the skin, particularly at night, the amount of testosterone is more evenly distributed, thus eliminating the symptoms associated with excess or deficient levels. Unfortunately, there have been incidences of adverse skin reactions which have warranted patients to discontinue this kind of therapy. In other cases, skin patches have led to undesirable skin discoloration, thus preventing patients from indulging in activities that expose their skin in public.

Pellets or implants are surgically inserted just beneath the skin with the use of local anesthesia. Unlike injectibles and skin patches, implants produce sustained testosterone concentrations for a period of between 4 to 6 months. Unfortunately, the need for administering this surgical procedure repeatedly can be quite costly in the long run. In some patients, the implants may cause irritation or infection that could necessitate another procedure to extract the implant prematurely.

Oral capsules, such as Andriol®, are more convenient to take but the intake of up to eight capsules daily does not guarantee consistent levels of Testosterone in the body due to the erratic absorption patterns of the digestive system. Furthermore, the medication sometimes irritates the gastro-intestinal tract which makes it unsuitable for many kinds of patients.

Topical transdermal gels and creams, such as AndroGel®/Testogel®, Testim® 1%, Andromen®/Andromen® Forte 2%, and 5% Testosterone Cream, require daily application. While this patient-friendly therapy produces satisfactory results in the long term, it surprisingly comes with fewer side effects. For this reason, gels and creams have replaced other forms of testosterone therapy to a large extent.

Patients need only to apply the cream in a smaller skin compared to the gel because creams contain more testosterone. Ideally a patient should apply the medication to the scrotal area which results in the best serum level of testosterone. Since gels are alcohol-based, they produce a burning sensation when applied to the genitalia.

A recent medical paper established which compared the cost effectiveness versus efficacy of currently available testosterone treatments determined that the testosterone cream, Andromen® Forte 5% (Lawley Pharmaceuticals, Australia) was the most affordable and effective testosterone therapy currently available. 

Download  Andromen Study Results (PDF 240KB)

Download Prescribing Information on Andromen® Forte 5% Testosterone Cream (PDF 163KB)

Download Consumer Medicine Information on Andromen® Forte 5% Testosterone Cream (PDF 161KB)

     Andromen Forte 50gms 5% Testosterone $100

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Download Andromen Forte® Product Information (PDF 163KB) 

Download Andromen Forte® Consumer Medication Information (PDF 161KB)