The endocrine pharmacology of testosterone therapy in men.

The review starts off by outlining the history of the discovery of the male sex hormone testosterone and the historical background to the various, often dubious, approaches to the treatment of age-related endocrine disorders in older men. A discussion of congenital androgen deficiency in young men is followed by methods of diagnosing hypogonadism in older men. Among therapeutic options, the alternatives to direct testosterone replacement are discussed, although none of them have proved to be particularly successful in clinical practice. For testosterone replacement itself, various routes of administration and pharmaceutical formulations are now available, facilitating good monitoring and individualized therapy.