Has anybody had testosterone shots after hormone therapy?

This is a good question, Lloyd. Hormone therapy, also called androgen suppression therapy, reduces the levels of male hormones, called androgens, in the body, to stop them from fueling prostate cancer cells. The most well known androgen, of course, is testosterone. I'd like to bring fellow members @waynen @norske46 @john57 @ken82 and @klaken into this discussion too.

I would've thought taking testosterone supplements after prostate cancer would be playing with fire, especially after trying to suppress the production of testosterone. But to my surprise, it is being studied. The jury is out on whether it is safe and under what conditions. This article explains more:
- Can You Take Testosterone If You Have Prostate Cancer? https://www.verywellhealth.com/can-prostate-cancer-patients-take-testosterone-4135428
- [Study 2019] Impact of testosterone replacement therapy after radical prostatectomy on prostate cancer outcomes. https://ascopubs.org/doi/abs/10.1200/JCO.2019.37.7_suppl.100

Lloyd, if I'm reading your timeline right, you finished prostate cancer treatments about 7 years ago (prostectomy, radiation, and hormone therapy). Now you're wondering if it's safe for you to take testosterone. Have you discussed this with your oncologist?

hi i would like to weigh in here if i may.before i was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year, my urologist gave me a testosterone supplement because i had a low level of testosterone but i stopped some time in april or may i was diagnosed in august. and had surgery in october
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My treatment was 3 six month doses of Lupron and proton beam radiation 2 months after the first. My recollection is that my radiation oncologist told me not to consider testosterone supplements after my treatments, but to let my testosterone come back naturally. Now, I'm not sure why he said that, but I know he's very research-based. I haven't seen any research, but your doctor should know if it exists. Perhaps it could artificially inflate your psa, which is the key indicator in determining if your cancer is returning. In two months, I will come to the end of my lupron treatments. It will take 6 to 18 months for my testosterone levels come back to a normal level.

20 years ago I had a endocrinologist prescribed testosterone shots.. my urologist cautioned me and within 6 shots I quit them.. A few years later I had to start having prostate biopsies... because of high PSA numbers..over the next 10 years an 5 various kinds of biopsies...I had the PC diagnosed.. so if Lupron reduces the size of the prostate. By reducing the amount of testosterone in the body... Certainly correlation is Not causation.. but increasing testosterone purposely is taking a long leap into untested areas.. I couldn't imagine any responsible researcher doing a clinical trial of increasing testosterone after extensive prostate cancer treatments.. Ken

I had low testosterone and was prescribed Androgel. Used it for a long time. Developed Stage 3 PC at 56 years old. My wife firmly believes it was from the testosterone increase earlier. I have no idea. I have just finished 2 years on Lupron.

We haven't discussed adding back testosterone. I am currently working to contain and suppress the cancer. I don't want anything to get in the way of that.

ONCOLOGIST DOES NOT RECOMEND BUT WOULD GIVE ME A SCRIP IF I WANTED TO TRY IT..I WAS TOLD AFTER MY LAST RADIATION THAT I CAN'T HAVE ANY MORE ..SO IF IT CAME BACK I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU WOULD CONTROL IT.. MY GENERAL DOCTOR TOLD ME TO TRY IT. HE THINKS SOMETHING ELSE AT MY AGE OF 84 WILL GET ME BEFORE THE CANCER. A REAL GUESSING GAME...…….

"Testosterone is lighter fluid for prostate cancer," unquote, I was told by one of my clinicians. I'm not a clinician, but from what I've come to understand as I deal with my own PC, I'd think long and hard before deciding it was worth the risk.

I was diagnosed with PC in 2014. I refused radiation and surgery. I chose FLA - Focal Laser Ablation as I found it to be the lease invasive. Anyway in 2018 my cancer had returned so I did another FLA treatment and I followed up with Lupron as well I used the RSO protocol. I am still on Lupron and the relevance my reply is that the Dr told me that at sometime it’s possible that Lupron will quit working. So I continued my research on the Net and did run across an article that was studying whether testosterone shots could help with the effectiveness of Lupron. My recollection of the articles seemed like15-30 days after the Testo shots the resumption of Lupron was positive.