COVID-19 Infection in Men on Testosterone Replacement Therapy

Rambhatla, Amarnath; Bronkema, Chandler J.; Corsi, Nicholas; Keeley, Jacob; Sood, Akshay; Affas, Ziad; Dabaja, Ali A.; Rogers, Craig G.; Liroff, Stephen A.; Abdollah, Firas

Men who contract Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) appear to have worse clinical outcomes compared to women which raises the possibility of androgen dependent effects. We sought to determine if testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is associated with worse clinical outcomes. Through a retrospective chart review, we identified 32 men diagnosed with COVID-19 and on TRT. They were propensity score matched to 63 men diagnosed with COVID-19 and not on TRT. Data regarding comorbidities and endpoints such as hospital admission, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, ventilator utilization, thromboembolic events, and death were extracted. Chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis tests examined differences in categorical and continuous variables, respectively. Logistic regression analysis tested the relationship between TRT status and the study endpoints. There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups and TRT was not a predictor of any of the endpoints on multivariate analysis. These results suggest that TRT is not associated with a worse clinical outcome in men diagnosed with COVID-19.