Hey all, welcome back to the real life pharmacology podcast. I am your host, Eric Christensen.

And today I'm going to cover testosterone. So testosterone is a medication used primarily in the setting of hypogonadism.

So essentially, this is replacement, where patients are deficient in testosterone.

Now, from a mechanistic physiological standpoint, testosterone and its derivatives are found in the body.

They are classified as an androgen. its derivatives are found in the body.

They are classified as an androgen.

And androgens are really responsible for creating, maintaining male characteristics and the development of male sex organs.

Now, you've probably heard about steroids primarily through abuse.

If you follow sports, athletics, track and field, baseball, you name the sport.

And testosterone has probably been associated with it as a potential drug to be diverted. And in addition to,

you know, those male characteristics and formation of those male sex organs,

anabolic steroids like testosterone promote muscle building. you can imagine regardless of your sport if

you're bigger faster stronger there's potential for abuse of these agents so definitely keep that

in mind with testosterone for sure.

Now, one really unique thing about testosterone

and the commercially available products of testosterone,

is there are a ton of different drug formulations.

We've got intramuscular, we've got topical testosterone,

like gels and patches, oral, injectable,

as far as we've got subcutaneous pellets, for example,

that are kind of time-re release, delayed release of testosterone.

So multiple different avenues to deliver testosterone in those patients that needed.

...