Men with chronic pain and opioid-induced androgen deficiency may find some pain relief with testosterone replacement therapy
"Androgen deficiency can be a problem in both men and women with chronic pain because opioids suppress the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. In men, testosterone levels can be reduced to the castrated range.
The idea to use testosterone replacement therapy to improve pain perception and tolerance in men with opioid-induced androgen deficiency is supported by studies of castrated animals, which have shown that the administration of testosterone alleviates pain. Also, women are generally affected more than men by acute and chronic pain"
"Mechanical pain was assessed with 10 consecutive stimuli applied with a probe to the forearm. At the 10th stimulus -- when the patient would be feeling the most pain -- -- there was a significant improvement in pain tolerance in the testosterone group relative to the placebo group.
Cold tolerance was unaffected by treatment, but the pressure pain threshold was significantly improved in the testosterone group"
