A Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Testosterone Gel

Subjects received a starting dose of 46 mg (two actuations) of testosterone gel (2%) daily in the morning. The dose was further titrated (increased or decreased - three actuations [69 mg] or single actuation [23 mg], respectively) based on serum testosterone concentrations.

Testosterone gel was applied using an applicator, to the shoulder/upper arm in a contralateral fashion.

Data collected from the five domains of sexual functions were summarized by descriptive statistics. The domains are:

1. Erectile function (6 items, questions 1-5 and 15) (Score range: 1-30)
2. Orgasmic function (2 items, questions 9-10) (Score range: 0-10)
3. Sexual desire (2 items, questions 11-12) (Score range: 2-10)
4. Intercourse satisfaction (3 items, questions 6-8) (Score range: 0-15)
5. Overall satisfaction (2 items, questions 13-14) (Score range: 2-10)

A score of 0-5 is awarded to questions 1 to 10 and a score of 1-5 is awarded to questions 11 to 15. Total score was calculated by summing up scores of each domain and ranged from 5 to 75. Low score indicates severe dysfunction and a high score indicates no dysfunction in sexual function.

The MAF contains four sub-domains:

1. Severity (2 items, questions 1-2) (Score range: 2-20)
2. Distress (1 item, question 3) (Score range: 1-10)
3. Degree of interference in activities of daily living (11 items, questions 4-14) (Score range: 11-110)
4. Timing (2 items, questions 15-16) (Score range: 5-20)

A score of 1-10 is awarded to each of the 14 questions across the 3 domains. The timing domain is categorical and was converted to 1-10 scale by multiplying each score by 2.5. Lower score in each domain indicates improvement in fatigue.

To calculate GFI : Score of question 15 is converted to a 0-10 scale by multiplying each score by 2.5 and then sum questions 1, 2, 3, average of 4-14, and newly scored question 15. A score of zero is assigned to question 2-16, if patient select 'no fatigue' to question 1. Question 16 is not included in GFI calculation. Range of GFI: 1 (no fatigue) to 50 (severe fatigue).

The data were presented using descriptive statistics.

Data collected from the SF-12 questionnaire was used to assess improvement in the psychometrically-based physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS). Both PCS and MCS contains four sub-domains:

PCS: General Health (1 item), Physical Functioning (2 items), Role-Physical (2 items), Bodily Pain (1 item)

MCS: Role-Emotional (2 items), Mental Health (2 items), Vitality (1 item), Social Functioning (1 item)

The scale scores are calculated by summing responses across scale items and then transforming these raw scores to a 0-100 scale. Computerized scoring algorithms are used to produce norm-based scores for each scale (mean of 50 and standard deviation of 10) as well as the PCS and MCS summary scores. A zero score indicates the lowest level of health measured by the scales and 100 indicates the highest level of health.

The data were presented using descriptive statistics.