Growth Hormone and Testosterone for Anti-Aging in Panama: Evidence

Complete guide: GH secretagogues: a complete guide to evidence and safety

The question in Panama: do hormones work as anti-aging therapy?

In Panama, anti-aging medicine has become a frequent topic in the consulting room, and two hormones dominate the question: growth hormone and testosterone. This article separates three things that are often mixed up: what trials show in older adults, what changed in 2025-2026 on the testosterone label of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and what that does not mean. It is information for physicians; we do not recommend or describe uses in people.

A note on scope: we found no Panamanian cases to report and no national clinical guideline on anti-aging hormones. What we did find is press coverage of testosterone patch use among women¹⁴¹⁵. For the general registration and prescribing framework, see our legal guide for the physician and the analysis of longevity clinics in Panama.

Growth hormone: what the systematic review found

The most cited reference is the systematic review by Liu and colleagues in Annals of Internal Medicine (2007). It included 31 articles describing 18 study populations, with elderly (mean age 69) and overweight (mean BMI 28 kg/m²) participants. In those given growth hormone, fat mass fell by 2.1 kg and lean body mass rose by 2.1 kg versus untreated participants, while weight did not change significantly¹.

The authors also recorded more soft tissue edema, arthralgias, carpal tunnel syndrome and gynecomastia, and somewhat more diabetes mellitus and impaired fasting glucose. They acknowledged limitations: some outcomes were measured infrequently or inconsistently and most studies were small. Their conclusion: growth hormone cannot be recommended as an anti-aging therapy¹.

A 26-week controlled trial in 131 healthy adults aged 65 to 88 showed a similar pattern: growth hormone raised lean mass and lowered fat, but strength changed little; among men, 18 treated with growth hormone developed diabetes or glucose intolerance versus 7 without it².

The FDA's position on growth hormone

FDA import alert 66-71 is blunt: approved growth hormone can be legally prescribed for a limited number of conditions, including treatment of adults with growth hormone deficiency; but “The Secretary of HHS has not authorized, for example, any HGH use for anti-aging, bodybuilding, or athletic enhancement”⁹. This is a US regulator's stance, not a Panamanian one.

Testosterone: the 2025 FDA shift and the 2026 proposal

On February 28, 2025 the FDA recommended removing from the boxed warning the language on increased risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes for all testosterone products, adding the TRAVERSE results, adding a warning about increased blood pressure, and retaining the “Limitation of Use” language for age-related hypogonadism⁸.

TRAVERSE enrolled 5,246 men aged 45 to 80 with symptoms of hypogonadism and preexisting or high risk of cardiovascular disease. The primary outcome (cardiovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction or nonfatal stroke) occurred in 7.0% on testosterone and 7.3% on placebo (hazard ratio 0.96; 95% CI, 0.78–1.17), meeting noninferiority. There was also more atrial fibrillation, acute kidney injury and pulmonary embolism in the treated group⁶.

On June 18, 2026 the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), with the FDA, announced it is beginning the process of updating testosterone prescribing information. The proposed changes would remove the limitation of use for age-related hypogonadism, narrow the contraindication to metastatic prostate cancer and revise the benign prostatic hyperplasia warnings¹⁰¹¹. These are proposals: we found no final label changes¹³.

What trials show in older adults

The Testosterone Trials (790 men aged 65 or older, total testosterone below 275 ng/dL and symptoms) found moderate improvement in sexual function and some benefit in mood and depressive symptoms, but no benefit in vitality or walking distance; the number of participants was too small to draw conclusions about risk⁴. In a two-year study of 87 older men with low levels (27 received testosterone), low-dose testosterone had no physiologically relevant effects on body composition, physical performance, insulin sensitivity or quality of life³.

The earlier warning signal came from a trial in 209 men aged 65 or older with mobility limitations: it was stopped because of more cardiovascular events in the testosterone group (23 versus 5), though the authors cautioned that its small size and unique population prevented broader inferences⁵. The much larger TRAVERSE did not confirm that excess in its primary composite outcome⁶.

Guidelines: diagnosis before treatment

The Endocrine Society guideline recommends diagnosing hypogonadism only in men with symptoms and signs consistent with deficiency and unequivocally and consistently low testosterone, measured fasting in the morning and confirmed with a repeat measurement⁷. That matches the specialists quoted after the 2026 announcement: according to urologist Jamin Brahmbhatt, testosterone is “a medical therapy, not a wellness drug”¹³.

Panama: what exists and what does not

In Panama, TVN Noticias reported in July 2025 growing use of testosterone patches among women who exercise and want to lose weight. Endocrine gynecologist Carmen Troya warned that unsupervised use can alter triglycerides and cholesterol and cause fatty liver, and that in women excessive doses “can produce irreversible changes,” such as a deeper voice and hirsutism¹⁴. Panamá América, in a 2021 note, relayed Mayo Clinic specialist Yvonne Butler Tobah's warning that testosterone preparations are not FDA-approved for women and that long-term safety is unknown¹⁵.

We found no alert from the Dirección Nacional de Farmacia y Drogas (DNFD) of the Ministry of Health (Minsa) specific to anti-aging hormones, and no Panamanian press coverage of hormone clinics of that kind. Any product prescribed or imported must meet current registration rules; see importing medicines without registration in Panama and the growth hormone secretagogue guide.

What to remember

• Growth hormone in healthy older adults changes body composition by a few kilograms and is associated with more adverse events¹².
• Testosterone in older men with low levels and symptoms moderately improves sexual function, with no benefit in vitality or walking distance in the Testosterone Trials⁴.
• The June 2026 proposals are not in force until the FDA approves label changes¹⁰¹¹¹³.
• The FDA does not approve growth hormone for anti-aging⁹, and the limitation of use for age-related hypogonadism remains in the current label⁸.