PROJECT
Male Hormone Therapy: Comparing MENT^® with Testosterone

MENT (7α-methyl-19-nortestosterone) is the Population Council's trademark for a synthetic androgen (a testosterone-like hormone) for hormone therapy and for male contraception. MENT has been identified as a suitable candidate for these indications because it suppresses gonadotropin secretion, which leads to suppression of testosterone and sperm production in the testes.

At the same time, MENT replaces testosterone to maintain primary and secondary sex characteristics. MENT has an added advantage in that it does not overstimulate the prostate, a drawback that occurs with testosterone administered for therapy. Because MENT is ten times as potent as testosterone, the doses required are lower than the commercially available testosterone preparations, making it feasible to administer the compound via long-acting subdermal implants.

A study in men with male-hormone deficiency (hypogonadal men), showed that two MENT implants may provide adequate replacement therapy for most androgen-dependent functions. The men in the study preferred the implants to the standard therapy involving multiple injections of a testosterone derivative.

Schering, to whom the Population Council has licensed MENT, is investigating the product in the form of a gel for hypogonadal men.

---

Location

Chile, Dominican Republic, Germany, United Kingdom, United States

Population Council researchers

Narender Kumar, Frederick Schmidt, Régine Sitruk-Ware, Irving Sivin

Non-Council collaborators

Richard Anderson, David T. Baird (MRC Reproductive Biology Unit, Edinburgh)

Horacio Croxatto (Instituto Chileno de Medicina Reproductiva, Chile)

Eberhard Nieschlag (University of Münster, Germany)

Christina Wang (University of California, Los Angeles)

Donors

The Lita Annenberg Hazen Foundation

The George J. Hecht Fund

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Publications/Resources
Council researchers' names appear in boldface type. 

2003
Anderson, Richard A., A. Michael Wallace, Naveed Sattar, Narendar Kumar, and Kalyan Sundaram. "Evidence for tissue selectivity of the synthetic androgen 7α-methyl-19-nortestosterone in hypogonadal men," Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 88(6): 2784–2793. (abstract) (offsite full text)

---

See Also

• Related Projects

  • MENT, Not Method-specific

  • Subdermal Implants

  • Transdermal Delivery Systems

• International Committee for Contraception Research

• Microbicides

• Product Research and Development

Offsite Link

• Schering AG

---