HGH with Testosterone

The receipt

Evidence on the combination

Controlled trials

Blackman et al., 2002 · Giannoulis et al., 2006 · Heatwole et al., 2025 · Salzano et al., 2019

What each does alone

• Muscle & strength · Daily shotHGHHormoneAnti-aging clinics sell it for body composition. That story began with 12 men in a 1990 study.Approved drugFDA approvedChecked Oct 5
• Libido & hormones · Weekly shotTestosteroneHormonePrescribed for low testosterone; also the original anabolic steroid. Normal is 300–1,000 ng/dL.Approved drugFDA approvedChecked Oct 23

Mechanism overlap · reasoning, not evidence

HGH

Hormone — Recombinant Human Growth Hormone (rhGH)

Testosterone

Androgen — Primary Male Sex Hormone

Reasoning, not evidence: what each is described to do says nothing about what they do together.

What the studies found

Healthy adults aged 65 to 88, 26 weeks (Blackman et al., 2002)

• What was given — 131 healthy adults (57 women, 74 men) randomized in a 2 × 2 design to GH, sex steroid (men: testosterone enanthate 100 mg every 2 weeks), both, or placebo.
• What it found — In men, lean mass rose 4.3 kg with GH plus testosterone vs 0.1 kg on placebo. Strength rose only marginally with the combination (13.5 kg, P = .05); VO2max rose with it (P < .001). Carpal tunnel symptoms were more common in men taking GH with testosterone.

Healthy men aged 65 to 80, 6 months (Giannoulis et al., 2006)

• What was given — 80 men randomized to placebo, GH (titrated to IGF-I in the upper half of the age range), a 5 mg testosterone patch, or both.
• What it found — Lean mass rose with GH and with both; total fat fell only with both; thigh muscle and aerobic capacity rose only with both; one of six strength measures improved with both. No major adverse effects.

Men with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, 24 weeks (Heatwole et al., 2025)

• What was given — 20 ambulatory men, one arm: daily rhGH plus testosterone enanthate every 2 weeks.
• What it found — Lean mass rose 2.21 kg and the 6-minute walk 37.3 m; 19 of 20 finished and none had a serious adverse event.
• Limits — No control group.

Heart failure with both hormone deficiencies (Salzano et al., 2019)

• What was given — 5 patients: a year of GH replacement, then a year of GH plus testosterone.
• What it found — Exercise capacity and handgrip strength improved further after testosterone was added; no adverse effects or cardiovascular events were reported.
• Limits — 5 patients, no control group; the authors call it hypothesis-generating.