Mesterolone 25 mg

Mesterolone is a man-made male sex hormone. It is closely related to the natural hormone that the body makes from testosterone in the skin, the prostate and other tissues. Your doctor has prescribed it because your body is making too little male hormone — this can happen with age, after an illness affecting the testicles, or when tests have shown low hormone levels. Unlike most hormone tablets of this kind, mesterolone is not changed in the body into a female hormone, so breast tenderness is less common with it. It is a prescription medicine, chosen for your situation only.

Read this section before you take your first tablet, and tell your doctor about your other conditions and medicines.

Warnings and precautions

• +Talk to your doctor before using it if you have or have had prostate trouble. Before you start, and regularly during treatment, your doctor will examine your prostate and may take a blood test, because male hormones can make an existing prostate problem or an undetected prostate cancer grow faster.
• +Talk to your doctor before using it if you have heart failure, high blood pressure, kidney or liver disease, epilepsy or migraine, because holding on to water can make these worse. Your doctor will check your liver with blood tests during treatment even though mesterolone is gentler on the liver than most hormone tablets that are swallowed.
• +Talk to your doctor before using it if you have a history of blood clots or if your blood is unusually thick; your blood count will be checked from time to time.
• +Tell your doctor if you snore heavily or stop breathing in your sleep, as male hormones can make sleep apnoea worse, particularly if you are overweight or have a lung condition.
• +If this medicine is for a boy or a young man who is still growing, the doctor will check bone growth with X-rays, because male hormones can stop the bones growing too early.
• +This medicine does not treat infertility and it can lower your own hormone production if used long term; tell your doctor if you are trying to father a child.
• +Never take this medicine to build muscle or improve sporting performance, and never pass it on to anyone else.

Other medicines and Mesterolone

Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you take, have recently taken or may take any other medicine, including ones bought without a prescription and herbal products. It particularly matters if you take: blood-thinning medicines such as warfarin, because male hormones can strengthen their effect and cause bleeding, so your clotting will need checking more often; medicines for diabetes, including insulin, as your blood sugar may fall and your doses may need adjusting; and steroid tablets such as prednisolone, which together with this medicine make you retain more water.

Pregnancy, breastfeeding and fertility

This medicine is for men. It must not be taken by women who are pregnant, who may become pregnant or who are breastfeeding, because male hormones can harm an unborn baby, particularly the development of a baby girl. In men, mesterolone may reduce the number of sperm you make and so make it harder to father a child; if fertility matters to you, discuss this with your doctor before you start.

Driving and using machines

Mesterolone is not expected to affect your ability to drive or to use tools and machines. If you feel dizzy or have a headache after taking it, wait until you feel normal again before driving or using machines.

Always take this medicine exactly as your doctor has told you; check with your doctor or pharmacist if you are unsure. Swallow the tablets whole with a glass of water; it is easier on the stomach if you take them after a meal. How many tablets you take and when is decided by your doctor and written on your pharmacy label — never change it yourself. If you forget a dose, take it when you remember unless your next dose is nearly due, in which case skip the missed one. Never take a double dose to make up. Do not stop treatment on your own; your symptoms may come back. If you take too many tablets, contact your doctor or your nearest hospital and take the carton with you.

Like all medicines, this medicine can cause side effects, although not everybody gets them.

Other possible side effects

• +acne and oily skin
• +more frequent or longer-lasting erections, especially early in treatment
• +increased interest in sex
• +needing to pass urine more often, or difficulty starting to pass urine
• +tender or slightly enlarged breast tissue (less common than with other hormone tablets)
• +feeling sick or stomach discomfort
• +headache
• +mood changes, restlessness or difficulty sleeping
• +fluid retention with slightly swollen ankles
• +changes in your blood count or liver blood tests

Keep this medicine out of the sight and reach of children. Store below 25 °C in the original blister or container, protected from light and damp. Do not use this medicine after the expiry date printed on the carton and blister; the expiry date is the last day of that month. Do not use a tablet if the blister is damaged or the tablet is broken or discoloured. Do not put medicines down the toilet or in your household rubbish — return anything you no longer need to your pharmacist.

The active substance is mesterolone. The strength of your tablets, in milligrams, is printed on the carton and on the blister. The other ingredients are lactose, maize starch, povidone, methylcellulose, magnesium stearate and colloidal silica; the full list is on your carton, so check it if you have been told you cannot tolerate certain sugars. The tablets are white, round and uncoated. They come in aluminium blister strips inside a carton, or in bulk containers, in pack sizes from 10 to 100 tablets; not all pack sizes may be available in your country. Every carton carries a printed verification code and a GS1 DataMatrix square, which can be checked at ergopharm.net/verify to confirm the pack is genuine. Manufactured under GMP conditions by Ergopharm, Vadodara, Gujarat, India.