Boys Going Through Puberty Should Avoid Testosterone Boosters

Some health food stores are recommending testosterone boosters to teenage male athletes, which can adversely affect their body’s own testosterone production.

Ruth Milanaik, DO, director of the neonatal follow-up program at Cohen Children’s Medical Center, and her colleagues presented a poster during the Pediatric Academic Societies’ annual meeting last weekend about a sampling of health food store sales associates recommended testosterone boosters to some 15-year-old boys.

Testosterone boosters can be detrimental to children because they may inhibit a boy’s natural production of testosterone during a key time -- puberty.

“The best way to compete is the healthy way because the healthy way is sustainable,” Dr. Milanaik said.

She urges boys to exercise without testosterone enhancers and feel good afterwards about what they have accomplished.

“We’ve seen a lot these past few years in sports with supplements, with people in the home-run race doing everything to get ahead,” Dr. Milanaik said. “And in the end, it didn’t get anybody ahead.”

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