The bottom line is no one had looked at this until recently, but they have now done so, and it does impact your testosterone level. The main problem is in the US, where insurance companies often delay permission to buy the hormone therapy drugs - it saves them a lot of money, given they cost 25x more in the US than elsewhere. When you delay a bit every time, your testosterone level is doubled. As a once-off, that's maybe not such an issue, but not something you want to do regularly or deliberately.
Delayed LHRH Agonist Dosing Doubles Castration Levels in Prostate Cancer
The other interesting thing the underlying paper mentions if I recall correctly (it was a while ago when I read it), is that Luprorelin (Prostap in the UK) was tested on the basis of 28 day months, not calendar months it tends to be prescribed in nowadays, and even those few days makes a difference to testosterone levels.
The paper doesn't go on to say if this change in testosterone level has any impact on the effectiveness of the hormone therapy treatment. That would be another level of research which hasn't happened as far as I know. I'm wondering if the PATCH trial (using Estradiol female hormone as the hormone therapy drug) might get some incidental data on this, since they are measuring testosterone levels during treatment.
EDIT: One thing you might consider is if you think you can do the injection yourself. I did this, and it removed a level of uncertainty of getting the appointment on the right date. I was on Zoladex, which may be the easiest to self-inject (no mixing anything up, and easy self-access injection site). If you want to do this, the thing to do is to ask if you can do it yourself at your next appointment while the nurse supervises. If it goes OK, then continue doing it yourself at home if you wish to do so. In the current climate, they are going to be much more willing to let you do it than in normal times.
Edited by member 30 Dec 2020 at 11:33
| Reason: Not specified