Have you noticed a recent deterioration in your ability to play sports? Are you falling asleep after dinner?
Those are just two of the questions in the “Is it Low T?” symptom quiz “Supported by AbbVie,” the pharma company that markets Androgel — testosterone replacement therapy — for the treatment of androgen deficiency, a condition that AbbVie marketers have renamed “LowT.”
“If you answered ‘yes’ to questions 1 or 7, or to at least three of the other questions,” says AbbVie, “your symptoms may be caused by Low T.”
Jeez! I answered “Yes” to 7 out of 10 of these questions? What about you? Did you take the quiz?
Regardless of whether or not you have taken the quiz, just asking these questions may set up expectations that treatment of “LowT” will solve all these problems and give you stronger erections, allow you to stay awake after dinner regardless of your otherwise boring life, and enable you to be a better baseball umpire — as seen on Androgel’s TV ads — despite the fact that you never played sports in your entire life.
According to Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD, Associate Professor at Georgetown University Medical Center and Director of PharmedOut, who I recently interviewed, this is just clever marketing for a treatment of a natural life condition. Listen to a snippet of her interview here:
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PharmedOut will have more revelations about Low T marketing — including the confessions of a reformed “ghostwriter” — at its “Medical Behavior in a Commercial World: Who is Responsible?” conference in June 2013.
I’m “sad and/or grumpy” (#6) and will experience a “decrease in my enjoyment of life” (#5) because I will not be able to attend this conference!
