Question: I am a man of 72 and I suffer from emphysema. I’m very weak, with little energy or sex drive. Should I be tested for low testosterone?

Dr. Hibberd’s answer:

Fatigue and energy loss are very common complaints primary care and specialty physicians hear. Do by all means inform your doctors of your concerns, as these may also indicate serious and disabling conditions such as heart disease, stroke, infection, malignancy, and hormone or nutritional deficiency or imbalance.

Unfortunately, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, of which emphysema is the irreversible end stage) puts enormous energy demands on sufferers, who struggle just to maintain their blood oxygen saturation levels at rest — not to mention the increased effort of breathing with exertion. Knowing that any improvement in energy is likely to help you feel better, I would favor complete testing for you for quality-of-life reasons alone.

Unfortunately, the large majority of COPD emphysema patients usually have multi-system disease and testosterone therapy alone may not help them as much as it would help healthier patients boost their energy levels.