Possible Heart Effects

How does androgen deprivation therapy, or ADT, affect your heart?

It can increase heart and blood vessel problems by:

• Raising cholesterol levels
• Raising blood sugar levels
• Reducing the body's ability to process sugar
• Increasing body fat
• Reducing muscle mass
• Increasing the thickness of the walls of blood vessels

Having higher levels of blood sugar and difficulty processing blood sugar can cause diabetes. If you have diabetes, you are more likely to develop heart disease or have a stroke.

In men with prostate cancer who already have a buildup of plaque—made up of cholesterol, fatty substances and calcium—in their arteries (atherosclerosis), ADT might increase the chance that patients may suffer from a heart attack.