Taking Testosterone Shots. Can Vit. D3 Increase Testosterone Level And Cause Reddening Of Facial Skin?

Posted on Sun, 21 Apr 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 Answered on

Fri, 10 May 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : Does Vit. D3 increase testosterone levels when patient is taking testosterone shots in sesame oil and and do the side effects include reddening of facial skin to deep almost purple red?Patient is taking 0.5 ML of testosterone weekly and 5,000 IU Vit. D3 daily. He coughs because he can't swallow saliva of mucous and face turns red. Face used to go back to normal color (more or less white) but lately it stays red. The Vit. D at 5,000 IU was added to his diet recently. Is the reddening of face indicative of something more serious? He does not talk so can't get any feedback from him, but he frowns a lot and looks uncomfortable, tries to touch his face.

Answered by Dr. Seikhoo Bishnoi (4 hours later)

Hello
Welcome to XXXXXXX

Vitamin D3 Cholecalciferole. It is oral form of vitamin D used in a number of conditions. Its chemical structure has similarities with Testosterone.
Testosterone is known to cause facial reddening or facial flushing in a significant number of patients taking it. When any individual coughs mild form of facial plethora is common, and in patients taking testosterone is a little bit more.
Even Vitamin D is known to cause headache, redness, hypercalcemia further potentiates it.
So as he is taking both medicines together, this may be the reason behind his prolonged facial redness. I would advise you to get his Serum Calcium levels checked. If levels come in higher range then most likely bone mass is dissolving and there is need for a little dose adjustment. Levels of ionic calcium above 11 should be alarming in his case.

Hope I cleared your doubt, if you have more questions you can ask again.

Thanks
Dr. Seikhoo Bishnoi, MD

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar