Being more macho may have advantages, but prevention of blood clots isn’t one of them, according to a study linking endogenous testosterone to thromboembolism.

The UK researchers used data from 392,000 men and women to see whether having genes predisposing to higher testosterone levels resulted in more or fewer thromboembolic events.

They found that men who had genes favouring high testosterone were indeed more prone.

In fact, the higher men’s predicted testosterone levels were, the more likely they were to have a venous thromboembolism, arterial embolism or thrombosis, reported the researchers in the BMJ.