The invention relates to a method of reducing chronic inflammatory pain in a human subject with androgen deficiency symptoms comprising transdermally administering a pain-reducing amount of a composition comprising a bioactive androgen to the subject on a daily basis. The invention relates to a method of increasing the pain threshold of a human subject having symptoms of androgen deficiency comprising transdermally administering a composition comprising a pain threshold-increasing amount of a bioactive androgen to the subject with androgen deficiency symptoms on a daily basis. The invention may be used to treat males and females in order to alleviate chronic inflammatory pain or to raise the subject's pain threshold. The invention also relates to increasing the levels of endogenous opioid peptides in a human subject by administering an androgen composition to the subject.