A few women have asked about the use of Testosterone to balance our hormones.
Here is the low down on Testosterone from the scientific to the human levels.
No one in the medical community talked about testosterone in women until Susan Rako, MD wrote The Hormone of Desire in 1996. In her book, Dr. Rako linked decreased sexual desire as it occurs around menopause, to decreasing levels of testosterone in the blood stream.
In 1996, this was big news. The medical community didn’t even think women had any testosterone in their bloodstream, let alone the fact that sex drive may be connected to testosterone levels. Keep in mind, too many people still think testosterone is the male hormone and everything testosterone is male. So when you think of taking testosterone you are conditioned to worry your voice will get lower and your chin will sprouting a beard. Not quite.
For all the women who want to know the facts and want to try to use testosterone to feel great and stay young without placing themselves into danger, here are the facts as they stand today February 9, 2005:
- Testosterone is the third sex hormone: estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. They are all made from cholesterol and they all exist in both women and men. The difference is the amounts of hormones made by the body. Women have more estrogen and progesterone, men have more testosterone.
- Testosterone is responsible for muscle mass development, sex drive, outlook (positive), drive and aggression (positive and negative). It has the same effect in both men and women. Remember, it only changes due to amounts made by the body.
- Testosterone is made in the ovaries and adrenal glands in women and the testicles and adrenal glands in men. (Look at your fixed dog to prove the point. After the testicles are removed, the dog still has a sex drive. Where is the testosterone coming from? The adrenal glands)
- When we get older (not that any of us do), as our thyroid, estrogen, progesterone and basically everything else decreases, so does our testosterone. As testosterone production decreases, our sex drive, muscle building capacity, outlook, drive, etc. also decrease. You don’t have to be a woman to figure this out. Look at your hubby on the couch growing a beer belly and giving up on making plans to change the world.
- Testosterone is safe and helpful to you if you want to keep your libido going and you don’t want the skin to sag too badly too soon.
- Testosterone supplementation works best in cream, gels, spray and intramuscular injection forms. It does not work in tablet form. The stomach destroys the testosterone and the body does not get what it needs via the tablet form. Injections are painful and thus not highly recommended. Patches are usually made of synthetic testosterone and their absorption is unpredictable and often causes rashes.
- Do not use synthetic preparations of testosterone. You can get natural/bioidentical testosterone from compounding pharmacies. Your doctor can write the prescription for you. Bioidentical testosterone is made from soy and yam oils just like bioidentical estradiol and micronized progesterone. Pharmaceutical processes of concentration and purification transform the oils into testosterone powder which is mixed into transdermal creams. It gets properly absorbed and it’s easy to apply
- I prefer my patients use the clitoris and the area outside the vagina for application. The location serves us well for two reasons: there are lots of cellular receptors in the area for testosterone and the application stimulates the area and makes us want to have sex.
- We do not grow whiskers or lower our voice timber when we use the testosterone wisely.
While testosterone may not be the only hormone of desire (you need to find the guy or gal sexy and you may also need to have a lot less stress in your life), it is a good start. Please do not hesitate to ask me more about it. (Comments are open so please join in!)
