Testosterone for Women

To all Women. Be your strongest, your healthiest, your smartest. Live your life with vitality.

Testosterone Isn’t Just for Men: Why This Hormone Is Essential for Women’s Health.” Host: Dr. Heidi Codino, ND, CNCB & Dr. Serena Russum, ND, CNCB

Invest in Your Female health program.

1. 1.Excess body fat is an insulin problem.

2. 2.Heart disease is preventable.

3. 3.Decrease in cognitive ability is avoidable.

4. 4.Live a long functional life (healthspan).

5. 5.Live and be the example.

6. 6.Lab tests and genetic testing that provide a roadmap to your health are often overlooked and or misunderstood by many professionals.

7. 7.Free consultation for qualification.

What is Testosterone?

Testosterone is an anabolic, or tissue building hormone as well as an androgenic hormone. Unsurprisingly, while men have a lot more testosterone than women, yet women certainly need it too.

Like many hormones, testosterone drops with age; however, testosterone can also be prematurely reduced (at any age) by stress, birth control pill use, diabetes, and narcotic use, along with many other reasons including brain Injuries.

Testosterone is the primary hormone responsible for libido in both men and women. Women suffering from chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, depression, and other issues often have very low testosterone levels and can improve dramatically with testosterone replacement. See below for brain injuries.

Testosterone is a key hormone for women, supporting energy, mood, libido, muscle, and overall vitality, with levels influenced by age, lifestyle, and sometimes therapy. Women generally lose ½ of their testosterone between the ages of 20 and 40. Testosterone plays a significant role in PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) and is unfortunately often treated incorrectly.

The presence of a pituitary tumor causes and overproduction of prolactin, causing loss of menstrual periods and breast milk production in women, is often overlooked.

Why Testosterone (Thoughts from Dr. Talk)

Testosterone is one of the most important hormones for women’s overall health. Although often labeled the “male hormone,” women produce more testosterone than estrogen in terms of quantity. It plays a key role in energy, motivation, mood, libido, muscle development, bone density, and brain function. Testosterone receptors exist throughout the body, meaning this hormone influences far more than just sexual health.

Low testosterone can impact many areas of life beyond libido. Symptoms of declining testosterone may include fatigue, reduced motivation, brain fog, difficulty building muscle, low libido, trouble with arousal or orgasm, thinning hair, and a general sense of apathy or low drive. Because testosterone declines gradually with age—especially during perimenopause—many women overlook it as a contributor to these symptoms.

Hormone therapy and lifestyle both play a role in supporting healthy testosterone levels. Low-dose testosterone therapy may help some women restore energy, mood, muscle strength, and sexual health when used under proper medical supervision. Lifestyle factors such as adequate sleep, resistance training, stress management, and consuming enough protein and healthy fats are also essential for supporting natural hormone production.

Chronic stress can disrupt hormonal balance, affecting thyroid health, sleep, weight, and overall resilience. Learn how stress physiology intersects with endocrine function across the female lifespan. Emily Rodriguez, CNM, APNP

Who Needs Hormone Replacement Therapy?

Aging of course is a common cause of low testosterone. Diet and the ingestion of pesticides, herbicides, and phytoestrogens (also in a variety of synthetics including cosmetics, hair shampoo, plastics, our water supply) affect testosterone production.

Virtually everyone who has diabetes, or uses narcotics regularly for pain control, has hypogonadism, i.e., low testosterone. Many women on birth control pills can have an extremely low testosterone level because of the increase in SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin) caused by the pills, which suck up all the available testosterone. Testosterone can be replaced at any age and in both sexes.

NOTE: Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) or Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI). Blows to the head, whether resulting in loss of consciousness or not, can affect the hypothalamus and pituitary functioning. This can lead to low production of testosterone and Human Growth Hormone.

Also, certain inflammatory diseases, including autoimmune diseases (e.g., Hashimoto’s), can involve the hypothalamus and pituitary gland and can affect testosterone production, causing hypogonadism (low production of testosterone).

Some of the benefits:

• Depression and anxiety can be relieved.

• Libido restored

• Motivation returned

• Energy revitalized

• Increased muscle

• Loss of Fat

There are hundreds of studies showing the medical benefits of testosterone replacement therapy. Not only is testosterone helpful for improving libido and mood, but also improving cognition, cardiac function, wound healing, muscle strength, stamina, recovery, and energy.

Proper Testing and Monitoring is Key

As is the case with many hormones, just because your testosterone is in the “normal range” does not mean it is optimal. Additionally, it is essential to check your free testosterone level in addition to your total testosterone level, due to the SHBG issue noted above. Free & Total Testosterone testing should include SHBG.

Generally speaking, you want your hormones to be in the upper-third of the normal range. Treatments should be individualized and personalized with knowledgeable health care provider.

Just going from the lower third to the upper third of the normal range can dramatically improve your quality of life. Do not settle for the “your blood tests are normal so you are fine” response from your doctor if you feel that you may be experiencing hormone imbalance. You and your mojo deserve to see a health care provider who specializes in hormone optimization.

Specialized information.

Testosterone physiology. Testosterone is produced mainly in the Leydig cells of testes in males, and in ovaries in females. In both, testosterone can be synthetized in the adrenal gland cortex (Burger, 2002; Dohle et al., 2003).

However, in addition to the classic steroidogenic organs such as gonads, adrenals and even placenta, the active biosynthesis of steroids also occurs in the brain (Mellon et al., 2001). This synthesis can be either de novo from cholesterol, or testosterone is derived from classical steroids such as deoxycorticosterone or progesterone, which enter through blood stream into nervous system. The latter one depends on the enzymatic ability of the neural region or cell.

The key regulatory enzyme is Steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (STAR) (Miller and Auchus, 2011). This phosphoprotein mediates the transfer of cholesterol from the outer to the inner mitochondrial membrane, from where cholesterol can be further processed by corresponding enzymes. The StAR gene is expressed solely in the steroidogenic tissues. However, STAR mRNA expression in a rat brain was first shown by Furukawa (Furukawa et al., 1998) and confirmed in humans and mouse brains in several regions by immunohistochemistry.

Tired, Foggy, Moody? Discover How Your Hormones Could Be the Key to Feeling "You" Again! Explore how hormonal changes can influence energy, cognition, and mood, and why identifying these shifts may be key to helping patients feel and function better. Lorraine Maita, MD.