Dr. 50 Something

S1 E8 Wonder Woman's Secret Weapon - Testosterone!

• Nicole Norris MD • Season 1 • Episode 8

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Testosterone might be your body's most underrated secret weapon. As a 51-year-old physician, I discovered my own testosterone level was a mere 11 – nowhere near the optimal 150-250 range women typically enjoy in their 20s. That revelation changed everything about how I approach aging and women's health.

Most women have no idea that their testosterone levels begin declining in their early 30s, reaching their lowest around menopause and remaining there without intervention. This gradual decline directly impacts energy, muscle mass, cognitive function, mood, libido, and even physical appearance. The transformative benefits of optimizing testosterone are shocking: increased muscle definition, improved metabolism, better workout recovery, enhanced memory, reduced depression and anxiety, and even protection against breast cancer, dementia, and heart disease. Perhaps most surprising is testosterone's ability to stimulate collagen and elastin production – effectively addressing skin aging concerns that expensive creams and procedures often fail to resolve.

From improved sexual function to stronger bones, nearly every aspect of a woman's health improves with proper testosterone levels. Yet conventional medicine rarely addresses this critical hormone in women. Testing through traditional channels can cost $800 and take weeks for results, while meaningful treatment options remain limited since no FDA-approved testosterone products exist specifically for women in the US. My approach using body-identical testosterone cream provides benefits that injections and pellet therapy simply can't match, including cardiovascular protection and breast cancer risk reduction. 

Wondering if your testosterone is low? Chances are excellent that it is if you're over 35. Taking control of your hormone health could be the missing piece in your quest to feel energetic, strong, and vibrant at any age. Follow this podcast for more insights that will transform how you experience midlife and beyond.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Dr 50-something podcast. I'm your host, dr Nicole Norris. Whether you are in the midst of midlife or you want to prevent the physical and mental signs of aging that occur in midlife, this is the podcast for you. This is a show where I share my knowledge gleaned in family practice, preventative medicine and aesthetic medicine, to shed light on aging or, better yet, how not to feel or look like you are aging. We should be taking an active role in how we age from an early age. We should not settle with growing old gracefully or letting nature take its course. How we age directly affects our confidence, which impacts all of our relationships with those around us. The length of time in our lives that we feel really good in terms of energy, aches and pains and thought clarity has a definite impact on the mark we can leave on this world. My wish for my listeners is to always be mistaken for being 50-something or less in mind. Action and appearance let's go. I love testosterone and I think every woman should have theirs checked. I am a 51-year-old woman and last year I had my testosterone level checked for the first time. It was 11. What should it be for you as a woman? Well, that depends if you are talking normal for your age or normal when you felt your best in your 20s, when it was optimal and, of course, in my opinion, an optimal testosterone for a female at any age is probably 150 to 250, what it was when you were in your 20s and early 30s. So last year when I had mine checked, I was 239 points away from feeling like Wonder Woman, because now that's what I feel like. Since then, I have checked at least 100 women's testosterone levels between the ages of 35 and, let's say, 80, and I have yet to find one that is optimal, what it's supposed to be. So why do I love testosterone and think every woman should have theirs checked? Let me just go through this list of potential benefits that you can get from testosterone optimization and then you tell me you would not want every single one of them, and on purpose. I'm going to tell you all the ones first that have nothing to do with the fact that it is a sex hormone. So first, improved energy and sense of well-being, which translates to fewer naps and getting more out of life A zest for life. I didn't really know what that really meant a zest for life until I started replacing my testosterone.

Speaker 1:

Another amazing benefit is the ability to build muscle. More muscles increase your metabolism. Therefore you become thinner in terms of less body fat Not just the kind that you can see, but also the kind that you can't see that, as we age, grows on your organs. That's called visceral fat, and visceral fat is detrimental to our overall health because visceral fat causes insulin resistance and eventually diabetes in many people. And the scary part is you can look thin and look like you don't have a lot of subcutaneous fat, but you can still have visceral fat on your organs.

Speaker 1:

Now also more muscle mass. It can translate into you having better workouts and just overall more strength to do what you want to do. You can actually start seeing a visible bicep or tricep, and I'm actually seeing that myself, doing the same workouts, having the same protein-focused diet that I had before I was on testosterone replacement, but before it didn't really seem to be doing anything. So more muscle mass also means you're going to recover better from workouts, fewer sore muscles and also just fewer sore muscles after doing something that you love, like working in the garden all day. Patients with normal testosterone levels also have better balance because they have more muscle mass and they have less risk of falling. Testosterone creates a better mood and it actually can reverse some forms of depression and anxiety. I've actually witnessed this in some of my own patients who come in on not just one, but sometimes several anti-anxiety or antidepressants and over time they seem to just be able to wean off of them. With optimized testosterone, you will also have better memory and better cognition, faster cognition ability to remember what you went into a room for Multiple good studies have shown that men and women with normal testosterone levels and, more importantly, optimal, because normal sometimes just isn't enough they have decreased risk of Alzheimer's and all forms of dementia. This is huge, because this is becoming a bigger and bigger issue for us as we age. Okay, this is huge.

Speaker 1:

Testosterone has been shown in randomized controlled trials to protect against breast cancer. How does it do this? Testosterone naturally decreases breast tissue proliferation and prevents excessive estradiol stimulation of breast tissue. Yes, dosed appropriately, testosterone reduces your risk of breast cancer as a woman. Prevention and treatment of osteoarthritis with testosterone optimization is also something that I have seen in my patients. Everyone who I have treated who has a history of arthritic joints has noticed less pain or even complete resolution of the pain and ability to be more active when they are on testosterone. Testosterone is also extremely important for making your arteries healthy and your heart healthy. Testosterone has been shown and I have seen this in my own patients that it will lower total cholesterol, lower bad HDL and raise your good HDL cholesterol. Testosterone also is very good at treating hot flushes and night sweats. It can also improve bone density, even with the ability to reverse osteoporosis, and actually testosterone has been shown in studies to do this better than estradiol. Testosterone has also been shown to decrease vaginal dryness and vaginal atrophy, which translates into fewer urinary tract infections, and studies have shown that testosterone actually can do this better than estradiol.

Speaker 1:

Okay, now also, let me just tell you how exciting this is. My skin is amazing since I started testosterone optimization and my little smile lines that I have been trying to treat with many, many different products are actually gone. Testosterone actually stimulates the production of collagen and elastin, two of the main proteins that we lose precipitously with age and are what make us look old. Okay, that last one was really something I was shocked to learn After the hundreds of anti-aging products that I have tried on my face and all I needed was testosterone. And now on body, identical testosterone. When I do have anti-aging, collagen stimulating procedures in my office, I get way better results. Okay, sorry, I got sidetracked talking about aesthetics. You really can't blame me, since I have been studying pretty medicine for the last nine years.

Speaker 1:

So the next part, what you've all been waiting for what can testosterone do for you as a woman, sexually? Number one you may actually want to spend time with a man and not your dog. This is called libido. Number two increased clitoral blood flow and sensitivity. This means you might actually have an orgasm and you might enjoy intimacy. Number three increased vaginal lubrication. Yes, that's right. No more KY, astroglide or whatever you bought on Amazon. So it can even be possible. But if you currently would prefer alone time on the couch with your dog over any man, I get it. Replacing your testosterone is not going to propel you off the couch with a raging libido to find a man I get it. Replacing your testosterone is not going to propel you off the couch with a raging libido to find a man, but let's say the opportunity arises, it will make you open to the idea of leaving your dog on the couch. So I just rattled off at least 20 incredible benefits of replacing and optimizing your testosterone as you age. I probably could end the podcast right now.

Speaker 1:

I'm sure all of you want to have yours checked. It seems that testosterone checks every box in terms of decreasing risk for every disease that we, as a woman, are afraid of getting as we age. It seems actually almost too good to be true. Every woman listening should want to have her testosterone level checked, or maybe she already knows it has got to be low and she just wants to know how low. I would also say that every man listening is thinking I wonder what my wife's is. This is it guys? When you tell her maybe you should go to your doctor and get your hormones checked. This is the one to check.

Speaker 1:

Female testosterone starts dropping in the early to mid-30s and it gets to its lowest level around menopause and then it just stays there. Now, if you happen to be exposed to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, like I've talked about in previous podcasts, such as BPA and many others, female testosterone can be lower much earlier. Also, unfortunately, almost all oral birth control pills lower testosterone precipitously, and metformin, which is used sometimes to treat diabetes and PCOS, is another drug that lowers testosterone. So what age is too late to have your testosterone checked and optimized. Oh my gosh, you all should know my answer by now if you've been listening to my podcast. I think my typical answer is 130, because I think the oldest living woman known is I think she was around 123. So really, you just can't pass up the opportunity. It's never too late.

Speaker 1:

So, now that everyone wants their testosterone level checked, how do you do this? If you have it checked through your primary care provider, through a hospital, it will be a send-out test to a reference lab and take about three weeks to come back. It will cost around $800 and it will not be covered by your insurance. Also, further, replacing testosterone in women is not taught to most physicians or nurse practitioners and there are no FDA-approved testosterone products specifically for use in women in the US. So if you are a woman wanting your testosterone level checked and treated, you must see a preventative medicine doctor like me. One more thing you will not get a beard, your voice will not change and get deeper, you won't look like a guy and you will not lose your hair period. Those are just not things I see on the doses I prescribe and the way I administer and optimize testosterone.

Speaker 1:

Speaking of how to dose it, I do not recommend pellets of testosterone or injections of testosterone to the majority of my female and male patients. I had a pellet one time. It hurt and my butt cheek was sore for about five days. Pellets are essentially testosterone compounded into a tiny little grain of rice which is surgically inserted under the skin in the buttock or your love handle, and it needs to be replaced every three months. So besides being uncomfortable, I have also learned that when you use pellets for testosterone replacement, there are some other issues. So, number one with a pellet, your testosterone level will go up very issues. So, number one with a pellet, your testosterone level will go up very, very quickly over a couple of days and then it stays steady about three months and then it just drops suddenly, leaving you feeling as if someone gave you your favorite ice cream and then took it away before you could eat it. Number two the way the testosterone is absorbed from the pellet does not lower your bad cholesterol or raise your good cholesterol. So therefore, testosterone pellets do not reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke like, let's say, a topical cream can compounded appropriately. Number three when you have one dose of a testosterone pellet inserted, that's it. There is no way to take it out or change that dose. You just have to live with it for three months. And number four, lastly, very important testosterone pellets have not been shown to have a breast cancer protective effect, as a compounded testosterone cream can.

Speaker 1:

So, of course, how do I recommend replacing testosterone? Since I am a preventative medicine doctor, I of course only recommend using body-identical testosterone made in a legitimate compounding pharmacy, compounded as a cream. To the majority of my patients, I prescribe a cream applied daily to the internal or external labia. Easy peasy, no pain, no mess. Takes 10 seconds, no precipitous drop in your levels. When I have my compounding pharmacy, use the base that I like the most. It comes in something that looks like a deodorant bottle. You twist the base and one small, pea-sized amount comes out. You swipe it with your finger and then swipe, swipe After your shower. You let it dry five minutes and you get dressed for the day.

Speaker 1:

This method mimics your natural testosterone peaks and troughs over a 24-hour period. In a month you usually start noticing at least one of those many benefits I tell all my patients, though. Good things take time. This is not an immediate fix. Your testosterone has been dropping your whole life. It takes about a year of testosterone replacement therapy, body identical testosterone cream to look and feel optimized. Women only produce one-tenth of the testosterone that men do. But make no mistake female testosterone holds the key to a happy and healthy life into old age. Testosterone is what puts the wonder into Wonder Woman show. If you are intrigued by this show and never want to miss an episode, click follow. If you are a really great friend, share it. The content of this episode is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider to answer any questions you may have about your personal medical conditions. Until next time, get fit, get fabulous, get firm and take care of yourself.