Testosterone for Women -Roger Mason

Ladies, you have been included in all these discussions about testosterone except for the prostate articles. Men, you should read this, too, since you have a wife, mother, sister, or other loved one who can benefit from this information. Men and women have the same exact hormones only in different amounts. Women have about one tenth the amount of testosterone that men do, but it is vital to their health and well being. Men can only suffer from low testosterone; high testosterone does not exist naturally in men. Women can suffer from either low or high testosterone as well as androstenedione (the direct precursor to testosterone) and DHEA. All three are known as “andro-gens”. Androgens are just as important for women as for men.

TEST YOUR LEVELS. This is the answer in one sentence- test your levels. You can get a blood test for free (not bound or total) testosterone and DHEA from your doctor. Nearly all medical doctors will be clueless about this. A better way is to buy an inexpensive saliva kit and send your sample into an FDA approved laboratory. Women must be very careful to have a youthful level of testosterone, but not too much. Testosterone is necessary for strong bones, a healthy heart and circulatory system, sexual satisfaction, and just good health in general.

If you are low, you can get a 0.15% natural transdermal cream or gel from a compounding pharmacist by prescription. Use a half gram on thin skin. This puts 750 mcg (micrograms) on your skin and about 20%, or 150 mcg, goes into your blood. A 100 g tube will last seven month.You can also get a compounding pharmacy to make a sublingual (under the tongue) vegetable oil solution of testosterone enanthate with 200 mcg (150 mcg actual testosterone) in each drop.  Natural testosterone tastes terrible and can’t be used. Almost no medical doctors know anything about this, so you'll have to look around for an educated doctor. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER get injections or use oral salts! If your levels are too high, the only way to lower them is by total lifestyle, good diet, lots of supplements, and balancing your other hormones. High androgens in women are a classic sign of polycystic ovaries. You can buy testosterone on the Internet legally. Read you don’t need an Rx. A 10 X 100 (1,000 mg) bottle of testosterone enanthate will last a woman 14 years (200 mcg a day) used sublingually.

More and more scientists are finding out just how important youthful testosterone levels are for women. Let's look at some of the recent international studies on this. At the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston (NEJM v 343, 2000) a very well done study was done using low concentrations of real, natural, transdermal testosterone cream. One third of American women end up being butchered by their doctors and getting a hysterectomy. The ovaries die whether they are removed or not. While the ovaries produce about half of a woman's testosterone, some women still produce too much even after a hysterectomy. By giving testosterone to these women, they improved their sexual function and general sense of well being. This was a first rate double blind placebo study and such doctors deserve a lot of credit.

At the Jean Hailes Foundation in Australia (Trends Endoc. Metab. v 12, 2001) a study showed testosterone replacement therapy improved physical and psychological symptoms in women. They also showed it improves sexual fulfillment and desire. Another study from this same foundation (J. Ster. Bio. v 69, 1999) discussed androgen replacement therapy for women, especially sexual fulfillment and desire, bone loss, and PMS. Again, we have pioneering doctors using natural hormones to improve health in natural ways.

At the Center for Health Studies in Cleveland (Int. J. of Fertility v 44, 1999) Geoffrey Redmond used testosterone replacement therapy for women. Raising decreased libido is one such advantage and general sexual functioning is improved.

At the University of Oslo in Norway (Maturitas v 41, 2002) scientists found that the postmenopausal women with youthful levels of testosterone and DHEA had the least problems, especially vasomotor symptoms like hot flashes and sweating. They also found the women with the highest estradiol (E2) levels had the most problems. This proves again the entire estrogen hype is completely wrong. Western women in general have too much estradiol and estrone, but are deficient in estriol. Women want low normal estradiol and estrone, and high normal estriol.

You must test your levels, and be very careful to have a youthful level of testosterone and DHEA, as hyper levels are dangerous. Androgen replacement therapy for women is an important part of natural medicine that you will hear more about. On the ZRT scale look for about 40 for testosterone and 3 for DHEA. Each lab differs in ranges. You want the youthful level you had at 30.