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WisconsinChristianNews.com
Volume 25, Issue 3
Testosterone: It Does A Body Good
By Dr. David Lange, Genesis Primary Care June 2024 It’s June. It is offi- cially summer. It is also Men’s Health month. Let’s talk about a critical men’s topic: Testosterone. Every man needs it. Along with the Y chromo- some, this is a defin-
duce testosterone like pesticides and plastics. There are a number of commonly used medica- tions that reduce or block testosterone like spironolactone, a common diuretic used for blood pressure and heart issues. Marijuana and alcohol are other products that are well known to reduce testosterone.
younger men, decreased fertility can result and across the board, decreased libido.
Topically, there are three kinds of products. Gel for the body, gel for the arm pits and patches. Patches sound good until one reads about place- ment. Not sure who thought that was a good idea. The gels are not too bad, but the product warn- ings make them sound radioactive. I really don’t think the “touching” restrictions should be so lim- iting, but men are scared off by this warning, so often consider the last option. These are all generic now, but even though they are generic, that no longer translates to inexpensive. By using the category of injectable I am includ- ing the implanted seeds. This version is consid- ered more custom, but very expensive. In my practice, most men end up on the generic in- jectable. It is very affordable and does the job well. The injection is easy to teach to patients and the only drawback is the size of the needle be- cause oil does not flow well through a standard size needle. The schedule is pretty easy too. The oil base controls absorption so only 1-2 injections a month normally cover a pa- tient’s needs. Depending on the specific complaint a woman has, with hormone replacement therapy some testosterone can be added to their bioidentical topical hormones. This can make a world of dif- ference in how she feels. What I am not looking to do in this article is dis- cuss cross gender hormone therapy. We all know it is bad and wrong on so many levels. A quick search shows a list of side effects of too much or too little. Apply worst case thinking, especially if a child is involved. What I did want to review, though, is the appropriate use of this essential hormone for our physiology and our health. It re- ally isn’t a hormone we can live without. GenesisPrimaryCare.com Please see the display ad on Page 23 of this issue of Wisconsin Christian News).
Testosterone is an interest hormone, not a per- formance hormone.
Testosterone testing is pretty easy to do. There
ing hormone that changes a boy into a man. Testos- terone, as a singular hormone, does not make someone male, despite some people’s deranged insistence. It is present throughout life, and while it does decrease over time, it is not supposed to disappear. There are things that we can do to en- hance the level and there are things that we do to decrease it. Everyone actually needs testosterone. The dif- ference is in how much is considered normal for your gender. The normal range for an adult male is between 300 and 1000 (depending on the lab), while a normal adult female has a range of 15-60. Functions of testosterone include bone health, muscle mass and strength, libido, hair loss and prostate enlargement. Having too much testosterone is a bad thing and can cause heart issues, fertility issues, acne and psychiatric problems. While having an excess of testosterone can be caused by a medical issue, the most common cause is taking it from an out- side source. Too little is far more common. Having a normal range is one measure, but looking at the average values is also instructive. Testosterone levels start to decline after age 30. But across the board, nor- mal average testosterone levels have been falling for decades. There are many reasons for this. Our society is awash in estrogenic compounds that re-
are a couple of helpful tests that can be added to the total testosterone, like the free testosterone and sex hormone binding globulin, but these are certainly not required in all patients. After identifying the cause of low testosterone, there are only a couple of ways to get it back into the healthy range. If, after correcting the causative issue, the testosterone dose not return to normal, then replacement therapy is needed. This can be broken down into two broad categories, topical and injectable. When I am treating low testos- terone, I get asked about taking a pill a lot. Unfor- tunately, God did not seem to design us for this. Various formations have been tried, some more successful than others, but none are consistently good enough to be brought to market. The over the counter testosterone boosters were studied not too long ago and did not boost testosterone.
Medical conditions like obstructive sleep apnea and obesity will decrease testosterone dramati- cally. There can be primary gonadal failure or in- terference from other hormones that are produced in excess like prolactin from a pituitary tumor.. A detailed evaluation should really be undertaken to find the true source of the low value an individ- ual may be experiencing in order to best treat it. The consequences of too little testosterone are pretty significant. While not the most easily seen or felt, osteoporosis can be deadly. A common osteoporosis fracture is a hip fracture, which car- ries a mortality rate of 10-30%. Breast enlarge- ment can develop in men. Hot flashes are common as any man undergoing testosterone deprivation therapy for prostate cancer knows. In
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