Leslie Duffy 00:00:00 Are you feeling exhausted just dragging through the day, or do you feel anxious and unfocused? Do you have zero libido? Or maybe you’ve noticed the random chin hair and then thinning hair around your temples, or even in the back of your head? Maybe you’ve even experienced sudden acne. Either way, it might be because of an imbalance in a very special hormone that we don’t talk about near enough. And that would be testosterone. And yes, women do have testosterone. It’s more important than you think. Welcome back to the hormone shift Show. I am your host, Leslie Duffy. And in this short episode, I’m going to walk you through two ends of the spectrum high testosterone and low testosterone. You’re going to learn how to spot it and what you can actually do about it. You’re going to come away with an understanding of what the signs and symptoms are of each, the high and the low testosterone, what causes each, and three ways to boost your testosterone or reduce your testosterone? If you’re listening to the Hormone Shift Show, the podcast where we stop pretending that everything’s fine and we start getting real about midlife health.

Leslie Duffy 00:01:01 My name is Leslie Duffy and I am a registered nurse, life coach, and certified Functional Hormone expert. I am so glad that you are here. And just as a reminder of the content, and this podcast is not a substitute for medical advice from your health care practitioner or your medical team. While I am a licensed healthcare professional, I am not giving you any medical advice. This is purely for educational purposes. Please consult your provider for medical guidance specific to you. This is your window of health. Your comeback starts here. Let’s go. All right, let’s get into it. One of the main reasons that women book an appointment with me is that they’ve recently had a 10 or £15 weight gain. I go through something called an intake call in my program, the hormone shift. I go through all of their symptoms, and they might report things like sudden acne, or they used to have dry skin and now they have oily skin, or they’re more irritable. They’ve gained the weight. And all the while I’m screening for hormone imbalance.

Leslie Duffy 00:02:01 One of the things I’m always looking for is testosterone, which is one of those hormones that really flies under the radar for a lot of women. So I wanted to do a quick testosterone 101 review before we get into what highs and lows might look like. So testosterone is an androgen hormone and there are several androgen hormones. Andro is a prefix that means male. And as we all know, it is one of the major hormones in men. Now all hormones are made in your mitochondria, which, if you remember back in science class in high school, it’s those powerhouses of the cells. And we’re not going to get too deep into the ones with this one. But just know that your mitochondria are very important in this process. You have to have healthy mitochondria. We also produce most of the testosterone in your ovaries and your adrenal glands. And it works with estrogen for good bone health. It is essential for muscle mass and brain health and sexual health. We want to remind ourselves that a healthy human has a healthy sex life, and it is one of the major things that contributes towards happiness, especially if you have a partner to have a healthy sex life.

Leslie Duffy 00:03:07 So this is a very important hormone. Now, if you look at a woman’s lifespan, women have a boost of testosterone in puberty. And we also get a temporary boost in perimenopause. And if you think about it, perimenopause is like reverse puberty. We’re getting the highs and lows of all of these hormones, but in a different decade of our lifetime. And if you have teenagers in the house and you’re going through perimenopause, it’s just those classic puberty symptoms in each person. We’ve got it in the teenager, we’ve got it in the mom, and it can be a total tinderbox of hormones. So it can be a very volatile time for everybody. And in fact, I remember when my teenagers were this is early teens, you know, we’re thinking about the symptoms. Yes. They were cranky and irritable. Everybody’s got acne and races. It’s an awkward, awkward age. In fact, many perimenopausal women I know also have braces too. So it’s just it’s hysterical when you look at it that way.

Leslie Duffy 00:04:05 But I remember washing my kids hair when they were that age, and I would accuse them like, did you actually wash your hair? Did you use shampoo? Can you prove it to me? And for a time there, I even had to take away their conditioner because their hair was getting so oily. So we get this boost of testosterone in puberty, and then testosterone for women peaks in your 20s and 30s. And then it slows down with age, which is it’s a natural age related decline. It’s not sudden. It’s not up and down. It’s just a normal age related decline. And by the age of 50, we’ve lost 70% of our testosterone stores compared to when we were younger. And it has a key role in women’s estrogen production because testosterone is converted into estrogen through an enzyme activity. As we get older, our ovaries are going to continue to make testosterone after menopause, but not in the same amount. Instead, it’s going to start being made mostly by our adrenal glands, and it is essential for things like bone health, muscle mass, brain health.

Leslie Duffy 00:05:11 It’s key. Sexual health and free testosterone, by the way, is not associated with muscle strength. So I just want you to know, make sure that you know that these are all things that testosterone is classically really vital for. We really like having testosterone. It’s a good hormone to have. And we can get symptoms either way if it’s too high or if it’s too low. So let’s get into the signs of low testosterone. In low testosterone, we have this constant fatigue. We have low motivation. In fact, it’s very much tied in with dopamine, which is that motivating neurotransmitter. It gives you that kind of like mood, like you don’t want to do anything. You’re really losing a lot of interest in things that you used to enjoy. There’s something called anhedonia, and a lot of people who are depressed have these types of symptoms where there’s just like this flatline depression. And they’re also suspecting that there is a link with low testosterone with depression. So if you or your family members are suffering from any sort of depression, it might be interesting to kind of get that checked, kind of get the testosterone levels checked.

Leslie Duffy 00:06:16 It could be linked to that. There’s also decreased muscle tone and there’s slow recovery after workouts. You have low libido or low sex drive. And believe it or not. It’s also tied to infertility, and you might have trouble conceiving if you have low testosterone. This is one of those things that nobody ever thinks about. I think the fertility clinics are starting to get onto that now. So you will see that they might be testing for testosterone levels, but that is something that if you are a perimenopausal woman and you’ve waited to have a child, you might want to get that checked out. If you are not able to conceive. Maybe you also would have trouble sleeping and vaginal dryness, believe it or not. We did talk about estrogen a couple of episodes ago, and estrogen is one of those major hormones that will help with vaginal genital urinary symptoms, but so will testosterone. Testosterone is huge for these types of symptoms. And in fact, you can get something called DHEA as a suppository or a trocar or something for the genital urinary area so that it will support you in that area.

Leslie Duffy 00:07:26 Another one that is huge with testosterone is brain fog. It’s unbelievable. So that we talked about muscle wasting, but it will cause because of muscle wasting. You also might experience weight gain if you have a low testosterone. Also dry skin and thin skin, which would be like the opposite of those teenagers with the oily skin and the oily hair and anxiety. So let’s talk about causes of low testosterone. Thrown, even though it is normal for us to decline in our testosterone levels. The little bit that we do have, we can try to preserve it and to make it less impactful. But one of the things that would cause low testosterone, the number one thing actually would be lifestyle. Believe it or not, if you’re not getting enough exercise, if you’re smoking, if you’re drinking alcohol, it’s been linked to low testosterone, even a low calorie intake. A lot of women with eating disorders would have low testosterone. And I actually see this in my practice a lot. Not that disordered eating, but I will say that many women who come into my practice, who are in perimenopause, who have gained weight and I’m guilty of it too, just because I’m just so busy.

Leslie Duffy 00:08:34 We do not eat enough calories and you need calories to make the raw material. My friends, you need to eat your food because this will give you the raw material to make your hormones. It’s so important. So that could be one of the reasons why we’re not making enough testosterone. Another reason for low testosterone could be medications. A statin a statin is known to lower your testosterone levels. Even oral birth control pills through a mechanism I’m not going to describe because it’s too intricate for today. But oral birth control pills will also lower your testosterone levels. Nutrition foods associated with low testosterone would be like these high sugary drinks, those Frappuccinos, those milkshakes that we get at chick fil A, pastries, coffee. Even with or without caffeine, it doesn’t matter. Decaffeinated coffee to diet beverages and dairy. Believe it or not, that can also contribute to a low testosterone level. One of the things I really want to talk about, we’re going to do a deep dive on toxins later on, but something called BPA, which is an industrial chemical which is used in plastics, and it’s also an epoxy resin.

Leslie Duffy 00:09:41 It’s lining for food and the canned drinks. It acts like an endocrine disruptors. So if you’re drinking soda or even flavored seltzer water, all of these things if you’re drinking it from a can. That has a lining on the inside of it, that’s a chemical and that’s BPA. And it’s a. Androgen disruptor. It’s also an obese pigeon. So that’s for another day. But these chemicals can take up receptors that are meant for our hormones. So you might want to look at these things that you are normally doing every single day that could be contributing to it, that we don’t even realize. Another thing that might be causing you to have low testosterone would be other serious medical conditions that you would obviously get assessed by your doctor. Diseases of the adrenal glands or the pituitary glands. And another thing is high cortisol levels. And I talk about stress a lot. But this is part of that whole lifestyle picture, is that when you have high chronic cortisol levels, which is the stress hormone, it suppresses your testosterone.

Leslie Duffy 00:10:45 In fact, cortisol and testosterone compete for receptor sites and the body is going to prioritize your survival. So it’s going to have cortisol win the battle between cortisol and testosterone. So your testosterone is going to naturally drop. So it’s very important that we want to keep that in check especially for women over 40 because we’re already shifting to a very tumultuous hormone environment. And we’re also dealing with a lot more stress. Okay. So if you do have low testosterone, wait until the end. I’m going to tell you how to naturally raise your testosterone levels. But first we’re going to talk about high testosterone. Signs and symptoms of high testosterone would be increased belly fat or belly weight, insulin resistance, or that prediabetes type of picture. If you’ve gone to your doctor and they’ve taken some bloodwork and they tell you you have prediabetes, that is something that will cause a high testosterone. You’ll also notice a square body shape that is very common with high Testosterone. You’ll also have that acne, the facial hair, even for women.

Leslie Duffy 00:11:52 Thinning hair on the head. Also with the irritability. Short fuse. And if you have a history of PCOS, or if you have any sort of blood sugar swings that is also going to cause this high testosterone levels. Again, if you have any weight, gain 10 to £15. Possibly high testosterone level classic with that boost in perimenopause and oily skin. Now, the causes of high testosterone in women most commonly is a higher insulin. And if you remember, insulin is a fat storage hormone. We get insulin released by the pancreas when we eat anything with sugar, anything. And it can be a potato, it can be a muffin or a Cinnabon. That’s normal and healthy. However, if you’re constantly releasing insulin because you’re eating a lot of sugar foods or high sugar foods, insulin is a fat storage hormone. It’s also going to cause your ovaries to make too much testosterone. What’s really interesting that is that in men. High insulin causes them to make too much estrogen. So too much sugar in your diet will cause men to make too much estrogen.

Leslie Duffy 00:12:59 If you have PCOS or subclinical PCOS. If you have any sort of chronic inflammation. If you also have high androgens, that is something that you would need to get screened for, but you wouldn’t even know about it. But if you have high testosterone based on your symptoms, get screened for all of these things. Certain supplements can cause higher testosterone, and if you have high adipose tissue, meaning a lot of fat, body fat, body fat is going to be more likely to convert into other hormones that would increase your testosterone levels. Another reason for a high testosterone level could be your genetics. You just might likely make a certain type of pathway that testosterone takes that your body just happens to like. Another reason for high testosterone could be high triglycerides and any sort of medical issues like Cushing’s disease. So if you think that you have any of those high testosterone symptoms really important to get screened for any sort of underlying reasons as to why that could be happening. All right. Let’s get into. Three ways to boost your testosterone if it’s too low.

Leslie Duffy 00:14:15 Number one, you want to lift heavy things, my friend. This is really, really good. It’s going to create growth hormone, which creates testosterone. This is incredibly important. Resistance training is a natural way to support testosterone production. It’s like a hormone factory. It is a wonderful way for you to naturally promote that. It’s so good for your bones. It’s good for your muscles. It prevents that muscle wasting, and it’ll help you make more testosterone. Number two, you want to eat enough protein and calories if you are under eating, if you’re skipping breakfast, if you’re skipping meals, if you’re running out the door with just coffee, all of these things, your hormones are paying for it dearly. Number three, we want to get real good quality sleep. Testosterone production happens during deep sleep, so if you are skimping on your sleep, if you’re staying up late to get a project done or work done, you have to make sure that you prioritize your sleep, because that’s where we make our testosterone.

Leslie Duffy 00:15:15 One thing I want to tell you is that if you have a low sex drive, which is very common in perimenopause, that’s one of the major signs of it. You can ask your doctor to test your testosterone levels, and you can get hormone replacement for low sex drive. That is the only reason your doctor is able to actually give you testosterone. That is the only documented reason it has a million other benefits, but none of them are so well Documented as low sex drive. So if you go to your doctor and say, I have low sex drive, she will give it to you or he will give it to you, depending on your doctor, hopefully. But you will also see other benefits in your drive, in your mood and other benefits. Don’t forget, I’m also going to give you a summary. It’s a quick listener guide of this episode so that you can go over it and keep it handy, and you will get that in the show notes. All right. Let’s discuss three ways to lower your testosterone.

Leslie Duffy 00:16:12 If it’s high to do you want to address inflammation? Perimenopause is a pro-inflammatory state. It’s one of those states where anything you do, you sneeze wrong and you’re inflamed. It’s unbelievable. So you have to be very, very careful about what you are exposing your body to. We want to reduce that inflammation. So if you have any gut issues, make sure that you are handling that and taking care of that. Go see a functional medicine practitioner. Book yourself a 360 wellness assessment with me. If you are drinking alcohol, Alcohol is going to fuel that inflammation, and any sort of poor sleep is all going to fuel the fire of inflammation. We have to double down on all of these things that we have to do. You want to make sure that you’re balancing your blood sugar, because a high blood sugar is going to cause the high insulin, and the high insulin is going to cause the high testosterone. Make sure we’re prioritizing that protein, the fiber, especially at breakfast. And then there are supplements that can help and they can help on either end of the spectrum, you can have things that can reduce the effect on the strength of your testosterone.

Leslie Duffy 00:17:18 There are supplements, natural things. There are other more medical things that you can do that is not within the realm of this podcast.

Leslie Duffy 00:17:28 So we are not going to talk about it.

Leslie Duffy 00:17:29 But I’ll do a whole episode on supplements that I like. But if you do have high testosterone symptoms and you want to reduce those high testosterone symptoms, some practitioners recommend salt palmetto green tea. It’s like such a natural thing. Green tea. My goodness, it has EGCg. It’s such a great product and you don’t even need a pill for it. You can just have some tea. That’s like a no brainer. Things like that will help to lower the effects of the symptoms of high testosterone. I don’t necessarily think that they’re going to lower your testosterone, but they will lower the symptoms of it. But I highly recommend that you talk to a qualified practitioner regarding your supplementation. You do not just willy nilly take it because I’m not your provider. And then there are other supplements that are going to help you raise your testosterone level and even lower your cortisol levels.

Leslie Duffy 00:18:20 And I’m going to give you a hint that we will talk about that supplement on a later date. Just keep that in mind that there are natural ways to actually lower your testosterone levels. And the most effective way would be to make sure that you are eating a good diet, low sugar in either direction. It’s going to help you either way with low or high Testosterone. So that is it. You are going to get a quick guide, a summary guide that you can use along with this episode to go through the high and low symptoms. You can check them off. You can say, hey, you know what? I actually feel like I have all of these symptoms. You take it to your practitioner, you can bring it to your 360 wellness assessment if you’d like to book one with me. But either way, whether your testosterone is high or it’s low or you’re in the I have no clue category, it is not random and you really don’t have to live with these symptoms. There are easy steps to take that will benefit not just your testosterone, but all your other hormones.

Leslie Duffy 00:19:17 So for whatever reason, if your hormones are off, you can always test that is, the most important thing is just to get a baseline of where are your hormones? And you want to make sure that you’re testing for free testosterone. And that is super important because that’s the one that’s active. So these are the first steps in getting answers to your questions. And guessing is not going to help you fix it. So we really want to get some clear data on that. So if you want to work on your hormone support and you don’t want any prescriptions and you don’t want to be guessing, book yourself a 360 wellness assessment with me so that we can review your symptoms together and create a plan to help you feeling better in no time. Thank you for listening today. I really appreciate it. Be sure to download all of your resources in the show notes. Take care and I’ll see you next time. Thanks so much for joining me today for this episode of The Hormone Shift Show. If you enjoyed the episode, be sure to hit subscribe and share it with a friend so that more women can feel supported.

Leslie Duffy 00:20:20 This is your window of health. Your comeback starts here. I’ll see you next time. Hey, if you would like to explore working together, the way to get started is to book your wellness shift strategy call. The link is in the show notes and I can’t wait to meet you. Take care.