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TRT...Fact vs Reality

It's well known by medicalprofessionals (less so by the general public that both men and women BOTH needtestosterone in order to live a normal healthy life.  As we age or getsick, our body’s natural T levels decline. Often at a rate of 1-2% annually! Often this will lead to symptoms such as depression, low levels of energy, loweredlibido, gains in body fat with decreases in lean muscle mass, poor sleepquality, lack of sexual performance and more.

Much misinformation exists as agreat number of people equate the use of TRT to that as the same thing as anathlete who takes steroids for performance enhancement. Men with normal levelsof testosterone boosting what they had to gain an unfair advantage over theircompetition.  People also believed (andstill do) that taking therapeutic doses of testosterone will cause aggression,or “roid rage”, cause a man to develop breasts, lead to heart attacks and earlydeath. These are all scientifically proven to be untrue and in all actuality,the benefits of TRT has been linked to IMPROVED health and longevity in men.Men who have optimal levels of testosterone live better, longer and healthierlives.

It wasn’t until the late 2000’sthat physician guided and administered testosterone therapy became more widelyaccepted. Back then, there was still a lot of misconception and that STILLexists to this day, however enough medical journals, peer reviewed articles andscientific research exists to show the amazing health and life benefits of TRT.But due to years of scrutiny and misinformation, many physicians are reluctantto prescribe testosterone and know very little about the actual treatment. That’swhy having an expert in the field of TRT to guide and monitor you through theprocess of diagnosis, treatment and protocol is paramount towards the overallpotential success of a patient. We have heard many stories of patients whodoctors prescribed TRT with little or no formal experience in that particularfield of medicine. The results were underwhelming. With a clinic likeNovaGenix, we can assure that the patient experience will be geared towardsmaximizing the therapy’s benefits in order to help the patients reverse thenegative symptoms of andropause.

The numbers don’t lie.Testosterone levels are dropping from generation to generation. Debate rages onas to whether it’s from environmental factors such as lotions, deodorants andmedication. Or perhaps from the preservatives and hormones found in the foodswe eat. It may also be due to differences in lifestyles and lack of physicalactivity. Some other factors that may cause low testosterone could be thingslike chronic illness, alcoholism, hyperthyroidism, diabetes, a high fatty diet,smoking cigarettes and marijuana, elevated estrogen levels, Hair lossmedications, drug usage (recreational and prescription). Whatever the cause is,the end result is that men today have lower T levels than their fathers andgrandfathers did respectively. Fortunately we can treat causes and bring menback to the levels that they should be at, and experience the life changingbenefits as a result. It’s thought that over 60% of men over 50 years of agehave a deficiency in testosterone and possibly 50 million American men total. It’snow possible to prevent our senior population from suffering from the chronicconditions that arise from sedentary lifestyles, which can be prevented with optimizationof hormone levels, thus allowing people to enjoy their lives well into theirgolden years. 

Testosterone production begins inthe brain, which can help explain why our levels will often fluctuate based onour levels of stress and happiness. Substances like alcohol and cortisol(stress hormone) destroy our T levels. In a health male (or female) the processlooks like this. Gonadotropins are produced by the pituitary gland which thenproduces SHBG (Sex-Hormone Binding Globule) stimulates FSH (FollicleStimulating Hormone) and LH (Luteinizing Hormone), which will then stimulatethe testes in the male and the ovaries in the female to produce natural testosterone. A small amount of testosterone (usually less than 10%) can be produced by the adrenals.So as you can see, there are multiple factors at play when it comes to theproduction of testosterone and it’s difficult to determine what exactly can becausing low testosterone. As a result, you’ll see many doctors shy away fromthis area of medicine. It’s easier to treat the symptoms that arise from low Tthan to actually treat the andropause directly. You’ll even hear of physiciansbuying into the misinformation and perpetuation stories like “TRT causesprostate cancer” If high levels of testosterone caused prostate cancer, why isit virtually non-existent in men between the ages of 17-24, who have thehighest natural levels of testosterone? Or in the athletes who usestestosterone for performance enhancement who have a much lower rate of prostateissues than the same age group that live a less active lifestyle? Studies haveshown that there is no link between TRT and prostate cancer. See related articlefrom the urology times…

 (http://urologytimes.modernmedicine.com/urology-times/content/tags/aksam-yassin/no-link-found-between-testosterone-replacement-therapy-prost?page=full)

Problems associated with low testosteronelevels can be often me primary from the testicles and secondarily related tothe organs which are responsible for controlling hormone production.  Itcan truly be difficult in determining the actual cause of low testosterone.Sometimes, starting TRT for the sake of raising levels isn’t getting to thetrue heart of the problem so careful monitoring and medication adjustment isnecessary. As most of our testosterone is bound to our blood, we need to runcareful lab panels to get the picture. Free vs. available and SHBG vs. Albuminbinding testosterone will be factored in to determine the best treatment planfor a patient. So blood alone is NOT the answer. A physician consultation toreview several factors like past medical history, current medical status,medication and lifestyle will paint a much broader picture that an experienced

Symptoms of “low testosterone”are common and rater tell tale; loss of drive (in work, life and the bedroom)less energy, loss of sex drive, problems achieving and maintaining erections,lack of quality sleep, loss of mental clarity (fogginess), anxiety and moodswings, irritability, loss of lean muscle mass, low HDL and highLDL, increase in body fat and overall lowered general and physical activitylevels.

After a patient has been seen,evaluated, diagnosed and begins therapy, the patient starts to see improvementalmost overnight, yet the benefits typically can start to peak several weeksafter. A clinical manager once told me, “…most patients don’t even realize howcrappy they feel, because they’ve been run down for so long…TRT gives them anew lease on life.”

For more information, come in for a free consultation andsee how you can get started on testosterone replacement therapy. The process iseasy, painless and affordable. Call us at 561-277-8260 for more information andcheck us out at NovaGenix.org