How Low Testosterone Can Impact Your Sex Life

What is the one hormone that is pivotal to your sexual health? Stay tuned to find out. What is the number one hormone that men need to pay attention to that is testosterone. Testosterone is the male hormone. This would make you a man, give you masculine features, but oftentimes it's hard to understand. And for men it starts to drop after the age of 35 at 1% a year. And they don't really notice that low level testosterone contributing to some of the symptoms that they are feeling and may neglect. And just think, oh, it's probably stress or it's probably work or it's probably because I had a bad night and don't really think about it. The same thing with women as well too. Mother Nature think that by the time you're 40 you shouldn't have any more children and, and therefore she decreases your hormone level. However, this is the hormone you've had since the earlier part of your life that make you feel good, that make you give you your libido and your sex drive, your erection, but then as you get older, it starts to decline. Well, let's talk a little bit about testosterone and what that is. Now I'm going to show you the slide that really testosterone, it's being controlled by the hypothalamus by gonadotropin, a releasing hormone GnRH and that's released in your brain, in the hypothalamus, and then it goes to your pituitary gland and then that goes to your testicles, which then produces testosterone. Testosterone is produced 90% in the testicle and 10% in the adrenal glands. And you have primary hypogonadism, which is low testosterone or low T, and secondary hypogonadism, which is low testosterone. But it doesn't matter. Your cell sense it as low T. And I want to show you this picture because this picture shows a complex interaction between your brain and your testicles and then the negative feedback loop of your testicles and testosterone back to your brain. So I hear stories of my patient and my friends ordering testosterone from Canada or another country, get sent to them here and they themselves manage their own testosterone injections and don't follow up with blood work, do not see a doctor to help them manage this. And they don't know the side effects that this can cause. We're not talking about simple treatment here. We're talking about complex hormone that's released in the brain that interact in your testicles and then there's a negative feedback loop. There are multiple organs and system that are involved and it can be aromatized or converted into estrogen, which is a female hormone. It can also be converted to another hormone called dihydrotestosterone or dht, which is, which is inflammatory to the prostate. It can also increase red blood cell count, which can contribute to clotting and some of the side effects that you hear from testosterone. Now testosterone, if manageable with a physician, shouldn't have any long term side effect because physicians should measure your blood at least twice a year. But know that this is not a hormone that you can manage yourself without seeing a specialist that knows how to do hormone management. So be aware and please be consc anxious of trying to treat it yourself. Now, what are the signs and symptoms of testosterone deficiency? Like I said earlier, it start to dip around 35 and if you're more stressed, they start to dip faster. If you don't sleep well, it dip faster as well. If you don't eat a healthy diet, you eat more processed food like that's in a bag or a box, or more carbohydrates like pastry, dessert, white bread, pasta and red meat. And if you don't exercise and you are over BMI of 30, well, all that accelerate the decline in your testosterone level on top of what going on with mother Nature as well too. So what are the signs and symptoms of low testosterone? Physical sign is reduced energy. Men will notice that they have less energy, less endurance, diminished work performance, decreased physical performance, loss of body hair, reduced beard growth, fatigue, tiredness, and you lose lean muscle mass. And you tend to develop more body fat around the love handles area. And even noticing some body fat around the breast area as well too. And symptoms like cognition symptoms, you can start noticing signs of depression symptoms and you're just not as sharp as you used to be. You have reduced motivation, poor concentration, poor memory and irritability. That's what I hear the most, is that men notice that they're more irritable, they're fatigued, they have loss of motivation and loss of focus. They're just not as sharp as they used to be when they were younger. And you will notice those symptoms around probably late 30s or early 40s as well. And the sexual signs and symptoms are reduced sex drive as well as a reduced firmness in your erection. Now testosterone alone is not the treatment for erectile dysfunction. It contribute to it, but it's not alone. Studies have shown that correcting testosterone alone the does not fix your ed. You have to look at other factors that may contribute to ed, which is high blood pressure, diet, exercise as well. As other lifestyle changes as well. So just know that before you assess your testosterone level, you have to get blood work. And the blood work is really the same way as you would get cholesterol or blood sugar. Just go into the lab and they get your blood from your veins and you have to measure your testosterone level. Now, I want to mention this, that there are two types of testosterone that being measured, Total testosterone and free testosterone. Just know that the total testosterone is floating in your blood, but 98% of the testosterone is bound or connected to a protein called sex hormone binding globulin, which is shbg. When it is bound in shbg, it is not effective. Again, let me repeat. Is not effective. And the remainder is also bound to albumin, but it's not as tightly bound as with shbg. So having said that, the free testosterone or the testosterone that is effective for all the physical signs, symptoms that you hear me speak about earlier is only 1 to 3%. 1 to 3% is the bioavailable testosterone that is floating in your blood. And in fact, you can calculate this without even measuring the free testosterone. And that's probably the best method is calculation because in the lab there are variability. I just attended sexual medicine conference held by Harvard Medical School and it discussed that perhaps the best way to measure the free testosterone is by doing a formula where you input in albumin and then input in SHBG and the total testosterone. And that will give you the number of the free testosterone number at this time. Now, SHBG can be variable with obesity, diabetes and chronic steroid use, as well as liver problem, thyroid problem, aging as well. So we, when your SHBG is high, it bounds more testosterone, therefore you have less testosterone available to be active. Therefore, you may have noticed symptoms earlier. But if your SHBG is low, then you will have more free testosterone available and therefore you may not notice the testosterone symptoms as much because your levels are still fair. Now, I want to stress that the range for testosterone is 300 to 900, right? That's the range, but doesn't necessarily mean that if you're in range that you don't have low testosterone. If you're symptomatic, meaning if you have the symptoms that I talked about earlier of the physical signs and symptoms of low T compared to where you were as 10 years ago, then you are symptomatic low T and you should get treated for even though you are within range. So what I'm trying to say is that let's say you're 55 now. And your level is at 400 and you have all the signs and symptoms of low T. But then you see your doctor, they say, well, you're within range, you're normal. Well, you're not quite normal, you're just not yourself. Because when you were in your early 30s, maybe you or functioning at a sweet spot between 700 level of testosterone and that's where you feel the best. So now you have 400, you don't feel the best. Even though you're within range, you're not normal. So keep that in contact that if you're symptomatic, you have low T. And it is good to see a hormone specialist doctor who can do your blood work, do a thorough evaluation and get you on the appropriate hormone regimen. Now, also note that if you're over 40, you should get your PSA level measure as well as your testosterone measure as well too. And just know that testosterone is a pivotal hormone for men and that it tends to drop after the age of 35. And be attuned to, to the symptoms that I mentioned. And that especially if you feel that your libido is less and your erection is not as firm, you're not having as much energy, you're a little bit more irritable, it's time to get that hormone level checked is going to make a big difference in your quality of life and even will help you live longer as well too, because it's also protective for cardiac health. And, and just know that the American Urologic Society had come out with guidelines that said testosterone does not, and I emphasize, does not contribute to prostate cancer. And if managed properly and follow up with a doctor, it is essential treatment. But again, you need to get your blood level checked because one of the side effects of testosterone, it's high red blood cell count, which is called erythrocytosis. And that needs to be monitored because if you have high red blood cell count, that will be prone for you to get a clot because your blood tends to be more viscous. And the way to treat that is easy. You just go get a blood donation, go to American Red Cross and donate your blood and that will lower it. But one thing to note is that testosterone do decrease sperm count. So if you're a young man and you want to have children, it will decrease your sperm count and that if you're on testosterone, you get off of testosterone. Studies have shown about 50% of men do not go back to the numbers that they made before they got on testosterone. So the decreasing sperm count may be irreversible about 50% of men. Well, how do you go about that? Well, if you want to have children you can go about that by donating sperm and at a sperm bank and have it frozen. You can use it when you want to have children and therefore allow you to be on testosterone replacement therapy. And there are other alternative as well too that will help preserve fertility, which I cannot go into it at this point. But the point I want to stress is that low testosterone or low T is going to happen. Be aware for it and know that there are treatment to supplement this. There's a lot of misinformation out there regarding testosterone. I just came back from a sexual medicine conference and testosterone and it is safe to do as long as you follow with a medical doctor at this point and follow blood work appropriately. And I hope you find this helpful. I will really appreciate if you like and comment subscribe to the channel, let me know what you think of this and what other topic you'd like me to talk about. And on top of that I want to let you know that you have any questions I created the Modern Man Club. It's a coaching program where I will coach you for natural research, solution to get out of ED or even maintain your sexual health. I'm a big believer in prevention and maintenance so join me in the Modern Man Club here. You can check it out or in the banner below and just know that you can have sexual vitality until the day you die. I'll see you next episode. Are you struggling and frustrated in finding a solution for ed? Well, I have just a thing for you. It's called the Modern Man Club led by yours truly Dr. Ann. Together we're redefining male sexuality and embracing a holistic approach to overcoming ED without medication or surgery. I will provide a protective environment for community and proven strategy to overcoming ed. It is a safe place Expert coaching by me and my team. We provide holistic approach to overcoming ED and an empowering community of men with ED supporting one another and lots and lots of educational resources. Visit mensexualityclub.com at the link here on my right and connect with us and reclaim control over your sexual health. I'll see you there.

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