Reversing ED with Dr. Anne Truong

Hello and welcome to the Find you'd Feminine Fire podcast. I am your host, Amanda Testa. I am a sex, love and relationship coach and in this podcast my guests and I talk sex, love and relationships and everything that lights you up from the inside out.

Welcome.

If you are wanting to say goodbye to erectile dysfunction challenges in your relationship and to discover proven ways to find more sexual vitality, then you're going to love this podcast episode. I am your host, Amanda Testa and I am so excited today because I am going to be talking with Dr. Ann Truong. She's a board certified physician with over 20 years of clinical experience who's successfully treated over 7,000 men with erectile dysfunction and she also works with women as well. She is passionate about healing the cause of sexual dysfunction and not just masking symptoms. So she's really passionate about sharing education so that we can know how to have that better quality of life. So welcome. Thank you so much for being here, Dr. Truang.

Well, thank you. Thank you, Amanda. I've been looking forward to us touching page within the past few months and we're finally here and I'm excited to collaborate and share our message together.

Yes, and I, and I appreciate that because you know, something I hear often from my clients is it can be really challenging if you're with a male partner and they're struggling with erectile dysfunction because you know, obviously that's a tender topic. And, and I'm curious why this is something that you've become. Why is this such a passion for you? Just in general, I'm curious.

Well, it's a passion for me because I've always been involved in looking at treating a condition in a holistic, comprehensive manner. I've been a doctor. Oh my God, I'm pretty old. 1997. A board certified doctor. 1997. Like I'm 25 years and I, I started, I, I was trained as an interventional pain management doctor. So I was doing cortisone injection into the body and giving people cortisone. I was, or steroids and I was giving people pain medication or anti inflammatory. And what I noticed was that I was really not helping my patient long term. I was really patting the problem band, aiding the problem. They keep coming back and they weren't getting better long term. And I've always been the person that's like, you know, let's, let's try to find other solution that will be long term for you that really look at the cause. So I start learning to do acupuncture and natural therapy, supplements. And I started learning how to do manipulation, osteopathic manipulation. I'm a medical md, I'm not a do. So I start learning that and then I start learning about prolotherapy and then eventually platelet rich plasma PRP and then stem cell therapy. So what I was alluding to is that, you know, I've always had a passion on finding the root cause of the problem and treating a problem that lasts a long time. I don't want to pad thing. So I. I've been. Because I'm a pain management tr. I've been doing treatment on the joints and getting people back to functioning with stem cell therapy. And then in 2014 started doing treatment more for sexuality and aesthetic or stem cell therapy. And I really enjoyed that because what I realized was that, you know, it's easy to talk to a doctor when you have knee pain or back pain or shoulder pain. It's so uncomfortable to talk about such a private subject that erectile dysfunction or even a female, you know, having difficulty, you know, with intimacy. Because, you know, we've been trained and raised when we were little that, you know, it's not something we talk about is taboo and all these cultural layers that layers into the guilt that we feel when we talk about something like that. But I'm like thinking, all right, well, we're born because of the sexuality. We're here and it's an integral part of what we do. We enjoy it. And that's what bond people together. That's what bond a partner together is part of intimacy and it's such an integral part of our life. But yet why is it taboo? So that's really interest me and that I want to bring a subject that is taboo, that's in the closet, more out to the open, not so much, you know, but just to bring. I know that it's so common because there was a study that was done in actually 1999 that revealed that there are 30 million men living with ED. That's just from a questionnaire with extrapolation that was in 1999 and now with COVID We know there's a lot more than that, maybe even double that. We don't know exactly how much number there are from women. I would say probably the same as well. It's just that women is a little bit harder to tell because, you know, she doesn't have a genital that you can see physical changes on. And just being forward in that. I see women not, not being aware that when they have changes in their, the way they feel during intimacy, that they're not correlating that to, oh, you know, it's my hormone change. I'm, I'm getting older. And there are changes down there that, that's aware, but they actually blame themselves and they say, well, maybe something wrong with me. They, they blame themselves for some other thing versus a man. He can see whether, you know, his, you know, manhood is working well or not as well. So that's why it's passionate for me, because I feel there's something that is so integral to what we do, but yet it's very little known. A lot of, a lot of myth, a lot of gimmicks out there and there's not a lot of real, true research based, evidence based treatment for this other than, hey, take the little blue pill, take this pill. There's actually a pill for a woman now for sexual arousal. I tried, I didn't feel anything. But, you know, there's a pill for women as well. So I feel like we're being manipulated by pharma. We'll be manipulated by social media and thinking, hey, there's a pill to fix you. It's like, there's no pill. I've been doing pain management for 25 years. There's no pill to fix your pain. You have to treat the source of your pain and rehabilitate the condition. And the same thing with sexual, with sexuality, you have to find out the cause of it and rehabilitated. And I see sexuality as like weight loss. You know, once you treat it, you have to maintain the good habits that you've learned to maintain the optimal function.

Yes. That makes so much sense because it is usually everything is connected and if we're having a problem in one area, there's usually many things going on. Right. So it's not always just like, well, I need this one thing fixed. It's more. I appreciate how you have that more holistic approach to kind of solving the problem.

Yeah, right, right. But you know, like, like I said, pain, when you have knee pain, most likely your ankle, your hips is going to be dysfunctional as well. It's just not the knee pain, not the problem. It's above and below. And you have to address the whole entire leg and back. It's the same thing with sexuality. Things are tied together, just not, oh, you fix this organ, everything's gonna do okay. And when, when, when I approach sexuality, I approach it as a foundation. You start fixing the foundation and then you start fixing lifestyle factors and diet and exercise. Yes.

So Key. And I'm curious, too, because I know a lot of my listeners might be in a relationship with someone with erectile dysfunction. And I'm curious, how does that affect partners?

Right? So that is. That's something common that I hear all the time from my patients. Sometime women that comes in thinking there's something wrong with them when their partner have Ed because they're thinking, well, it's my fault. He's not getting aroused by me. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. There's something wrong with me. And when we get, you know, when we're together, he not turn on. There's something wrong with me. Fix me. And then the guy comes in. This is just. Even in the same relationship, I treat a lot of husband and wife, you know, and the husband comes in, there's something wrong with me. I have ed. I love my wife. I'm attracted to her, and I just cannot get it to be functional. And he embarrassed to talk to her, and she's embarrassed to approach him because she doesn't want to hurt his feelings. They both love each other, and you know, what happened? They turn away from each other because they don't want to approach a subject that is so sensitive, that may be misinterpreted and hurt each other. So what I always tell. I say is, you know what? Know that your partner knows there's something wrong. Okay, not so much wrong. I don't like the word wrong, but there's something going on. Just be honest and be curious and be transparent. Be honest, be curious, and be transparent. Because if your partner knows that you are having difficulty, she will support you and she will say, hallelujah. I'm so glad you brought it up. And I'm here to help you as much as you need. So I never see a partner that said, well, you're having problem. You know, that's your problem. Goodbye. You know, it's really more like hallelujah. Oh, my God, I'm so glad you talk about. Let's. Let's, you know, move forward from here. How can I be supportive of you and how you approach it? For. Ask for. Even a female noticing that you have. A man has difficulty is you just approach him and say, you know, just be transparent. And, you know, I, you know, I've noticed this, and I want to be supportive of you. And I'm. I. And can we have a discussion and what's. What's going on? What are you, you know, what's going on that we can, you know, help move forward from this? You want to Present it at open and showing that you're supportive of your partner and you want to move on forward together in a supportive relationship and trying to resolve this problem. And believe it or not, if a man that has ED have a supportive partner, that's actually therapeutic, that's actually 30% to help him get better. Because, because emotionally he knows that she's there for him and that he can focus on the physical part that is causing the ED. 90% of ED is physical and 10% is psychological, meaning performance, performance anxiety and, you know, emotional and trauma. But what we do know from research is that a supportive partner can be therapeutic for a man undergoing ed.

Yeah. And that makes sense. Cause I think it's so common. Right. It's such a common thing and there's so much shame around it. I feel like a lot of times, and like the, like you say, it's a tender topic. And so you want to make sure that you approach it with care and support. And so, and I'm wondering too, you know, say someone's listening and they're like, you know, I would love if my we could talk about this. What would be some steps we could take? Like how, how would we go about being towards solving the problem?

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and there are options. There are, there are treatments for a man with ed. And like, like I said, it doesn't have to be with a blue pill, the Viagra or Cialis. And I was talking to a patient of mine yesterday and he was saying that he had ED for ED for like a year. Went to see a doctor. First thing they did was give him see a Viagra before any blood work, before any type of question to what his lifestyle, what his sleep is. Here, here's Viagra. He took Viagra for and it didn't really help him, came back and the doctor gave him an injection for him to do to help him with his ed. And he's like, I'm not injecting myself down there. And then the next thing with the doctor is, well, maybe you should consider a penile implant. And during this whole time, there's no blood work that was done to see if maybe he has diabetes, maybe he has high cholesterol, maybe he has inflammatory markers in his blood, maybe he has low testosterone that may be that are, you know, contributing to his ed. So that's why he came to see me, because he, you know, was, I guess, insightful enough to know that, you know, I probably need to seek another option before I get surgery. And he's only had ED For a year. So it almost seems like we're going in the same direction. Surgery to solve this problem, you know, kind of like knee replacement, hip replacement.

That should be the last resort. Right. Like, there's so many first, easier steps.

Yeah. Yes.

Well, I'm wondering if you could share a little bit, Dr. Chung, about, you know, how your approach is different, like how you work with them to solve the ed.

Right, right. So when I evaluate a man with ed, I do blood work first. You know, we do. We spent an hour with him in a consultation, but we ordered the blood work first. So when he comes and see me, I. I know what's going on in his body. We do a total full panel. We. Our approach is not subjective. It's objective. It's like we. I look at, you know, the hormone from head, from the head all the way down to the toe. I look at all, you know, whether he's at blood sugar, his liver. I look at his cholesterol, inflammatory markers. I also look at whether, you know, he's secreting enough growth hormone or not, the hormone that is releasing the body. And I also look at blood clotting factors as well, and that will give me an idea internally what's going on with man. Interestingly, the first symptom of a man showing ED is the first symptom that he hit the diabetic. So that's the first time somebody would say, oh, you're a diabetic. You know, when you start having symptoms of ed. So my approach is that looking internally, what's going on, and questioning the patient about their lifestyle, what they're doing, as like, how's your stress factor? Are you. How your sleep? How's your sleep? And are you smoking? Are you drinking alcohol? How much alcohol? I assess for whether they have tried other medications in the past or not. If they have tried, do they exercise at all and that. Are they, you know, doing stress management? Do they meditate? All those factors, you know, if you're not sleeping enough, if you're not exercising enough, you have a poor diet, or you eat processed food, fast food, soda, and so forth. All of that affect inflammation and therefore decreased blood flow, which is really the cause of ed. Decreased blood flow and simple things such as sleep, smoking, alcohol. I'm saying you can drink alcohol. You shouldn't drink more than about 10 drinks a week. Cumulative stress, high stress can actually produce more cortisol, which then decrease your testosterone hormone. You're not sleeping or you're not sleeping, your body's not healing mentally and physically. That will decrease your testosterone level as well, other hormone levels and increased cortisol. Just simple things like that or diet, whether he exercised or not. So we put all that information together. And then I do a test called up here now Doppler ultrasound, where I look at the blood flow down there to see how the blood flow is. And oftentimes those tests are actually good. And then those are all the collective objective data that we get. And then we come up with a treatment plan. And I have a multimodality approach treatment plan with just addressing one thing. We address multiple factors. What are the things that we're doing to restore increased blood flow? And so we do hormone replacement therapy with testosterone, do stem cell therapy to increase more blood flow. And then we also do shockwave therapy, which uses sound wave technology to again increase blood flow down there and then supplement. And the main thing I stress every patient is lifestyle factors such as what you're eating. I recommend a Mediterranean diet and decreased processed food. And then I recommend, you know, three times a week, at least one hour of exercise. Whether. Anyway, I recommend high, high intensity interval. But just even walking and going to the gym, doing some weight, because for a man, if he does some weight, his muscle will help produce more testosterone as well as. And then simple things such as sleep. You need to sleep seven hours at night because that's how your body heals. And your body produce more testosterone as well. And if you're smoking, you got to stop. If you're smoking, that. That's like, that's a dead ringer for your sex life because it's going to decrease blood flow down there. Some irreversibly, but some, if you stop smoking, you know, maybe, maybe reversible as well. And then a lot of alcohol, I'm talking about, like more than 14 drinks in a week is inflammatory. Just simple things like that, along with the treatment we have, you know, with hormones, shockwave, stem cell therapy and supplement and just changing lifestyle, all that will reverse any man that has ed. So that's treating from the inside out, but also treating the blood flow problem as well, too. And I want to mention also that Viagra is not treating your ed. All right, listeners here did well. The partner, you know, your audience is that Viagra is padding the symptoms. It does not treat ed. A lot of my men come think, oh, I'm on Viagra. My ED is treated no Viagra. Think of Viagra almost like as a drug, like a pain medicine. It's like a Percocet or oxycontin because it does it gives you short term relief, but in the long term, you're in the black hole. Why is that? Because Viagra make your body dependent upon the medication for you to get an erection. All right? Your body is used to having in the system to get an erection. And when you take Viagra, you're hijacking, you're giving up your natural response to create an erection in your body. It's like going to the gym and having a robot do bicep pull up for you. You're not doing the work. A machine is doing the work for you. So what happens? You're not going to get any, any benefit from it. And what we see is that with Viagra, only 70% of men will respond to Viagra. But then after about three to five years, you don't respond to the medication, or the medication doesn't work as well to help you with direction because the root cause of the problem is still there. The problem is maybe you're diabetic, maybe you have high blood pressure, maybe you have high cholesterol, maybe you're not sleeping, you're not exercising, you have a poor diet, you're drinking more, maybe you're still smoking. All those causes are not addressed. So that's why your ED gets worse, right? Because if you're not addressing the problem, it just erodes. I call it. If you let ED go, it's like a pus. It gets worse and worse and worse. And then your Viagra, it's just a little band aid covering that pus. You're not treating the reason for that infection at all. You just put a band aid on and go, okay, well, it looks a little bit better. Now I can go on with my life, but one of the days that pus is going to burst and that band aid of Viagra is not going to be able to cover it. I equate it to having a festering infection that you don't treat the root cause, it's only going to get worse and go deeper and it may cause more problem than you think. And simple things. I treat men that had ED the first year to men that had ED 17 years and he's 80 years old. And I'm able to restore their function is because we now are only doing treatment to restore blood flow, but we're also instituting lifestyle changes that will restore, will decrease inflammation, for one thing, but also restore more blood flow not only to the genital area, but also to the heart as well. Because when a man has better sexual function, it equates to Better health function. Because all the risk factors for sexual dysfunction is the same as heart disease as well. So you're not only treating, you're improving your sex life, you're also improving your heart health at the same time, and therefore longevity and really wellness to that. And one of the things is that, you know, the women that are listening, simple things that your partner can do to help with ed, like I just mentioned, I'm going to reiterate again because I'm so passionate about. Because there's a thing, you know, you don't know what you don't know, but now you know you can do it. What's one thing? Start with, if he's smoking, you know, he needs to stop because smoking is just. It's just a strangler for your, your ed. Number two, getting enough sleep, getting like at least six to seven hours of sleep. Number three, what type diet is he on? Is he eating? Is he eating, you know, hamburgers, French fries and chips and drinking Coke and Sprite every day? Well, no, that's not good. Get him on a Mediterranean diet. Number three, alcohol. Yes, we all. I mean, I enjoy a glass of wine. I enjoy, I'm a, I'm a bourbon girl myself. But, you know, there's a certain limit. You know, it's moderation as well. You know, he's staying around 14 drinks or less. And then stress, you know, stress is a big factor. Try to reduce your. We all have stress, but it's how you react to stress. Stress is not to you. It's how you're reacting to the situation that causes you stress. So stress is not, you know, you can control stress because of how you react to the circumstance. That's how you control your stress and stress management, like helping him realize that, you know, maybe stress, maybe he need to do more meditation, more exercise to get his mind off of that. Just those simple things that you can tweak. And I have seen patients, literally all he did was just cut off bread, cut off sodas in his diet. And he starts seeing, hey, you know what? I'm functioning a little bit better. I'm functioning, I'm sleeping better, I have more energy just by making this little tweak that goes a long ways. And what I mentioned before are the five to six levers that's really going to turn the needle that you can do on your own before you go see the doctor. And you, you may see the man, may see his. His ED actually reverses by just doing all those.

That's huge. And I think too, like you say it's overall vitality and well being. And I truly, I mean, I think that our sexual energy is our life force energy and the more that we can have that health, it affects every part of us, right? So like you say, better sexual, better blood flow, better heart, better heart health. All the things I'm wondering too, because I know you mentioned when you also are kind of looking at all these different factors when it comes to be supportive of your partner, what else could you do to be supportive? As they are looking for solutions or how could they, you know, what else can they do to be supportive?

I guess, right, what they could do is to find resources for their partner. Find resources for their partner. And, but before you do that, you have to have a conversation first because if the man not buying the man first got to, you know, realize he had the problem too. And, but you work through it together and you work through it together and, and you tell him, whatever it is, I'm right here with you. I am going on this journey with you, okay? I, I, we're going to go into it hand in hand together. Whatever support you need, I'm there, All right? That's one thing he needs to know that you're there. Because all the men I see, men love to be a provider. They want to protect, they want to provide, and they love their partner very, very much. And all the guys that I see want to get themselves better to please their partner physically and mentally. And oftentimes I wish the woman hears this, right? The women sometimes doesn't hear how much their partner cares about them is because nobody's talking. So once you open up that dialogue that, hey, I'm here for you, whatever you need, I'm support of you. Let's go on this journey together, let's move forward together for this. Because, you know, because you know, you have to realize that intimate sexuality is important in a relationship. Yes, you can still love each other without having, you know, sex in the bedroom. But when you do have that connection, physical connection, it enhances it, right? So I'm not saying every couple need to have the physical sex, but, but if you do have that component, it, it accentuates it. But that's what brought you together with that person in the first place, right? It, it's an integral, it's a mental, it's an emotional and physical connection. And the other thing is help him find the right correct resources for him to do. Like the five things I mentioned, you know, sleep, exercise, diet, smoking, alcohol, just the five things I mentioned, start with that just say, honey, you know what, let's go work out together. You know, let's. Let's go to the gym together. Let's go walking. Let's go walking. Let's, you know, have him go walking three times a week. And if he's stressed, you know, okay, let's do something together, get you out of the stressful environment, and let's go. Go watch a movie. You know, oftentimes, you know, removing him from that stress that is causing him to stressor will help a lot. But the number one thing is show your support and show that. Show him that you're. You're there for him and that when a man feels that he's not functioning sexually, it's an affront to his manhood. But when he knows that you're supportive of him, that you're not judgmental, then it frees him up of that protective barrier that he has to maintain. And I think that once that happens, I think you can together can move forward with the lifestyle modification that I. That I talk about with sleep and diet, exercise and smoking and alcohol. Just little things like that will. Will go a long way.

Yeah, I think those are big. And I think too, you know, like you say when you're having the conversation too, it's like, when you can think about, like, why is your connection important to you? Why is that something that you're missing? Why is that something that you like? What is it at the root that you really want? Like, is it the connection? Is it the physicality? Is it the closeness and just thinking? A lot of times, from what I see in my clients is like, if a partner is struggling with ed, often they might avoid anything intimate because they're afraid of not being able to perform. And it's also opening your mind of, like, what sex can look like. It doesn't always have to look like a penis in a vagina. Like, there's a million ways you can be together and have intimacy and connect. So there's still ways that you can be together and support one another as you work through it. Right. So I think that's just important to note too, so people don't. I think sometimes it's easy to just totally avoid the situation and be like, oh, we just won't even go there at all. But, like, I think the more you can, like, just be portive and know, like, you could still have a lot of fun together no matter what.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And, you know, and give. Give him. Give him supportive space, you know, whether, you know, he's working through it. But I would tell you the partner involvement and support is very important to a man struggling with ed. That when I say if a partner is supportive and he's a third, a third way better already a third of the way better. I see that all the time.

Yeah. And I'm wondering too, because I know you work with people all over. So if people are wanting to learn more about your clinic and how they can work with you, what's the best way for them to connect and learn more?

Right. So I have. There's two ways to connect with me. And I know that, you know, like I said, my big passion is education about sexual health. Because I feel that once you know, you can prevent. And before we start broadcast, I talk about, well, you know, if you knew that you shouldn't be eating candy right before you go to bed or maybe you don't brush, maybe that will prevent that I have a cavity. But if somebody never told you that, you wouldn't know. Right? Well, so knowledge and education is the power for prevention. So if you know that. Oh, okay. Dr. Trung said, well, you know, if I just change my diet and get rid of some sodas and some of that thing that will help with my erection. Oh, yeah, I'm doing it. So it got that knowledge. So that's the reason why I started a club, a membership called Modern Man Club. And that is a membership where you can join to be part of my tribe where I coach men in restoring sexual function and not be dependent upon medication. And even, sometimes those even need maybe interventional treatment. These lifestyle things and things that you can do to increase blood flow. And they can find out about that in WW mensexuality.com. okay, mensexuality.com is where they can find that. And my website is www.trongrehab spelled T R U O N G R E H-A B.com is my website. And they can also go to my website under membership. They can also check out the membership as well. Because I know that not everybody can come to my office for treatment. And I can only treat whatever I can, limited by me. But I can definitely help them, coach them through the struggle. And women and men that listening to this episode, the earlier you start, the better you're going to get. Right? You don't want to wait until you have 10 years of ED. You fail Viagra, fail Cialis that time if the disease had gone too far along to be treated with lifestyle changes. But if you start to feel, you know, let me Define what erection is. An erection is. I mean, ed. Let me find what. Define what ED is. ED can go from having an erection that's not firm enough to all the way to having an erection that you know and that is not firm and then you either have orgasm early, ejaculation early, all the way to not having any firmness at all. So people think, well, I don't have ED because I can still have an erection. That's not the case at all. ED is defined as. Defined by the World Health Organization as an inability for man to have satisfactory sexual relation and penetration. So that is what is defined as. So it's a broad spectrum. So if you're, if a man is noticing that it's taking longer for him to get firm or he gets firm and he loses it, that is, that's when it's time to start doing the lifestyle intervention that is going to make a greater impact rather than 10 years down the road after you try various medication already. And you know, that has always been my passion in that. It's like, you know, brushing your teeth every day. You know, why do we brush our teeth every day? Right. Why do we go to the dentist twice a year? It's prevention. Why don't we do the same thing for our sex life? Why don't we institute measures and prevention for our sex life? And not only our sex life, but also for our heart. Right. Which is also our wellness. So if we start kind of doing some of that, you know, it will go a long way.

I think that's so true because we just don't know what we don't know. And we haven't learned a lot about our sexuality coming along. Most of us. Right. That the education out there is poor. So people are kind of piecing together what they can and there's, there's opportunities to find what you need. So, yes, I. So thank you again for, for sharing all this wisdom because I think it's important to know the options that are out there and it doesn't always look like what you think. So I think it's important to realize what, what really can entail curing your problems versus just like band aiding and.

Like you say yes, yes. And also know, and I want to kind of mention I know that a lot of the audience is female, is that for the female, the first symptom that the female goes through perimenopause, which is the beginning of menopause and then menopause. Menopause is defined as going through 12 months without a period. Well, a Woman could go to 10 years of perimenopause. It can start from about early 40 to about mid-50s. Most women are in menopause by around 55 to 57. I was in menopause at 52. But you can go for a whole decade with it. And oftentimes the first symptom that shows up that you're in your menopause is that your libido and you're just not into it as much as you used to or it's just not as pleasurable as it used to be. And it's not because you're distracted with the kids or you're distracted with work and things like that. And it just maybe it's a little uncomfortable down there. It's not lubricated as much. So that's the first symptom. Oftentimes women say, oh no, it might work. I'm not sleeping enough. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But those are the first symptoms because, because like, you know, we don't have a penis like a man, that we can tell whether it's firm or not. Right. We just know how we feel. But if you're, you're, if symptoms of uti, if you're getting frequent uti, that's also a sign that you're in perimenopause as well, that your hormones are changing. Yeah. You have frequent UTI or that is uncomfortable down there when, you know, when you have intimacy. Just those little subtle things like that. There's nothing to your hair falling out. Noticing your, if your hair is falling out is part of the hormone change. I know. And, and it's not your fault because you start to gain weight as well, because that's just the hormone changes that happen within that whole decade for a woman. And believe me, if you're feeling those changes, your man also has some changes as well too. And that maybe there's a good time to talk to each other around that time because with the age of men start to feel that they may have not may have sexual changes. It's around the same age, around early 40s. Early 40s is when they're noticing it at that time. And so maybe it's a good time to have a conversation again. And, and for women is the same thing. You know, just know that you're in menopause and that, you know, you are just looking at your, your life, your lifestyle, you know, your diet, your exercise, sleep, stress, your smoking, your alcohol content. In fact, women drinking alcohol is very toxic for their breast tissue also as well too. And same thing for a man with prostate as well, because increased alcohol will irritate the prostate and you know, not only the prostate but also the liver as well. But for a woman, breast cancer is important for that. Just looking at those things that I mentioned for a man doesn't mean that women shouldn't be doing it. Also, if you start doing that, then you will, you will probably see an improvement in how you feel. And I'm a big advocate for hormone replacement therapy for both men and women once they're in menopause or even perimenopause. When you're in perimenopause, you can get testosterone first. And because that's the first hormone that dips when you, for a woman achieve in. When you're in perimenopause before a man, same thing, his testosterone level start to dip around age of 35.

Well, I'm glad that, you know, there's so many options that we can use for optimizing these things. And I know you also work with women and I know we could talk a whole nother episode on that. But I know we're coming to the end of our time together. So I do want to just make sure to direct everyone. I'll sign, I'll put in the show notes too, to go to your website because there's all kinds of great resources there as well. And you have a whole booklet you can download on erectile dysfunction. And also there's a whole section on women's health. And so all the things are there. There's so many resources and, and too, and also I'm wondering too, is there any maybe last words or anything that you feel is really important to share or maybe a question that I didn't ask that you wished I would have asked.

Right, Right. I think that the final thought I want to leave for your listeners is that sex you can have sexual vitality for life doesn't necessarily mean when grandma didn't have sex. I mean you can't either because grandma just didn't know it. Didn't know. Nobody told her that, that you can have sexual vitality and sexual enjoyment for life. You just, you just need to start taking care of yourself now for the longevity. Okay. And that, you know, for, for anti aging and living with longer, with better quality of life that you start thinking about hormone replacement therapy. Bioidentical. Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy for a woman, you're going to need that testosterone, you're going to end that estrogen, that estrogen and progesterone, because it's a lame game changer for me when I was on, when I got started on hormones at age of 52 and the game changer for my husband as well. I mean I have seen multiple men and women said that, you know, hormone changed their life. They were on the brink of getting a divorce, on the brink, suicidal brink, until we started doing hormones. And they're like a whole new different, different person. I, I saw a 37 year old cop who came to see me and he was depressed and you know, he had ed. He couldn't sleep, he just felt horrible. He thought there was something wrong with him. Yeah. And we put, we gave him testosterone pellet and he now, you know, he's sleeping better, he's having better sex life, he's having better connection with his girlfriend. He's more alert, more focused, he's feeling more strong, he's able to do his job. Before he was worried that he may not be able to do his job, you know, as a cop and for a woman. I see women, you know, they come in, they have foggy brains. Another thing too, between the 40s and 50s, you feel like sometimes you're like. I hear a lot of women say I feel like I'm losing my mind. I feel like I'm going crazy. Well, you're not because your hormones are dipping and you're just not remembering that. As for me, when I was 50, I forgot how to drive home from my work to my house. I thought I was going crazy because I got to my car and I didn't know how to. I forgot the road back. And for me that's very unusual. This is, this is the road I've been driving through for 15 years. And that's what hormone did to me. When I didn't have hormone replacement therapy, I became foggy brain and I had, you know, at that time was having hot flashes. So for women is more subtle and sometimes you don't notice it as much as for a man. So my end point is yes, you can have sexual vitality for life. And you start with these recommendations that I mentioned now and that as you get older, see hormone replacement therapy doctor and maybe get supplemented with hormones as well. Because I think it's a game changer and it, it's a game changer for quality of life. It's also protect your bone too. It protect prevent women from getting osteoporosis because I see women getting osteoporosis as like a neglect, a neglect in the healthcare system in helping her get the treatment that she needs and as you and I both know that the disparity in treatment, medical treatment for men and women. Right. Well, actually. I can't hear you.

Sorry, I forgot to unmute myself. I was gonna say thank you so much again for sharing your wisdom and for taking the time to come on and I will again share everything in the show notes and yeah, and I just am looking forward to sharing this and I know that the listeners. I just want to thank you too for listening and just, you know, if there's anything that really hit home that you want to learn more about, I'll invite you to reach out to Dr. Truong and let her support you. Thank you again.

Thank you. You.

Thank you so much for listening to the Find your Feminine Fire podcast. This is your host, Amanda Testa. And if you have felt a calling while listening to this podcast to take this work to a deeper level, this is your golden invitation. I invite you to reach out. You can contact me@amandatesta.com activate and we can have a heart to heart to discuss more about how this work can transform your life. You can also join us on Facebook and the group Find you'd Feminine Fire Group. And if you've enjoyed this podcast, please share with your friends, go to itunes and give me a five star rating and a raving review so I can connect with other amazing listeners like yourself. Thank you so much for being a.

Part of the community, Sam.