In this episode Dr. Anne Truong, an intimate health physician and author, walks listeners through a comprehensive, root‑cause approach to low testosterone, erectile dysfunction (ED) and delayed ejaculation. She argues that many men treat symptoms without understanding underlying hormonal or vascular issues. Dr. Truong explains that optimal testosterone levels are individualized and can be assessed with the ADAM questionnaire and laboratory testing. She introduces a rapid salivary cortisol test to gauge stress, emphasizing stress reduction as a key lever for hormone balance. The core lifestyle “four pillars” she recommends are adequate nighttime sleep (10 pm‑6 am), stress management, a Mediterranean diet (claimed to raise testosterone 30‑40% and improve cardiovascular health), and high‑intensity interval training, plus smoking/vaping cessation. She stresses that any natural remedy for harder erections must first identify the cause—diet, stress, obesity, nicotine, pornography, or vascular issues such as venous leak. The Mediterranean diet is presented in detail, with a free downloadable PDF and endorsement from patient testimonials. Dr. Truong then shifts to anatomical and hormonal contributors to delayed ejaculation, describing prostate enlargement, low testosterone, high prolactin, medication side‑effects, diabetes, sleep apnea, and neurological disease. She outlines a thorough work‑up: PSA and rectal exam, testosterone, prolactin, thyroid, hemoglobin A1C, lipid panel, and when indicated brain MRI for pituitary pathology. Throughout, she cautions against relying on ED medications as a band‑aid that ignores root causes, positioning lifestyle and targeted diagnostics as the sustainable solution. The episode concludes with a call to action to visit her website for resources and to consult a sexual health specialist for personalized care.
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Is your testosterone actually low, or are you just treating the wrong problem? Most men dealing with ED, low energy, and stress are just trying to fix the symptoms while completely ignoring the root cause. Medication isn't your only option. Coming up, I am going to show you the exact test you need to take to find out what is really going on with your hormones. Plus the science-backed natural routine to get your drive back. Let's get into it.
This podcast is for you, the modern man. I'm Dr. Anne Truong, your host. I'm an intimate health medical doctor and bestselling author of the book Erectile Dysfunction Fix. I'll do a deep dive into sexual health and performance and how it affects men of all ages and backgrounds. So let's get started and be sure to visit my website at sexualhealthformenpodcast.com For more information and resources from the show. See you on the inside.
I'm 35. What is the optimal level of testosterone for someone my age? It's not the same for every man at 35. Testosterone is personalized because the testosterone receptor It depends upon your genes. So, Lebo, you may be happy at 600 and somebody else will be happy at 700. So there is no number for everyone. It is personalized. So think of it, the testosterone level that make you feel good, that is where the range you want to be at. And I see this in my practice. In my practice, I give men pellets, injection. I never jack up the level to as high as possible. I just get them to a level where they feel good. Now, how do I know they feel good? I have them do the ADAM test. ADAM stands for Androgen Male Test. ADAM, A-D-A-M. And that test asks you 7 questions that is related to testosterone deficiency. And if you answer question 1 and question 7 as yes, then you have low testosterone, or 3 out of the 7, you have low testosterone. But most of the time, it's how you feel. And it doesn't usually affect your libido. The penis also have receptor for testosterone as well too. So the answer to your question is, it's personalized to you. It depends on how good you feel on testosterone. So it's not a number. Don't go by number. Go by how you feel. So that is the answer. So follow-up question on Libo. Is there a way to increase testosterone without pharmaceutical? Yes, you can. You can increase testosterone by decreasing your stress. Stress lowers testosterone. Decrease your stress. Now in our office, we have a way now to measure your cortisol, which is the stress hormone, through your saliva in the office within like 10 minutes, and you get real-life data for that. Okay. And if you're interested in getting that test, you can contact our office and we'll mail that test for you. And you can actually get the test on your app as well. You can follow that cortisol has to be measured through saliva, not through blood work, okay? For more accuracy. And so you can decrease your stress, improving your sleep, sleep 7 hours at nighttime. What's nighttime? Between 10 PM to 6 AM. That's when your body makes more testosterone. Number 3, Mediterranean diet. If you follow Mediterranean diet, your testosterone level will increase probably 30 to 40% naturally. Stop eating processed food. Exercise. If you do high-intensity interval exercise, you will also increase your testosterone. You got to do that about 30 minutes, 4 times a week. Those are the main ones because I see with my patients, when they start changing their diet, their testosterone level increases. Sometimes it will go from 300 to like 600, usually within about 6 weeks. And stop smoking because smoking will lower your testosterone. The big main levers are sleep, reduce your stress, Mediterranean diet, and exercise, stop smoking. And so those are the natural things that you can do to raise your testosterone level. And nothing necessarily means high level is a good level. Like I said earlier, testosterone level is all personalized. Upon following that, Tommaso asked, I want to know some natural remedy for Harder erection. Well, first of all, before you go for the natural remedy, you have to find out why you're not having hard erection. Not having a hard erection itself is erectile dysfunction. It's having ED. And most of the time, I'm telling you, the younger you are, it's going to be related to your diet, your stress level, exercise, your obesity. Are you sleeping? Are you doing vaping? Are you smoking? I want to tell you this, if you are vaping or nicotine, it's the same thing as smoking cigarettes. Probably even worse because of the vapors that goes into your lungs. Are you using porn? Because all those affect your erection. And when you're not having a hard erection, mainly because it is being asleep. And so you have to look at what is the reason why you're not having hard erection. Because if you're taking supplement or natural remedy, you really don't know why. So first of all, find out why you're not having hard erection. Is it your diet? What type of food are you eating? Are you eating fast food? Are you eating vegetable? Mediterranean diet focuses on lean meat like chicken, fish, pork, and then vegetables, all sorts of vegetables. All right, less of processed food. What is processed food? Anything that's in a can, a bag, or a box. Eat what the earth grows for you. And then exercise. Are you exercising at least 30 minutes, 3 or 4 times a week? And are you sleeping 7 hours at nighttime? Those are the things that you Can do to help with your soft erection. And you can follow the Mediterranean diet at eatfornoed.com, right there for the Mediterranean diet. So when you're not staying hard longer, it's because you're going soft quickly, and that's usually due to venous leak. So everything I'm telling you right now will help with not only staying harder, but staying harder longer. So you get your testosterone level checked. All right, maybe you have low testosterone. That's why you're having delayed ejaculation as well. But you need to get your prostate level checked as well if you're having delayed ejaculation. So what should you do when you are not getting as hard? First of all, check to see what diet you're on. Are you exercising? Are you sleeping? How is your stress level? You're high stress, then you need to reduce your stress through either exercise or through meditation. At that point, Stop vaping, stop cigarettes, and look at your medication. Sometimes high blood pressure medication can contribute to it as well. So those are the natural remedies. Find out why you have soft erection, and then once you correct that through the 4 pillars of diet, exercise, sleep, and stress reduction, then you will see a better improved erection. And sometimes it will take about 3 months, 6 months to get there. So it's almost like weight loss. Everybody that starts the Mediterranean diet starts to lose weight. Men, if your erection is not as good as it used to be, it's a cue for you to start getting healthy again. It's really Mother Nature's way of saying you need to get healthy again. And when you follow the Mediterranean diet, most people drop 20 pounds pretty quickly because the Mediterranean diet will help you with the weight loss as well as anti-inflammation. Miguel Alvarez says, I wanted to appreciate, have tried Mediterranean diet, have seen my energy improving, sleep better, and overall improvement in my quality of life. Love it. Thank you, Miguel. Thank you for that positive feedback. If you have not tried the Mediterranean diet, you can get it for free. Scan that QR code or go to eat4noed.com. You can get the Mediterranean diet for free. All right? Free. And we deliver the PDF to your email. 'Cause I want you all to know, to appreciate the Mediterranean diet will make a lot of difference for y'all. Not only help you lose weight, decrease your blood pressure, good for your heart health, but also help you lose weight as well too, and help your erection. The simple thing about Mediterranean diet is that you're allowed red wine, you're allowed 2 slices of bread a day. So it's not as restrictive as you think. And essentially eat what the Mother Earth gave you. And you can eat as much as you want. So there's no limit in the quantity that you can eat and you don't go hungry. Now, if you feed your body what it needs, it's gonna tell you to eat less. So if you feed your body healthy food, you actually end up eating less, believe it or not. Because you notice if you eat like fast food, you end up eating more because it's so much processed. So go to eat4noed to download the Mediterranean diet. I can't tell you how powerful the Mediterranean diet will lower your blood pressure. It will also lower your blood sugar as well, help with your erection. It is recommended by the American Diabetic Association as well as the American Cardiology Association. For your heart. So guys, if you have ED, it's a warning sign that about 5 to 10 years down the road, you may have a heart attack. So it's really your flashing warning light that says, guys, take care of your health. You don't take care of your health, you're going to have heart problems later on. So it's really Mother Nature's way of saying, take care of yourself or you're going to start having issues. All right. And it starts— shows up in your sexual function in your penis because the penis blood vessel is the smallest in the body. The blood vessel that goes to the penis is about 1 to 2 millimeters. The blood vessel that goes to the heart is about 3 to 4 millimeters. So it affects your penis first, then it affects your heart. And you have about 5 years to take care of it. So the last thing you want to do when you have ED is to take ED medication because ED medication doesn't address the root cause of why you have ED. It's just a Band-Aid on an infected wound that oozing out pus. So it's a wound that's oozing out pus, you just put a Band-Aid on it, right? It may keep the pus in there, but it's not the solution for it. Because over time, men that take ED medication, it stops working, or you have to go up on the dose. But then during the meantime, the reason why you have ED is not addressed. So follow the Mediterranean diet there. Okay, modern man, if you're struggling with weak erection, low energy, the food you eat Could be the big part of the problem. One of the best research-backed ways to boost circulation, support healthy testosterone, and improve sexual performance is the Mediterranean diet. It's packed with food that open up your blood vessel, lower inflammation, and fuel your hormone naturally. I've seen men notice real improvement in both energy and erection within weeks when they shift To this style of eating. So check out the Mediterranean diet link right here below and get that as soon as you can. Stronger testosterone and better erection. So let's kind of talk about what are some of the reasons for delayed ejaculation. Sometimes delayed ejaculation could be insensitivity, less sensation in the penis because of low testosterone. Also, when you have soft Erection, it also have less sensation due to ED as well too. And then it's also be due to enlarged prostate. When you have a large prostate, here is the bladder. Here's the body cut in half. Here's your bladder, and here is your prostate. The prostate is a little gland that goes— that your urethra, or the tube that you urinate, go through. So your urethra goes through the prostate. And then goes to the penis, and it's where you urinate. And this is your testicle. So this is your prostate here. The function of the prostate is to help you produce semen, and it's right below the bladder. This is the seminal vesicles where all the sperm are stored, which then is mixed with the fluid, and then you ejaculate that. But the urethra, or the tube that carries your urine out to your penis, it goes through the prostate. But the prostate is enlarged. It's going to clamp down on the urethra, which is— Like right here, you can see that white, that's the urethra. So if the prostate is enlarged, it'll clamp down on there, and it'll be hard for you to ejaculate. And then also, when you don't have enough water, it will also cause delayed ejaculation. So delayed ejaculation could also be medication-related as well, such as depression medicine, SSRIs, antipsychotics, and finasteride. Depression, anxiety can cause delayed ejaculation. Frequent masturbation. When you're masturbating a lot, that can cause delayed ejaculation. Now, of course, you know, diabetes can cause delayed ejaculation as well as nerve damage from stroke or multiple sclerosis or spinal cord injury. Post-prostatectomy, when you have a prostate removed, you don't ejaculate actually. Low testosterone will also affect that as well. As high prolactin level. Sometimes you'll have aging. Sometimes aging will affect the delayed ejaculation. Sleep apnea also causes delayed ejaculation as well too. So the workup is to get your prostate checked, get your PSA checked by rectal exam. So the only way to examine the prostate is through the rectum where the doctor put their hand in there to examine for the prostate, okay?
Medication review.
And get your testosterone level checked, your prolactin level checked, and your thyroid levels checked. Make sure you get your hemoglobin A1C, measure your blood sugar level as well as your lipids level. For any type of inflammation or nerve problem that continues, make sure that you don't have a high prolactin level. Sometimes you'll need like an MRI of your brain to make sure there's no pituitary problem or pituitary enlargement, which may cause A high prolactin, and also you need to check your thyroid. Okay, so there's many causes of that. So definitely you have to go see your doctor. And I did name most of the causes of delayed ejaculation that you should consider. So guys, you know, when it comes to having problems such as delayed ejaculation, ED, you really need to go see a sexual health specialist doctor who can really address it comprehensively.
Thanks for listening to the Sexual Health for Men podcast. If you love this episode, then please take a screenshot on your phone and post it on Facebook, Instagram, or wherever you post. And be sure to tag me and let me know why you like this episode and what you'd like to hear in the future. That will help me know what's great for you. And I would love to give you the most incredible free gift designed to help you improve performance quickly. Go Go to my website at sexualhealthformenpodcast.com to get the book, The 5 Common Costly Mistakes Men Make When Facing ED. I would appreciate it if you subscribe, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen, and just know that you can have sexual vitality for life. I appreciate you. Until next time.
