Dr. Joshua John-Ram Schacter, an orthopedic surgeon, shares his 15-year experience with bioidentical hormone replacement therapy after being diagnosed with low testosterone at 300 ng/dL in his early 30s. He had fatigue, brain fog, and joint pain that improved significantly with BHRT, restoring his sleep, sex drive, and gym performance.
Questions this video answers
Around 300 ng/dL (he contrasts this with a cited normal of near 1000).
About 20 years.
About 15 years.
Pinnacol Integrative Orthopedics & Sports Medicine in downtown Wichita Falls.
Today I want to talk to you a little bit about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy and the amazing advances that have been made in this field, as well as what it can do to help you. Using myself as an example, I am a board certified orthopedic surgeon. I have been performing orthopedic surgery for 20 years and I've done thousands of joint and reconstructive procedures. And I also am a recovering hormone train wreck. So in my early 30s, I, I was diagnosed with low testosterone. I got my testosterone checked and it was around 300 and normal levels should be up near a thousand. So obviously that was not optimal. My symptoms were significant. I had fatigue, I had exercise intolerance, and I am a workout fiend. And so it was really not tolerable for me. I had decreased sex drive and brain fog. I had all of the real problems that would be associated with loss of sex hormones. And so I became interested in hormone replacement therapy for myself. And so I feel like I'm the best testimonial that I can give for bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. And so if you are feeling fatigue, decreased sex drive, if you've had unwanted weight gain, if you have systemic inflammatory issues, if you have joint pain, then bioidentical hormone replacement therapy can be one of the measures that can help you to reach what we call the peak of wellness and can help you live longer, better, more productive lives. Before hormone replacement therapy, I was very fatigued. As I said, I had a significant trouble with exercise, and even my work activities were affected. When we have low hormones, oftentimes when we go through andropause or menopause. Menopause, and men and women do this usually in our mid to late 30s, but sometimes earlier. What can increase the risk of andropause or menopause? Stressful lives. And who doesn't have a stressful life at this point? So what are some of the effects that we can see with low hormones? We can see fatigue, we can see unwanted weight gain. And oftentimes people who have low hormones can gain an average of £20 when they go through andro or menopause. We see joint pain or muscular pain, and we see decreased exercise tolerance. And so all of these things sort of combine to decrease our overall health span. Part of the most important thing that we can do for a patient with joint pain or any health issue is to address hormone and lifestyle imbalances. And so that's part of what we do here at Pinnacol, Integrative Orthopedics and sports medicine clinic in downtown Wichita Falls. I personally have been on hormone replacement therapy for about 15 years, and what I found is when I started hormone replacement therapy, immediately I began to sleep better. I found that my sex drive was improved, that my performance in the gym was drastically improved. But interestingly, I found that my overall musculoskeletal health, the pain that I had in my joints and in my muscles, was drastically decreased when we balanced my hormones. And that's continued to hold out even to today. And so I routinely will recommend hormone replacement therapy or at least evaluation for hormone replacement therapy for the majority of my patients. So how can we get you to the peak of wellness? Well, we need you to come on in, talk to us about being evaluated for one of our wellness programs. You can visit our website@pinnacleorthowichita falls.com or you can give us a call 940-285-5007 and we'd be happy to talk to you. My recommendation is always don't let something that's preventable, something that's changeable affect your lifestyle. Don't let something that's preventable and something changeable reduce your lifespan or your health. Certainly intervention in the hormone replacement therapy realm can help many, many people, and we look forward to seeing you and helping you achieve the peak of wellness.
