Not Just for Men, Why Women Need Testosterone, Too!

Real quick, before we dive into this episode, I have a little sleep secret I want to tell you about. Look, sleep is crucial for your fitness, but it's crucial for just plain old everyday life and function. And I find I sleep great unless I have a migraine. And I've had more than my fair share since perimenopause all the way through postmenopause. My secret weapon was Blue Sky CBD sleep gels. Each gel contains 25mg of CBD and 25mg CBN for deep restorative sleep. Something about it helps to reduce inflammation, which I believe for me was key in helping me get to sleep. But the biggest thing is so many of the over-the-counter solutions, whether for sleep or migraines, can ruin gut health, and liver health. Neither one of those did I want to be problematic for me. So this option is recommended by healthcare providers worldwide and backed by thousands of happy customers, many of whom come from our Flipping 50 community. There is zero THC, so it's non-habit-forming. It's made by a trusted family-owned company that we all can feel good about. Third-party tested for purity and potency. And if you're interested, you too can try a sample for just $6. But even better, you can get 30% off forever with discount code FLIPPING50. That's FLIPPING50. Just go to flipping50.com/blueskycbd. We'll put that link in the show notes and you'll find it everywhere on Flipping 50 at My Favorites. What are you waiting for? Good night. Hey, lady, do you know where your testosterone is? You're gonna want to know. The most abundant hormone in women is testosterone. Are you surprised? So yes, it's a lower percentage compared to men, but still, it is ultimately important for us. For instance, healthy male ranges in a 2022 PubMed study stated their level should be between about 300 to 1,000. So just to give you some perspective, in women, their healthy ranges are between 15 and 17. Now, this is not going to mean a lot to you, is ng/dL, you know, per deciliter. So just use the ranges. But, you know, 300 to 1,000, that's a different range than 15 to 70. So by comparison, however, realize that in proportion to all of our collective hormone cocktail that makes us who we are, we need testosterone. So that is through, uh, Centers for Disease Control lists something else. I want to mention this, they list 8 through 49. So when you're working with a functional doctor you know, and you don't feel good and you're, say, at an 8, your labs may come back saying, oh, you're normal. And your, your functional doctor will have a very different opinion and say, well, do you want to be optimal or normal, right? Normal means a base of ranges based on people, a lot of people who don't feel good. It just means like you're in the average, you're right there, you Yep. Good. Okay. You're normal. 'Cause normal people don't feel all that good. You've gotta keep that in mind. And when we're talking Centers for Disease Control or.gov or.org, that's kind of what we're getting is averages. So just be cautious, be thoughtful about how should I take this in, right? The importance of this differential is this: are you focused on optimal ranges or on norms? And choosing a conservative governmental guideline or anyone who's quoting them, if you don't feel good, may leave out missing peer-reviewed evidence that other information exists. Just a reminder that it takes almost 2 decades, that's an average of 17 years actually, for research to make it into mainstream, meaning where position statements or guidelines or norms on a test result would change. And it takes even longer to change a position statement or governmental guideline and minds and habits of professionals who have been doing things for decades because their minds are skewed a certain way too. And when we talk about medical professionals, and kudos to them and so much respect to all of them, No disrespect intended, but I think that we all know that there is, for anyone, the fear of litigation is a bigger fear in, in any business, and medicine is a business, than it has ever been before. And I think if you've been operating a certain way, pun intended, I don't mean operating, operating on people, but if you've been working or getting by practicing in a certain way with a certain grouping of information and getting a certain consistency in result, at least that you know how to handle the prescription that might come with it, you may not be willing to change. And it's just confidence and information that we all have to establish about our own ability to advocate for ourselves when we don't feel good and when we want a second or third opinion. You know, anything that is new information often goes through these stages. First, it's ridiculed. So often people will say, oh, that's not true, or that's hocus pocus, or it's voodoo. Literally, a friend told me that his doctor referred to something a functional doctor had said as, "Oh, that's voodoo, that's not true." It's like, okay, really? Interesting. But you know, it's the openness to new information. Are we willing to stay open to what else might be true when something else isn't working? But it will first be ridiculed. And next, there'll be curiosity, but still resistance. And next, there's generally acceptance, like, no, okay, now we've accepted it and adopted it. And then the fourth is assumed as correct, as if they've believed it all along, right? And that is like the four steps that almost anything that people resist at first goes through. When you look historically at people who were inventors, you know, like the light bulb and electricity, you know, anything that was a brand new discovery, the people who were behind those things, others thought were crazy at the time, right? And, you know, we've got to remember and remind ourselves that often, you know, some of the things that we want to do that other people resist or think you're weird Some of the greatest people that are behind some of the things we enjoy on an everyday basis had to deal with that their entire lives, every single day. And we're less maybe willing to endure that kind of structure, and so we're later and slower to adopt things that could help us. So Just throwing that out there as food for thought. And I'm sure there are areas in my life where I am exactly, exactly that, resistant to change. So recently, while I was experimenting with ways to stabilize levels of my hormones, my own hormones overall, my tested level for testosterone was well below 15, uh, in, in In fact, it was a 6. So not a great way to boost lean muscle mass. And I knew it. I could tell when I had, uh, tested earlier in the year, beginning of the year, like January, my strength was really great. Um, lots of energy. I was seeing lots of increases in the weights that I was lifting and seeing the muscle definition and the benefit. And then a few months later, not so much. It's like What happened and why are those same weights that I was lifting in January heavier now? I'm not, you know, I'm cycling through in and out, heavier and lighter, so I'm not getting burnout. It's not that, but like, what? What's going on? And I'm not seeing or enjoying as much. And we're all very unique. Like, I see the details that you don't see. You see details on yourself that someone else doesn't. So I'm nitpicking. Potentially, but I just wasn't seeing the same definition, you know, that I feel like I deserve that reward. Where is it, please? You know, so, and that is largely related to testosterone. So I knew it. So where I was once lifting X pounds, and I'm gonna put X pounds just that, not only here but in the, in the show notes, because, you know, I put that because I'm leaving numbers out. What I lift is not any of your business. I don't want you to compare what you lift to what I lift, or to think, oh, that's really heavy, or I could never do that. It doesn't matter. Heavy is heavy. So when we're talking about 10 or fewer repetitions, what is that for you? So that is your X. That's all you're going to fill in. But when I was lifting X, you know, I was struggling. Then all of a sudden I was struggling with X minus, right? It was like, why? There should be no comparison of weight that I lift to weight that you lift. Heavy for you is reaching fatigue at the number of repetitions that you reach. But I wasn't able to lift the same weight to fatigue that I had months before. Now, that's generally not the way we expect fitness to go when you're working positively on the fitness. So what was normal and challenging just a few months ago was suddenly not even doable. So I knew my testosterone levels were off. I knew something was wrong. So there are other signs that you might want to observe that your testosterone levels are low. One, low sex drive, like you just don't have any interest. And bone density. Now obviously we don't see that on a day-to-day scale, and I know some of the smart scales are suggesting that they can tell you bone density whether or not they can actually do that really well. I would question, but if you've had a DEXA scan and you've had one one year and then the next year and you're not taking testosterone, or if you are and you wonder, hmm, could that be off for me, it would be worth investigating. Vaginal dryness. So we're not just talking low sex drive, but if you have vaginal dryness, you have no interest in intercourse may be also painful. I'm going to put a link to Dr. Anna Cabeca's Julva product if you happen to be listening to this in August. And it doesn't matter honestly to me what, what time of year you're listening to this, but I want to make sure that you are trying that if you never have. There is a trial size you can get it, I think, for shipping costs, which is next to nothing. But I've had women who I was private coaching actually start using that. She was starting to use it for the dryness. However, she didn't tell me she had also had incontinence for years, and she had had a sling put in that's surgically supporting incontinence, and that really didn't work for her. However, the Julva did improve her incontinence, and it's a part of the same deal. So when you have pelvic floor weakness incontinence may be an issue, and that could be fecal or urinary bladder incontinence. It could be either. And I know these are not pretty things to talk about, but if I don't talk about them, where else do you hear these things, right? So we don't talk about these necessarily over cocktails with our girlfriends either. So let's, let's talk about it. And when we're exercising, sometimes it's an excuse or a reason why you don't want to, or don't want to in public, even though you would enjoy and welcome the social social engagement. And we don't want anybody choosing not to exercise for that reason if we can help it. So it may be something that you want to give a try to. And the other thing you will notice is it's quite fun if you're using it for lubrication. It's got a little heat to it. So if you've ever experienced putting on Icy Hot minus the methanol or the menthol There we go. Um, it's got that little feel, so it's good for both of you. Just saying. So the farther I'm going— okay, so signs that your testosterone levels are low, aside from not seeing the muscle tone that you deserve and/or not being as strong as you were: low sex drive, bone density changes, declines, vaginal dryness, low muscle mass. I did mention that one. And with the low muscle mass increased belly fat or fat overall, because if you have low muscle mass, what's happening? Lower muscle means higher fat generally. I mean, you're probably not losing weight, it's, it's having an effect on your body composition. Too high of testosterone in females can result in acne, excess hair on your face, your back, your chest. And when I say excess hair, I don't just mean like the overall peach fuzz. You know, some of us got the gift of just more peach fuzz all over. I'm one of those people, I don't know about you, but not talking about that necessarily, but generally you're, you know, more dark hairs, a couple more dark hairs on the, on your chin or randomly on your cheek or your neck or your upper lip, but there tends to be a little bit more of that. It's like, where'd that guy come from, right? But that could be also true of more hair on your back or your chest. I don't hear as many women complain about that as I think it's facial hair that bothers everybody. Oily skin, and that kind of comes hand in hand with the, the acne and the breakouts. Irregular periods, and that is for those of you of course that are still cycling, but otherwise not so true in females. Most testosterone converts into the sex hormone estradiol. So you've got to know that that may be what's happening in females. Ovaries produce testosterone and the adrenals produce a small amount of testosterone, but not much. So if your adrenals are stressed, you're overstressed, guess what? Yeah, well, you're not producing as much testosterone. So you've got to look at that when you're overworked, you're overexhausted, and maybe you're trying to over-exercise. That could be very counterproductive for you because your libido is going to be down, your fatigue is down, your lean muscle mass will go down, all because your testosterone is also being dinged. So while testosterone is most known for sex drive and for libido and then for muscle, it's also important for your bone and mental health and maintaining balance in your other hormones. So it kind of just keeps the peace there. Testosterone's role in the human body, and this is for males and females, it's blood cells, blood cell health, um, body fat distribution and the use of body fat for fuel, your bone density. We've talked about muscle strength, sex drive, breast health, and mental health. So cognition, and this is where we like to use this term that testosterone helps everything from the boardroom to the bedroom. It helps you have that kind of alpha be able to be in charge. And, and I don't mean, you know, be a bitch. I mean, just be a boss, be in charge, be okay with being the leader and assuming responsibility and not being necessarily what I would say aggressive in a negative way, but being willing to take initiative and get things done. That, that little piece is testosterone. So if you feel like you've lost that edge, you know, sometimes that is related. And if you've got any of the other physical things like the loss of muscle, loss of libido, they could very well be linked. So most common testing reveals what's called total testosterone levels, and that is a measure of both testosterone that is attached to proteins in the body and those not attached, and that's referred to as free testosterone. It's less common to test free testosterone, but that measure is available. If you know you're working with a functional doctor potentially and they're testing testosterone and maybe they're getting some results that just seem— this is a little puzzling and they might want to dig a little deeper, they may also be testing your free testosterone. There's also something called the test for bioavailable testosterone. And if you're working again with a physician who may have deemed, you know, it important to know because maybe there is a medical condition they want a few clues on, you might probably be doing that only only in that case. But generally, Western medicine is certainly not going to order those tests, and you might not do it as a first pass either if we're just looking for how can we rebalance, you know, losses and decline of hormones that have occurred since menopause. There are ways that you can support your own testosterone levels if you decide, I don't want to take, uh, androgens, I don't want to take testosterone. Lifting weights with intensity will help boost your testosterone levels. Well, I will give you the flip side as well. Things that kill testosterone would include endurance training. So if you're doing a lot of endurance exercise— and I got to tell you, whoever you are listening, this is relative. So if you're used to— you've done this forever, gone for 45-minute walks in the morning, and that's your norm, and that still feels good— that's not necessarily endurance training. But if you're coming off the couch and you're used to doing, maybe you've done 20-minute walks but not very often, and now you start going 45. For you, 45 minutes might be endurance training, so it might not be the best thing for you. But particularly if you are kind of approaching that 45 to 60 minute or longer chronic cardio where you just go out and you're just going for a run and you're just doing that moderate exercise that maybe used to be okay, that actually is not helping your testosterone levels. You need some of the explosive work, the powerful work that comes with strength training and/or that comes with high-intensity interval training. So HIIT, not a lot of it. And this is really important. So we all tend to think, oh, strength is good, I should strength train more often. No, no, no. You should strength train when you should strength train and then you should recover when you should recover. And likewise with HIIT. Yeah, you should do a little bit of it every week. That'll help your testosterone. Doing more of that every week will ruin your testosterone. So you're just looking for where's my sweet spot, and it's, you know, probably 2 or 3 times a week, maybe doing 10 minutes at most of hard, hard, easy, hard, easy, and a warm-up and a cool-down on either side of it. That's probably the best. So think of it as a dose, like you would take medication on a regular spread throughout the week evenly pace, probably going to be better for you than doing long of anything. So it's probably not going to elevate— by the way, HIIT is not going to elevate your testosterone a lot, but it's not going to kill it, and you're going to maintain a little more lean muscle tissue. There's maybe a slight chance you might increase your fast-twitch muscle fiber doing HIIT, so it's still a benefit. Adequate protein levels also, and usually I'm going to put this in parentheses, is more than you think most of the time. So unless you've really tuned into that very recently, it's more than you think. So other things that kill testosterone— we've already said endurance exercise, sugar, any kind of sugar, and alcohol, which metabolizes sugar. So if you're drinking and you're very stressed and you've got a sweet tooth and you're doing endurance exercise, you're killing your testosterone. And said to a friend of mine who I hope is listening. Sometimes you won't listen to your friends even though they're experts who have a podcast. You have to pay a functional doctor to listen to them, said to my friend with respect. Okay, so it's not just normal menopause or stress decreasing testosterone levels. Hormone disruptors are everywhere. And they can impact your testosterone levels as well as other hormones. So these hormone disruptors decrease testosterone production or reduce use of testosterone by your body or reduce your free testosterone. So I'm going to list a few of them. Now, this is by no means an all-inclusive list, and we do— I have for years had a freebie for you. It's like a Do It Yourself, you know, 14 Days Stress Less Challenge. So you can read through it, you can remove things day by day, reduce your stress overload. And if you want that freebie, we'll put it in the show notes. But one of those is BPA. This is a hormone disruptor. So the plastics that are used everywhere, if you're still drinking water out of a plastic water bottle. You know, when you buy those 30-case water bottles, the cheap ones at the store still, please don't do that, or do it at the least frequency you possibly can. And don't leave them in any warm car and then come back and drink it again, because that sun beat the plastic into the water and now you're just drinking that plastic. Don't store food in plastics. So avoid heating food. I know we all used to do it. Don't anymore. Avoid plastic water bottles. Use glass and stainless steel. Mentioned that one. Avoid paper receipts. Try not to handle paper receipts. And also, I'm about to get a puppy, can you tell? Don't let your puppy touch them or get a hold of them. And avoid BPA-lined cans if you can help it. Many of them are, and they will say BPA-free But if you have to or still have some, you know, be, be sure you're rinsing whatever was inside of them, the beans or the vegetables, whatever. Pesticides. I would have, and I have for myself the majority of time now, sometimes I'm slacking, but a no shoes policy inside your house, you know, choose organics when possible, wash produce before you're consuming it. And all of these things may seem, oh, it's not that big a deal, you know, but it is. Little by little, all of these things are adding up inside of your body. And when they go in, they don't just come back out. They stuck and they get stuck and they are encapsulated in fat and makes us fat resistant, fat loss resistant, because your fat doesn't want to release those toxins where it knows it's harmful to your body. There are things called forever chemicals. So farm-raised fish and meat can be devastating as far as the consumption. So when you go to the store and you're looking at the Atlantic salmon, when it says farm-raised, don't do it. Do the wild-caught. Yep, it might have more bone. Do it anyway. And, uh, In many dairy products, you've also got these kind of forever chemicals. What it's doing is giving it more shelf life, and you don't want to do that. Keep paints, toxic products that maybe if you grew up like I did, and even in my adult life, probably too often had many toxic products, cleaners underneath the kitchen sink. Why would we do that? Like, near the place where we have food in the same environment, you know? I mean, toxins are passed through air and breathed in even though we can't smell them necessarily. So store those toxins outside. Try to eliminate toxic cleaning products as much as you possibly can. But I think paints, toxic products in your garage, away from the kitchen, living areas. Find other ways to spray your yard. I now have like landscapers who come to spray for weeds, but it's non-toxic, you know. And it's, you know, I asked the last time he was here— I didn't even have a pet yet— but I said, if I had a pet, like, what, what's the deal? Like, how, how long would it be before I could let the pet out, you know? And so we talked specifically about that, but they're using things that are less toxic both for people and for pets. But all of these things are so very important, and they add up, each and every one of them. And then parabens. So now you're reading labels. Hopefully read your personal care labels very carefully. Anything you put on your skin every day— the lotions, the soaps, the cleansers, the toothpaste, the shampoo, the conditioner— all of it so very important. If you wear fragrance, consider the fact that fragrance is a a chemical. It's a hormone disruptor. And even if not for yourself, if you are somebody who sees patients on a regular basis, that fragrance could actually be offending someone and/or making them ill. Buy plant-based, organic personal products whenever you can, whenever it's in your budget, and particularly in those things that you do on a regular basis. You know, if once a year you go to McDonald's so be it. It's going to McDonald's every day that's gonna kill you, and it's whatever you're putting in your hair, your shampoo, your skin, you're breathing in, you're putting on your body that your body is absorbing every single day that's gonna do the most damage. If you stay one night in a hotel and you use whatever is there because you forgot your own, you're gonna be okay, but you don't want to take that chance every single day. Think about, you know, what's going on for you, and especially for those of you who may have an autoimmune disease, your sensitivity is probably elevated. So hope that gives you some ideas on things to support your own testosterone levels and the importance of it and the power you have to do something about it. If you have questions, you can leave them at the show notes today. That'll be at flipping50.com/testosterone. And what are you waiting for? The boardroom and the bedroom are waiting for you.