New Life Cosmetic Surgery and Wellness Center sees many women every week that are as young as 35, who have developed symptoms of fatigue, decreased libido, anxiety, sadness, depression, irritability, poor sleep. We always talk about the obvious factors such as lack of sleep, increased life stress, limited exercise, and a poor diet. All of these can factor into feeling many of the symptoms the patient has, however often there can be a deficiency in a hormone deficiency as young as 35 years old.
What’s the deficient hormone? TESTOSTERONE. Testosterone is increasingly being recognized as a vital hormone in women. Receptors are located throughout the female body in the bone marrow, brain, breast, lung, spinal cord, blood vessels, vaginal tissue, uterus, muscle, and adipose (fat) tissue. Until recently it has been virtually ignored as an essential hormone in women and has been mislabeled as a “male hormone.”
This week a 40 year old woman told us “I feel incredible. I had tried a variety of different hormone replacement therapies but couldn’t seem to find the one that would work.” She saw a dramatic improvement in her “hot flashes, anxiety, energy, concentration, and libido.”
Studies show testosterone declines steadily throughout a woman’s reproductive years. A woman of 40 has half the testosterone of a 21-year old. Pre-menopausal women often report “menopausal symptoms” that are not related to estradiol levels. So your physician may check your estrogen level and find that it is normal, yet you have symptoms. These symptoms are not related to low estrogen but depleted testosterone. You may have had your testosterone levels checked and they were normal as well. So why still the symptoms? Studies show that relief of symptoms come when the testosterone level is above the “normal” level reported by the lab! One practice who has placed over 16,000 testosterone pellet insertions has noted that women see the most improvement in symptoms when their levels are 4-6 times the normal endogenous level! However testosterone, like many hormones, is predominantly bound by other proteins. So, despite having 4-6 times the “normal” level, the majority of the free testosterone is much less. Dr. Lee like to describe the idea of “optimizing” testosterone as making sure the “tank is full,” so that the testosterone receptors throughout the cells of the body are being stimulated to provide all the benefits of testosterone.
We have seen that testosterone replacement is best done in the form of pellet therapy. We see both men and women in the office for this short 5 minute procedure. It is placed under the skin in the buttocks. A very small incision is made with the area numbed with lidocaine. One pellet is placed in women and up to 10 pellets are placed in men. Bandage is placed over the incision and the skin closes within 3 days. No sutures are needed. You can go on with the rest of your day as normal. The pellet slowly dissolves over 3-4 months in women and 6-8 months in men.
If you are interested in scheduling your consultation and appointment with our team at New Life Cosmetic Surgery and Wellness Center then give us a call today at 956-969-8369 or fill out our contact form.
