Jennifer Smith: Welcome to you're not crazy. It's perimenopause. If you're a woman over 40 and feeling more anxious, not sleeping well or disconnected from your body, this podcast is for you. I'm your host, Jenny Smith, functional medicine, health coach here to help you understand what the heck is happening in perimenopause. Each week we're diving into real life conversations about how our changing hormones impact anxiety, sleep and stress. And I'll share simple strategies to help you feel normal again. So grab a cup of tea or beverage of choice, get comfy and let's dive in. Welcome back to you're not crazy. It's perimenopause. I'm your host Jenny. And today we are talking about testosterone. If you missed the episodes on estrogen and progesterone, you can go back and listen to episode five and six. And today we are going to learn more about testosterone, what it's like when it's high. how we're feeling when it's low and what we should be feeling like when it's just right. Women have much less testosterone than men, but we do need it. Men have roughly 10 to 20 times more testosterone than women. So what is the purpose of testosterone and women? Testosterone supports our motivation and our drive to do things. It is responsible for our muscle tone and making sure we have muscle in our body. It's helpful with our confidence and being assertive. It is a big part of our libido. It helps with our bone strength and it is also a big part of our cognitive sharpness. And when it drops, it begins to gradually decline after our thirties. When it drops, women might be feeling more flat, just like kind of low energy, lower libido. Like you just have no sex drive. You have no desire to get things going in the bedroom. You have a harder time with building muscle and this is the time where our muscle strength begins to decline. We start to lose muscle mass. We have less spark or initiative to do things and we might have reduced stamina during workouts where we used to be able to get through workout fairly energized and easily. We might feel just more depleted after workout. What are the symptoms of testosterone when it's high? When it's high in women, It is often associated with PCOS, polycystic ovary syndrome, or certain adrenal issues. So symptoms might be acne, especially around the jawline, excess facial or body hair, your chin, your upper lip, chest hair even. Can you imagine? Thinning hair on the scalp. Oftentimes women start to have ⁓ thinning hair alopecia can be associated with PCOS. Oily skin. irregular or a missed periods. Having too high of estrogen, will have difficulty ovulating. You might have increased weight gain and a deeper voice. And this, this occurs in extreme cases. And I'm assuming the hair on the chest would be extreme as well. I don't think I've met anyone who has had chest hair as a woman except for like chin hair, upper lip hair. Yes, that is for certain that it is common. And that is one of the symptoms of too high vest of testosterone. So when testosterone is just right, you're going to have more motivation and drive. Just like I had mentioned earlier, you're going to have more muscle tone. You're going to have confidence and assertiveness. I remember listening to a workshop with a lady who was talking about how to address confidence and to build up your assertiveness. And she said, before you go out, on the stage or before you present or before you do something very scary, stand in the Wonder Woman pose. Like, stand and put your hands on your hips like you're in Wonder Woman. This show I think is like back in the 70s, early 80s. So if you're on the younger side, you may not be familiar with this show, but Wonder Woman, she used to have this like stance where she was like power. And this woman who was facilitating this workshop said, if you stand like that, you will feel the confidence and the assertiveness. And when your testosterone is just right, you'll feel it too. You're going to have a libido again. Your bone strength is going to be more intact. And that is one of the things that we worry about as we get older as women is we start to lose bone health and it declines and we can develop osteoporosis, which is very scary. also feeling sharp, like mentally sharp, having Just right testosterone really helps with our focus and cognitive abilities. The challenge is with testosterone is doctors don't know much about it for women. There are zero FDA products approved for women to help them boost their testosterone. However, there are FDA approved replacement therapies for men. And interestingly enough, doctors often will want to put you on testosterone pellets. I, this was my, the case for me. My doctor recommended that I go on a testosterone pellet first when I was experiencing those really heavy periods. And I'm so glad that I waited because ultimately it really was my progesterone. He, I just don't know if he had the experience or knew really what he was doing with a menopausal woman. He was an OBGYN. So I know that he did a great job with delivering babies, taking care of pregnant women. However, I just don't think he was well versed in menopause care. So oftentimes it's kind of like the go-to therapy for a lot of women is to do the testosterone pellet. It's also a very expensive therapy and most my insurance didn't cover. It was going to be $350 out of pocket. This was also several years ago. So I'm not sure if it's changed much. I know that some women who go on testosterone pellet therapy feel amazing and I know that some who feel awful because once that pellet is injected into you, you can't remove it. You have to write it out and it lasts about three months. Oftentimes like when a woman is going through perimenopause, progesterone is the first to drop. So we want to address the progesterone first. Usually not everyone and this is why individualized treatment is so important and having lab work and test to determine where you're at and where your hormones are. So that's the treatment using testosterone therapy. And I want to talk about natural ways that we can support testosterone. I will do a whole episode on hormone replacement therapy in the near future. But right now I really want to talk about the natural ways that we can balance our hormones and help stabilize them so that we're feeling great. Number one for testosterone, you want to be lifting heavy things. You know the saying. lift heavy shit women lift heavy. We strength training is one of the most powerful natural ways to support testosterone. Cardio is great for heart health. However, we don't want to focus and prioritize cardio. We really want to make sure that we are lifting heavy weights, not tiny, cute little dumbbells. We want to lift heavy. And when we are talking about lifting heavy, we want to do progressive overload. And what that means is to gradually increase weight so that your muscles are being challenged and getting stronger and stronger. And ideally you want to challenge your muscles about three to four times a week. And if you don't have a lot of time, 10 minutes is a great starting place. That is what I have been doing lately. I really want to spend more time focusing on building muscle. So I have challenged myself to minimally do two days a week of 20 minutes at a time. and I am working my way up to that. I just know how important it is for our longevity, our hormone health, our brain health, the importance of having muscle in our body. And in order to support that muscle, we need to make sure that we're eating enough protein. Low protein encourages muscle loss. So when we're lifting heavy, we wanna make sure that we're feeding those muscles with enough protein. You wanna aim for at least 30 grams at each meal. And if you have not downloaded my protein guide yet, I'm going to link it in the show notes. I give you ideas on what 30 grams of protein looks like, animal-based and plant-based options, and easy throw-together meal options. Not spending time in the kitchen creating recipes, just throw together easy meals that will help you target to that 30 grams of protein minimally. Most of us need more protein, but many of us are not even getting that because we are chronically under-eating. And that's the other thing. You want to avoid calorie restriction because that will suppress testosterone. Many women over 40 are unintentionally under eating because they're gaining weight and developing it around their belly. And so they're like, well, if I just cut calories, then maybe I'll lose weight. And that's going to keep your stress hormones elevated and your sex hormones suppressed. And then you're not going to get anywhere. You're going to feel even worse. So you want to make sure that you are fueling your body with enough nutrients. and protein. You also want to make sure that you're sleeping well because testosterone production happens when we're sleeping in deep sleep. So if you're feeling sleep deprived, that is going to lower testosterone. You want to make sure that you are getting good adequate sleep every night and it's for across the board for all the hormones. If you remember episode five and six, when we're talking about progesterone and estrogen, we need to have good sleep. We need to have good protein. we need to manage our stress, stress, making sure that stress stays as even as possible as, you know, calm in our body as possible so that we can make sure that we are balancing all of our hormones. Let's talk about the micronutrients that can help support testosterone. So you wanna make sure that you are eating enough foods that have zinc or a zinc supplement, and that is really important. for progesterone as well. Vitamin D, vitamin D is another hormone and so many of us are low in vitamin D. It should be in the 50s. Your vitamin D level should be in the 50s. Conventional medicine will say that 30 is fine, that it's normal. Well, that's not optimal. You wanna make sure that it's higher in the 50s. If you want to feel good, support your body, support your hormones and support your moods, making sure that your vitamin D is at an optimal level, a 50 or higher. Magnesium, so many of us are depleted in magnesium. I talked about this in ⁓ episode five when we're talking about progesterone. Our soils are depleted. We're not getting enough magnesium. So if you can supplement with a magnesium or eating foods that are high in magnesium, like pumpkin seeds, the leafy greens, making sure that you are getting enough of that nutrient. So that is testosterone in a nutshell. We talked about the lows, what it's like when it's low, when it's high and when it's just right. And the natural ways that we can support our testosterone as well as adding the micronutrients that can support all of our hormones. And I mentioned hormone replacement therapy is a wonderful option. However, I wouldn't start there. Lifestyle is always first. You want to make sure that you're dialing in on your lifestyle if you want to make an impact. If you are just taking a hormone replacement therapy and not addressing your lifestyle, you're going to struggle. You're still not going to feel good. So you want to make sure that what we talked about with eating enough protein, lifting heavy weights, making sure that you're not under eating, getting good sleep, managing your stress, all of that is going to make you feel better before you even talk about hormone replacement therapy. And if you're someone who doesn't want to do hormone replacement therapy, then you must prioritize your lifestyle. It is non-negotiable. All right. So next week I'm going to be answering the question, should you get your hormones tested? That is a big question that so many of us have because many of our doctors aren't willing to do it. They're not willing to do it because it's complicated. And I'll explain why in next week's episode. If you found this episode helpful, share it with a friend who might need it too. And if you haven't already, be sure to hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. Thank you so much for being here and I'll see you next week.