Talking About Testosterone Replacement Therapy with Dr. Philip Faler
Video Transcription
Dr. Philip Faler: Hello, everyone. I’m Dr. Philip Faler with Anti-Aging Northwest. I wanted to take a minute today to talk about testosterone and testosterone replacement therapy.
Testosterone Decline Globally
One thing that’s happening in the world right now is that testosterone is on the decline globally. This has been studied and measured, seems to be at about a rate of one percent per year, men as young as 14. There’s even evidence that fetuses are getting less testosterone, which is important in fetal development than they were getting 25, 30 years ago. But men of all ages, their testosterone is going down.
Causes of Testosterone Decline
There’s a number of factors that play a role in this. One of the big ones is environmental endocrine disruptors, things that come from petrochemicals, pesticides, things like that. Obesity and lack of exercise play a role. But I think bigger is the environmental things.
Importance of Testosterone for Overall Health
So why is that important? Well, testosterone has a lot to do with our ability to get motivated and to get things done. Testosterone has a lot to do with our ability to feel well day to day. Testosterone gives both men and women what I call vigor and wherewithal. It gives us the ability to think, “That looks hard, but I’m going to do it anyway.” And testosterone is just as important for women as it is for men.
Diagnosing Low Testosterone
One of the big things we’re working on here at Anti-Aging Northwest is we’re working to help people identify if they have a low testosterone. It can often be misdiagnosed as depression without a clause. No, there’s no reason for some 35 or 40-year-old woman or man to feel depressed, but suddenly over the last two years they do.
Endocrine Evaluation vs. Depression Medication
Rather than prescribing them as SSRI or something else for depression, which can be very useful sometimes, taking a little deeper dive, a little deeper look, and looking at the endocrine system and saying, is there a hormone imbalance here? Is their testosterone on decline? And would they maybe feel a whole lot better and not feel depressed if we found a way to optimize their testosterone? And it’s often the case that we can. Not always, of course. There’s organic depression and anxiety and all sorts of things like that. There’s many things that can be diagnosed.
Impact of Low Testosterone Levels
If we take a look at the lab work and we can see testosterone in a man that’s, say, under 400 and he’s 35, his quality of life is going to be significantly diminished. Or if we take a look at a woman and her testosterone’s 50, 55’s a high end to normal and her she’s 35 and her testosterone is down, and I often see the 12s, 15s, could possibly be a very good support tool to raise her testosterone a little bit.
Treatments for Testosterone Optimization
We can do that simply for a woman with a cream applied daily and get her testosterone up into the 45 range and she can feel a whole lot better in a perfectly natural way just by balancing her hormones.
For men, standard operating procedure can be testosterone injectable two to three times weekly. I like to use small doses more frequently and prevent the testosterone from spiking. We can also use what are called secretagogues, which are drugs that will help the patient produce more testosterone. They stimulate the hypothalamus pituitary to increase LH and FSH output, which will in turn increase the testicular production of testosterone and get a man who’s 35 up over 800, 900 and have him living his best life.
Schedule a Consultation Now!
If these are things you’re interested in and you’d like to talk more about, feel free to reach out. I love to do a free 10-minute consult with my new patients before we start anything. Feel free to reach out. Book yourself a free 10-minute consult at www.antiagingnorthwest.com. Be happy just to talk with you. Thank you so much and I hope you’re having a wonderful day.