The Testosterone Myth Women Have Been Lied To About │ Dr. Susan Hardwick-Smith

You have probably been told that testosterone is a male hormone. Women produce more of it than estrogen, and for many of us it is the first hormone to go, sometimes reading zero five years before menopause while periods are still regular. Dr. Susan Hardwick-Smith and I get into what that costs you in muscle and bone, why there are thirty-one approved testosterone products for men and none for women, and what the number on your own lab report is measuring.
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Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction: testosterone in women
03:00 - Eighteen years in OB-GYN and the practice she left
04:57 - Thirty years in medicine, zero training on testosterone
06:40 - 31 FDA-approved products for men, zero for women
07:35 - Why women produce more testosterone than estrogen
09:20 - What the ovaries stop making at menopause
10:18 - Testosterone reading zero five years early
11:41 - Low testosterone symptoms in women
13:22 - Intrinsa, the 2004 patch the FDA turned down
19:04 - Off-label prescribing and what FDA approval means
21:35 - Cognition, breast cancer, muscle and bone
25:33 - Osteoarthritis and the anti-inflammatory theory
26:31 - Dosing fears: hair loss, acne, voice changes
28:16 - Why gels are dosed ten times higher
32:14 - The 2019 international consensus
34:00 - Dividing a 50 mg tube by ten
38:18 - The Baylor study: pellet versus gel at six weeks
40:13 - Safety data from fifty years of transgender care
45:03 - Eight years of high dosing and what it cost
46:16 - Lab reference ranges versus optimal ranges
48:28 - ELISA versus LC-MS, and what the study found
51:07 - Why free testosterone is calculated, not measured
57:58 - Tachyphylaxis and chasing the number
1:01:39 - Pellets, BioTE and where the reputation came from
1:06:33 - Delivery methods, cypionate and enanthate
1:11:47 - Whether anything raises testosterone naturally
1:13:03 - DHEA at 100 mg and what it moved
1:17:07 - Drugs that lower testosterone in women
1:20:55 - Closing thoughts on dosing and access
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The Dr. Gabrielle Lyon Podcast and YouTube are for general information purposes only and do not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, or other professional health care services, including the giving of medical advice, and no doctor/patient relationship is formed. The use of information on this podcast, YouTube, or materials linked from this podcast or YouTube is at the user's own risk. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their health care professional for any such conditions.