Postmenopausal Women Are Taking Testosterone Should You?

What is Testosterone? NRG Clinic: Leading in Hormone Therapy

The discussion of the key results is appended below under different subsections. It acts on the male body and brain during critical developmental periods – in utero, around birth, and during puberty – with effects on behaviour that often show up down the road. Boys tend to play more roughly than girls, even though young children’s testosterone levels don’t differ very much. Scientists believe that higher testosterone in fetal males drives this preference, as it does in other mammals. Violent crime, which is overwhelmingly committed by men, doesn’t peak when testosterone peaks in the late teens; instead, it peaks in men’s 20s, the phase of life when size, strength and competition for mates are at their highest. The existence of the paternal California mouse, as well as emotionally sensitive, high-testosterone human roughnecks, is entirely compatible with the hormone driving sex differences in aggression.

This all points to the fact that testosterone isn’t the ‘essence’ of masculinity. My target here isn’t the crude and patently false idea that all men are like this, and all women are like that. It’s the notion that, amid all the noise of individual differences, we can extract a male ‘nature’ that is somehow natural, immutable, and driven by testosterone. Both evolution and testosterone allow for a much greater diversity and flexibility of sex roles than previously (and popularly) appreciated – especially in humans. Still think testosterone therapy turns guys into roid-raging gym rats?

But even in nonhuman animals, testosterone is just one variable in a complex system, one of many factors that feeds into an animal’s decision-making. Social context and experience can override T’s influence on behaviour, or even stand in for T’s absence. Moreover, T responds to contexts and situations, helping us adapt to them. This means that how much T a body has, and how it reacts to it, are inextricably intertwined with the individual’s history and experience – including, in our own case, the influence of gender norms. Generally, total testosterone levels below 300 ng/dL (nanograms per deciliter) may indicate low T, but it’s nuanced.

Therefore, understanding the dynamics of testosterone in females, particularly in response to physical activity, is essential for designing effective, sex-specific exercise interventions. In adult men, low testosterone may lead to a reduction in muscle bulk, loss of body hair and a wrinkled ‘parchment-like’ appearance of the skin. Current research suggests that this effect occurs in only a minority (about 2%) of ageing men. However, there is a lot of research currently in progress to find out more about the effects of testosterone in older men and also whether the use of testosterone replacement therapy would have any benefits. While many scientific studies and huge amounts of data show the safety of supplemental testosterone in postmenopausal women, only about 50% of women who take it experience a significant increase in sex drive.

The fact that Carole and I agree on these things isn’t surprising. I appreciate that contemporary evolutionary biologists recognise the diversity of mating systems, and don’t think of sex as an essence that underpins a ‘natural law’ across the animal kingdom of coy females and competitive males. My objection is with the T-Rex view, in which essentialist thinking creeps in via the back door. And then there are what we might call the ‘sex-reversed’ species, which Charles Darwin discussed in The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871).

Another study of females transitioning into males found that testosterone increased bone mineral density. But it’s unknown if testosterone can help with reducing fracture risk. Strong bones help support your muscles and internal organs, which can boost athletic performance. Small studies in the early 2000s found that men with heart disease who underwent testosterone therapy saw only slight improvements. Another study found that hormone therapy only widened healthy arteries but had no effect on angina pain. Those with low testosterone may see benefits like improved mood and increased muscle mass after testosterone-based HRT.

Life expectancy has increased, and many men now live beyond the age of 60 years. Testosterone is the hormone responsible for the development of male sexual characteristics. Hormones are chemical messengers that trigger necessary changes in the body.

Additionally, bending and roll-ups promote flexibility and spinal mobility26. This structured combination ensures a well-rounded approach to fitness while minimizing resource requirements and supporting broader applicability across diverse populations. Additionally, this protocol addresses potential biases arising from variations in protocols used in previous studies and shortcomings in study design and randomization techniques, as documented in a systematic review27. The menstrual cycle, a fundamental aspect of female reproductive physiology, encompasses a series of cyclic events orchestrated by intricate hormonal interplay.

I see unambiguous evidence that it can account for some of the large and extremely impactful differences between men and women, particularly when it comes to sexual psychology and aggression. Its starting point is what the anthropologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy has called the ‘coy female’ paradigm – the idea that asymmetries in what does the testes do it costs females versus males to have babies make males more motivated by mating success. Males potentially invest as little as a sperm, while females contribute a nice plump egg and, in mammals, full bed-and-board in utero and lactation. Over evolutionary time, this means males will develop traits that help them fight for access to females, and appear more appealing to females browsing for their next mate. This case study belongs to a robust body of evidence that makes me sceptical of the significance of testosterone.