00:00For decades, testosterone has been thought of as a male hormone.
00:04Now, more women are asking about it, especially those in menopause.
00:09Some say it changed their lives.
00:11Do you notice a difference with it?
00:12I do.
00:13Me too.
00:13My libido is bad.
00:14Yeah, I know.
00:16Others say it did little or nothing.
00:18Let me tell you about my first month on testosterone and what I wish they would have told me.
00:22So what does the science say?
00:24And why do doctors warn prescribing it is like the Wild West?
00:31I just wasn't feeling like myself.
00:33The brain fog was terrible.
00:35When I was talking to patients, it felt like I was stuttering.
00:39I was exhausted all the time.
00:41I definitely had brain fog.
00:44I've never had issues remembering things.
00:46And now I find myself not remembering the word for refrigerator.
00:50Two different women experiencing the same issue that more than 6,000 women start feeling each day in the United
00:57States.
00:58Menopause.
01:00For those who turned to standard hormone therapy to treat those symptoms in the past, a typical cocktail would be
01:06estrogen and progesterone.
01:08Now, an unlikely hormone is increasingly in the mix.
01:13Testosterone is a human hormone.
01:15That's right, testosterone.
01:17Dr. Kathleen Jordan is the chief medical officer at Midi Health, where they use hormones to treat menopause symptoms.
01:24She says testosterone plays a significant role in women.
01:28Testosterone is not just a male hormone.
01:30It's a human hormone.
01:32And women actually have more testosterone than they do estrogen.
01:36But not only is dosing women with testosterone controversial, hormone therapy as a whole is as well.
01:42In the late 1990s, 22% of postmenopausal women in the United States used hormone therapy.
01:49That all changed after 2002, when the Women's Health Initiative released findings that were widely interpreted to show hormone therapy
01:57was dangerous,
01:59increasing the risk of things like heart disease, breast cancer, and stroke.
02:03Almost immediately, the share of postmenopausal women taking hormone therapy was cut in half, and continued to go down in
02:11the years that followed.
02:12Despite later research finding the risks in that 2002 study were overstated, the fear stuck.
02:19Today, less than 5% of eligible postmenopausal women in the U.S. use hormone therapy,
02:25even though most women between their late 40s and early 60s experience menopause symptoms, which can last years.
02:33And it wasn't until late 2025, the FDA changed its messaging on hormone therapies.
02:39The FDA is taking action to remove the black box warnings from estrogen-related products.
02:44But those therapies don't include testosterone.
02:48Because the efficacy was not huge, and there was a lot of concern about downstream long-term side effects,
02:56the FDA declined to approve it.
02:58Dr. Nanette Santoro is an OB-GYN and professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
03:04She's studied menopause for decades.
03:07With no FDA regulations and no insurance coverage, doctors say testosterone carries risk.
03:14Off-label use requires careful monitoring.
03:16It's led some to describe the field as the Wild West.
03:21When we say the Wild West, we mean that people operate in on all extremes, you know.
03:25And I think because there's so much belief or enthusiasm that testosterone can so broadly help women,
03:32people are expanding those limits sometimes beyond, like, sort of more contained capacity.
03:38And I think that's what people mean when they say that.
03:40For Lindsay Lister, hormone therapy came after she noticed major changes in her health.
03:45I came across as not intelligent.
03:48I look a little young, and so a lot of the times people are like,
03:53how old are you?
03:54You know, is this your first time doing this?
03:57Um, so it was a little strange.
04:01And then I just started to look into hormones.
04:07Lindsay's treatment began with estrogen and progesterone.
04:10When her symptoms didn't go away, her doctor introduced testosterone.
04:15I'd say the testosterone took about eight weeks to really build up enough that I could notice anything.
04:23Sleep is one.
04:25Brain fog is definitely improving.
04:27It's still not perfect.
04:28It's definitely better.
04:30My blood pressure is back down.
04:32My cholesterol is back down.
04:33My fasting glucose is back down.
04:35My A1C is back down.
04:37I was hoping that it could take the edge off, essentially.
04:41You know, like just dull the craziness, because you really can feel crazy.
04:47So I wanted it to dull the rage, dull the blood pressure, dull all of that, but also help me
04:57be me again.
04:59Asha Gray also wanted to feel like herself again, in a different way.
05:03I'm a licensed sex therapist, and I had no interest in sex.
05:08Just none.
05:09I was like, you know, every day I'm going through the world.
05:11I'm like, this is not, this is not normal.
05:14This is not normal to who I am, like a person.
05:16After starting hormone therapy, she noticed a gradual change.
05:20Let's start slow.
05:22Let's see what works.
05:23And so we started with estrogen.
05:25I had to change vehicles and strengths of estrogen.
05:29And I'm like, okay, this is really helping, but it doesn't feel like it's helping 100%.
05:34But with the testosterone, it's like, oh, I can see it.
05:37Okay, I can feel it.
05:38This is pretty good.
05:39It's not what it was in my 20s or my early 30s.
05:43But, you know, it's better than it was.
05:46Asha says testosterone therapy has not been one-size-fits-all.
05:50As her body changes, her doctor adjusts her dosage to find what feels most sustainable and effective.
05:57I have some patients that tell me they can't live without it.
06:01They feel so much better on testosterone replacement.
06:04And I have other women that tell me they feel no difference.
06:07And then we just have them come off.
06:08One woman Straight Arrow spoke with applied a daily testosterone cream.
06:12With already elevated cholesterol and falling estrogen levels, she says her doctor advised caution.
06:19After eight months, she ultimately stopped treatment.
06:22For women like Asha and Lindsay, it's been a game changer.
06:25It's like the missing piece.
06:28But to this day, the FDA only approves testosterone for men.
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