Should a woman over 60 take testosterone
He does not spend long on this one.
Dr. Martin on testosterone in a woman:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1667You don't want that ladies, you don't want testosterone up in a woman.
That is the answer, and the rest of this page is his reasoning for it rather than a change to it. He is describing how he thinks a woman's body is built, not writing you a prescription and not telling you to stop one. If you are on something a doctor put you on, that decision belongs with them.
What is normal for a woman
His framework starts with the fact that everybody has some of everything.
Dr. Martin on the baseline:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1667Okay, ladies, you got a little bit of testosterone.
A little is the correct amount, on his reading. It is not a shortfall waiting to be corrected. What differs between the sexes is which hormone leads.
Dr. Martin on the difference:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1667Testosterone for men it's got to be dominating, and women, it's estrogen and progesterone.
And he draws a second distinction that is easy to miss. In a man, he says, there is no balance to manage. More testosterone is better. In a woman it is a pair, and a pair can go out of proportion without either number looking dramatic on its own.
Why hers is probably already rising
The reason he will not treat low testosterone as a woman's problem is that he does not think it is the direction it is moving.
In men, he says, levels have plummeted in the last 20 years, to the point where the average man over 50 has more estrogen than his wife. In women, he says, they are up. Same world, opposite directions.
He calls himself a why guy, repeatedly, and this is where he answers his own why.
Dr. Martin on what is driving it:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1667Number one, and it ain't even close, is the amount of estrogen that we have in this world.
Every chemical, every plastic, herbicides, pesticides, hand sanitizers. Xenoestrogens, he calls them, things your body reads as estrogen whether or not they came from you. His argument is that an estrogen dominated world pushes both sexes off their own axis, and in a woman that shows up as testosterone climbing.
The full version of that argument is what estrogen dominance means after 60.
The signs he looked for
He did not need a lab to suspect it, and the signs he names are ones women usually take to a beautician rather than a doctor.
Dr. Martin, from an earlier episode on the same point:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 869You were growing hairs on your chinny, chin, chin, bad skin, that's testosterone, but testosterone in a woman never gets elevated without estrogen taking off compared to its progesterone partner.
That one sentence carries the whole argument. Coarse hairs on the chin and skin that has turned on you are, to him, a testosterone picture. And the second half is the part that matters: in a woman that testosterone did not rise on its own. It rose because estrogen got ahead of progesterone.
Which is why he will not chase it directly. Going after the testosterone leaves the thing that raised it exactly where it was.
Why he did not care about the testosterone number
Women asked him for it constantly. Doc, what is my testosterone. His answer, in his own telling, was that he did not care, because it was not the key.
That sounds dismissive written down and it is not meant to be. His point is about what a number can settle. A testosterone value in a woman tells you where the needle sits. It does not tell you why it moved, and the why is the only part you can do anything about. He applies the same rule right across hormones, which is the subject of which hormones a woman over 60 should get tested.
He also describes what he saw in younger women with the same imbalance, and it is worth reading if this has been going on since long before 60. Terrible PMS, low mood, skin breaking out. Same pair out of proportion, different decade.
What he would balance instead
The target is the estrogen to progesterone relationship, not the testosterone reading and not an estrogen top-up.
Food comes first, as always, because insulin is a hormone too and it sits in the middle of the same chart. Then the liver, since that is where excess estrogen gets cleared. Then the load coming in from outside, which is the practical end of the xenoestrogen argument: what your food is stored in, what your house gets cleaned with, what goes on your skin.
The thyroid sits downstream of all of it, which is why he keeps ending up there. That is the thyroid never acts on its own. And if you want his answer to the same question asked about estrogen instead, it is should a woman over 60 take estrogen.
Nothing on this page is a diagnosis, and nothing on it is an instruction to start or stop any hormone, prescription or supplement. That is a conversation for you and your own practitioner.
Common questions
Should a woman over 60 take testosterone?
His answer on this episode is no. He says you do not want testosterone up in a woman, because a woman is built to run on estrogen and progesterone with only a little testosterone. This is his view, not a prescribing instruction, and anything you have been prescribed is a conversation with the practitioner who prescribed it.
Is testosterone going up or down in women?
He says in women it is up. That is the opposite of men, where he says levels have plummeted in the last 20 years.
Why do I have chin hairs after 60?
He reads chin hairs and skin changes as a testosterone sign in a woman, and he traces the testosterone back to estrogen running ahead of progesterone.
What hormone should lead in a woman?
Estrogen and progesterone, balanced against each other, with only a little testosterone alongside them.
Why does a woman's testosterone rise?
On his explanation it never gets elevated without estrogen taking off compared to its progesterone partner, so he treats a rising testosterone as a symptom of that imbalance.
Read next: When Do A Woman's Hormones Actually Change? and Why Am I Still Having Hot Flashes At 60?.
Work on the balance
Martin Clinic's Hormonal Support Formula is aimed at the pair he actually cares about here, estrogen and progesterone, rather than at topping up a third hormone.
60-day money-back guarantee.These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Always consult your healthcare practitioner before starting a new supplement, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition.
