When you hear about testosterone you may only think that it as a problem for men but women can have imbalances in testosterone too. In fact, testosterone while not our dominant hormone is actually really important for women in the right amount. Testosterone in the right levels helps build bones, is important for brain health, increases energy, helps with weight loss, helps prevent depression, and is vital to our libido. When it’s too low these things suffer but when it’s too high the symptoms are much different.
If you have any of these symptoms you should see your doctor to have your testosterone levels checked. Testosterone is important for fertility because it plays a role in egg development but when it’s too high it often times prevents ovulation from occurring. If you have high testosterone then it is important to get to the root of the cause so you can balance it and eliminate the unpleasant symptoms like excess hair and acne and also to help improve your fertility. The most common cause of high testosterone is blood sugar dysregulation but there are other possible causes too and each of these requires a tailored approach to address.
1-Blood Sugar dysregulation: Blood sugar dysregulation is the most common reason for high testosterone especially if you have PCOS. Blood sugar dysregulation creates issues with high testosterone because of the excess insulin involved. When we eat too much carbs especially simple carbs too often this causes our cells to become desensitized to insulin aka insulin resistance. Insulin resistance happens in almost all the cells in our body except our ovaries! This means when the rest of our body is saying no to insulin our ovaries have to pick up the slack causing our ovaries to be over stimulated and then producing too much testosterone. How do you know if you are having issues with blood sugar and insulin? You can get a blood test and see if your A1c, fasting blood glucose and fasting insulin are outside of optimal range or you can look for symptoms such as feeling shaky, irritable, or experiencing headaches when it’s time to eat again, craving carbs, feeling tired midafternoon, and/or waking in the night (especially between 1am and 3am). If any combination of these symptoms applies to you then it’s likely that issues with blood sugar and insulin are affecting your testosterone levels. Fortunately, this root cause has a relatively simple fix although at first it may feel difficult. To keep blood sugar balanced and increase insulin sensitivity you will want to lower your overall carb intake for a few weeks and remove quick processing carbs from your diet (think white flour, processed sugars, etc.). There are also some great supplements that can help improve insulin sensitivity like myo-inositol, berberine, chromium, and cinnamon.
2-Hormone Imbalances (Estrogen Dominance)- While we aren’t sure why it happens; we do know that there is a correlation between estrogen dominance and high testosterone. It’s not surprising though considering the intricate web our hormones create inevitably if one is off others will follow suit and it doesn’t just stay within the sex hormone arena often times thyroid and other adrenal hormones get involved too. How do you know if your estrogen levels are causing issues? Testing is the obvious answer. It’s important to test estrogen in at least two times during your cycle the first is at the beginning around day 3, 4 or 5 and the second time is in the middle of your luteal phase so around 7 days post ovulation. Some symptoms that indicate estrogen dominance are: breast tenderness or breast fullness, decreased libido or reduced sex drive, weight gain (especially in the hips/thigh/butt region), changes to your menstrual cycle (menstrual irregularity, heavy menstrual flow or cramps/mood changes/migraines with your cycle), hair loss such as brittle hair, hair thinning or change in the color of your hair, problems with fertility (usually difficulty with conception compared to a high risk of miscarriage with low progesterone), changes to your mood including depression, anxiety or not feeling like yourself. If your find that estrogen dominance is an issue for you then it’s important to look into your lifestyle and gut health. Things like using plastic containers for food and beverages, artificial fragrances (anything other than essential oils), and beauty and cleaning products that contain phthalates and parabens all increase yours bodies estrogen levels. Gut and liver health play a huge role in estrogen dominance too because that’s where we get rid of our estrogen and if they are not working properly then we can’t successfully remove our used up estrogen and it ends up getting recycled back into our blood stream. Some supplements that support our removal of estrogen are SGS, DIM, Beets, Nettle, and Dandelion root/greens but be ware that if you are not pooping daily these can end up making things worse as they support our liver’s estrogen removal system but ultimately they still need to come out through our intestines.
3-Adrenal issues- Testosterone can be created from precursors like DHEA, pregnenolone, progesterone, and androstenedione all of which are created in your adrenals. If your adrenals are cranked up due to stress, circadian rhythm dysfunction, or some other rarer disorder/disease your body may end up creating excess testosterone. If this is you then making some major lifestyle changes are going to be necessary. Making sure to take time to reduce stress and getting to bed on time NEED to become a priority for you. Supplements that can help calm down your adrenals and help you shift into a more stress free life and allow you to get better more regular sleep -include: full spectrum CBD oil, adaptogens like Reishi mushroom, and Melatonin.
4-High leptin/leptin resistance- leptin is a hormone that is released by your fat cells that communicates with your brain to reduce hunger levels and burn fat but when you have excess leptin and leptin resistance your brain stops recognizing leptin and no longer sends out signals to reduce hunger and burn fat. While the exact mechanism is not fully understood studies have shown a correlation between high leptin levels and testosterone. Obviously, to see if this is something that is affecting out testing is necessary but one key indicator that this may be you is if you have issues with losing weight. In order to help bring leptin levels down along with testosterone you will need to make some important lifestyle and diet changes. When it comes to exercise studies show that high-intensity-interval training reduce leptin levels but there’s a catch you need to be in the sweet spot so as to not increase your cortisol. So, when it comes to adding in this type of exercise start with shorter time periods and slowly increase, if you find yourself feeling exhausted a few hours post exercise it was too much and you need to decrease the time. Having a quality diet is imperative for reducing leptin levels so make sure that you are avoiding processed foods and sticking to high quality meats, veggies and fruits. While protein is an important part of a healthy diet it also increases the release of leptin which means that if you have high leptin levels you will need to limit your protein at each meal to smaller portions but don’t let this reduce your calories too much as continually restricting calories ends up worsening leptin resistance. Finally, sleep is so important for helping our bodies and our brains to heal so make sure that you are getting plenty of sleep.
Outside of what is listed with each of these there are some supplements that can help across the board because they address testosterone in the body as it’s being made. You may want to consider taking zinc, saw palmetto, and/or a peony-licorice combo but always discuss any supplements you plan to take with your doctor or a qualified practitioner first. If you are struggling to figure out what the root cause of your high testosterone is let me know in the comments below or sign up for a discovery call here and we can discuss it over video conference.