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Testosterone is Your Friend
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Chapter 14: Psychology and Behavior______________________________________________________
One of the countless insanities in our culture is to give people toxic, unnatural, dangerous mind numbing drugs if they are depressed, anxious, or have other psychological problems. God forbid that we treat the whole person and their lifestyle to under-stand what is causing their unhappiness and deal with that. Our basic hormones have a very strong influence on our moods, out-look, and feelings of well being, especially in women. Unfortunately, most of the studies on testosterone’s influence on mood and behavior have been done on men. In the future we will see much more work on how hormones influence psychology on women.
A fine study was done at the University of Connecticut in 2002 (Journals of Gerontology, v. 57A, pp. M321-5). Here real natural transdermal testosterone was given to hypogonadal de-pressed men. Only 5 mg of testosterone per day was delivered via patches (a cream or gel would have been more practical and less expensive). Their free testosterone levels went from a mere 93 to 163 on the average, while estrone and estradiol were basically un-changed. That is how thorough they were. They also cited 35 re-ferences that demonstrated how male psychology can be impaired by low testosterone levels. They said, “Testosterone levels in older men may positively influence health perception associated with perceived physical function.” This is science as it should be.
A very interesting study was done at UCLA in Torrance in 1996 (Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, v. 81, p. 3578-83). Here men aged 22 to 60 with low testosterone were either given injections of testosterone enanthate (TE), a unique 7.5 mg sublingual natural testosterone (SLT) solution, or 15 mg of SLT. All the men generally reduced their feelings of anger, sad-ness, irritability, tiredness and nervousness. They increased their feelings of friendliness, good feelings and energy. The men given the TE injections were very overdosed and their testosterone level fluctuated severely between injections every 20 days. Nevertheless they also got dramatic results. The men given the 15 mg of SLT were also very overdosed. The men given the unique 7.5 mg (3 to 5 mg would have been safer) SLT basically normalized their testosterone. Something very suspicious here is that the estradiol (E2) levels were measured before and after the administration and they refused to reveal these levels! Obviously this is because the TE injections caused severe rises in E2 and the 15 mg SLT caused large rises. To refuse to reveal the known E2 levels is inexcusable. The lesson to be learned from this study is that low dose SLT therapy is an excellent way to deliver testosterone in both men and women. How supposed professionals can be so smart, yet overlook the obvious at the same time, is hard to comprehend.
At Drew University in Los Angeles in 1996 (Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, v. 81, pp. 3754-8) some completely irresponsible doctors gave men aged 19 to 40 with normal testosterone levels a ridiculous 600 mg of injected testosterone enanthate (TE) every week to force their levels far beyond normal. Of course their estrone and estradiol levels went through the roof, but they refused to address that vital situation - they didn’t even bother to measure them! They did this to find out whether very high, out of range testosterone levels cause anger and aggression. They found out it definitely did not and this is a very important finding. Stories of bodybuilders who experienced “’roid rage” are due to artificial, dangerous steroids and not testosterone. Doctors like this should have their licenses revoked and imprisoned after being sued for gross negligence.
A valuable study in 2003 from Harvard Medical School (American Journal of Psychiatry, v. 160, pp. 105-11) used natural transdermal gel in men aged 30 to 65 who suffered from depression. The problem here was they gave them a preposterous 10 g of a 1% gel which equates to 100 mg of actual testosterone applied to the skin! Remember that hypogonadal men only need about 3-4 mg a day actually delivered into their system as they only produce about 6-8 mg a day. Another problem was that they did not even bother to measure their estrone or estradiol levels - which obviously went off the scale from such overdosing. One would think Harvard doctors had some common sense or basic knowledge of hormone metabolism. Anyway, the men responded splendidly and largely overcame their feelings of depression. Even when given too much testosterone the benefits were very dramatic and proven by multiple psychological testing such as the Beck Depression Inventory, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and Clinical Global Impression.
A very impressive and extensive review was done at the Munster University in Germany with a long list of 222 references in 2001 (European Journal of Endocrinology, v. 144, p.183-97). Stress lowers testosterone and stress is epidemic in Western society. Dealing with stress successfully allows the natural testosterone level to rise. Aggressive behavior was not shown to be caused by high testosterone levels. Synthetic anabolic weightlifter steroids have been shown to cause anger and aggressiveness, however. Even giving men excessive doses of supplemental testosterone did not increase their anger or aggression levels. It is depression in men that has clearly been linked to low testosterone levels. We need to study women to see if this has any bearing on them. Depressed hypogonadal men should be treated with supplemental testosterone rather than given mind numbing, dangerous, toxic psychoactive drugs with severe side effects.
A study from the University of Western Ontario in 1996 (Aggressive Behavior, v. 22, pp. 321-31) showed different results, however. Both male and female young students had their free, salivary testosterone measured. “Within each sex, testosterone was positively correlated with aggression and negatively correlated with pro-social personality.” Men somehow only had five times the blood testosterone level of women instead of the usual ten to one ratio. We all know men and women have different cognitive abilities. Men are better with math and women are better with verbal skills. Musical skills are negatively correlated with testosterone in men but positively correlated in women. We need to study social status and testosterone in both men and women as there are indications this has significant relevance. Yes, there are racial differences contrary to liberal political correctness. Asians generally have the highest testosterone levels, Africans moderate levels and Europeans the lowest levels. Other aspects of this well done review will be discussed in the appropriate chapters.
While going through every single published study on women and testosterone in the last 20 years in Chemical Abstracts it was almost impossible to find any such research in the entire world. There are just very few published studies anywhere in the world as testosterone is still considered, “the male hormone”. It is hard to understand why medical doctors cannot see how important testosterone is for women. We need to do such research especially since women are more hormonally driven than men are.
A review done at Essen University in Germany in 2002 (Maturitas, v. 41, pp. S25-46) showed the same basic relationship with depression and low testosterone in women. This twenty-two page review had a full 137 cited references. Doctor Uwe Rohr is an excellent example of what progressive researchers should be doing. This also showed that excessive testosterone is related to depression (men cannot naturally have excessive levels). Women suffer from depression more than men do, so this is much more important to them. Testosterone levels fall about 50% generally in women by menopause (some women, on the other hand, suffer from androgenicity and excessive levels.) Hypoandrogenism in women is related to depression, osteoporosis, low libido, genital atrophy and higher body fat levels. Hyperandrogenism in women is related to hirstutism (body and facial hair), acne and polycystic ovaries - which is epidemic in American women. This study further divided the women into four groups of testosterone to estradiol ratios for such risk categories as diabetes, cancer and CHD disease. There is a wealth of information in this review that is far too comprehensive to go into in detail.
At the University of Utah two studies were published including a review in 1995 complete with 43 references (Hor-mones and Behavior, v. 29, pp. 354-66 and Aggressive Behavior, v. 29, 2003, pp. 107-115) on status, self-regard, competitiveness, aggression, assertiveness and dominance in young women in relation to testosterone levels. DHEA and estradiol were not found to have any relationships to behavior. They did, however, find a definite correlation between these factors as they relate to testosterone levels. Women with higher testosterone levels who ranked themselves well in status were not considered to have higher status by their peers though. One other study also showed confident, uninhibited and action-oriented behavior to be correlated with higher testosterone levels in young women. Still another study found just the opposite, however, while others have shown no relationship at all. There are no easy answers here. Occupational status and testosterone in women have shown the same inconsistencies. This is complicated by the fact that some occupations require assertiveness while others require other traits. A woman lawyer or saleswoman might benefit from such behavior, while a nurse or teacher would not. Societal norms would also be important here. An Asian or Muslim woman might fare poorly with aggressive and assertive behavior, while an American woman could fare very well in many areas. Testosterone was positively associated with self-regard (ranking themselves in their peer group), and dominant behavior - as well as their number of sexual partners. It was inversely associated with smiling, so there is an obvious price to pay for such self-assuredness.
The Rancho Bernardo Study in 1999 (Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, v. 84, pp. 573-7) was some of the most important research ever done but was only concerned with men unfortunately. Over eight hundred hypogonadal men over the age of 50 had their bioavailable testosterone measured. They were then administered the Beck Depression Inventory. There was no doubt about the strong relationship between their hormone levels and states of depression. “These results suggest that testosterone treatment might improve depressed mood in older men who have low levels of bioavailable testosterone.” These very same doctors should now study older women for the same phenomenon and include other hormones such as estrone and estradiol.
One might think that sensation seekers of both sexes would have higher testosterone levels, but this doesn’t seem to be true. A study at Florida State University in 2001 (Hormones and Behavior, v. 40, pp. 396-402) tested young college men and women for their testosterone and cortisol levels. No relationship at all was found for testosterone and sensation seeking behavior such as sky diving, bungee jumping, water skiing, roller coaster riding and the like. However, low cortisol in men - but not in women - was found to be linked to risky behavior or the desire for such behavior.
At the National Institute of Aging in 2002 (Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, v. 87, pp. 5001-7) men were given sophisticated psychological tests. It was clear that older men over 50 with higher testosterone fared much better than their hypogonadal counterparts in regard to memory, stress, cognitive function, depression and other related factors.
At the German Central Institute of Mental Health in 2000 (Psychoneuroendocrinology, v. 25, pp. 765-71) women aged 28 to 77 were studied for depression as it related to their androgen levels. They noticed, “To date, there is only sparse information about the regulation of androstenedione, testosterone and DHT (dihydrotestosterone) concentrations in women with severe major depression.” What an understatement! Here they found estradiol unrelated, but excessive levels of testosterone, androstenedione and DHT clearly related to depression. They also found generally low testosterone in the depressed women as well as hyper levels.
At the University of Lubeck in Germany (Neuro-psychopharmacology, v. 28, 2003, pp.1538-45) women aged 47 to 65 were given supplemental testosterone to show the effects on their “divergent and covergent” thought processes. They found that testosterone strongly affects the thought process in women especially pre-menopausal women who have higher levels during ovulation. Here we demonstrate empirically how women are very hormonally influenced physically, mentally and emotionally and why we need more knowledge about endocrine effects on their thoughts and feelings.
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