20 min
Time to Address Testosterone PROSTATE PROS
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- Medicine
Testosterone naturally decreases with age. This can mean loss of libido, fatigue, and decrease in muscle. So why are you waiting for your doctor to talk to you about your low testosterone? What solutions are you missing out on?
Testosterone replacement therapy can help reverse side effects of low testosterone and improve quality of life. This episode of PROSTATE PROS covers how testosterone replacement therapy can be used for aging men, men with chronically suppressed testosterone after TIP, men with advanced prostate cancer, and even spouses.
Dr. Scholz: [00:03] We’re guiding you to treatment success and avoiding prostate cancer pitfalls. I’m your host, Dr. Mark Scholz.
Liz: [00:09] And I'm your cohost, Liz Graves.
Dr. Scholz: [00:13] Welcome to the PROSTATE PROS podcast.
Liz: [00:20] Testosterone is the primary male hormone. As men age testosterone naturally decreases. Low testosterone can mean loss of libido, fatigue, or muscle loss. This episode we're going to talk about testosterone replacement for aging men and men with prostate cancer.
Dr. Scholz: [00:39] So this is a controversial thought. Men with prostate cancer often are treated with testosterone blockade. There are situations though to consider giving testosterone. We're going to briefly cover three broad categories: aging men, as Liz mentioned, category number two will be men that have had previous TIP or testosterone inactivating pharmaceuticals and their testosterone just isn't recovering normally, and then the third situation is in very advanced prostate cancer. There are controversial new treatments to administer high-dose testosterone as a form of therapy to control prostate cancer.
Liz: [01:22] There are a lot of appeals of testosterone replacement. One being that it can help return your libido, two, it provides energy, three, it assists in muscle gain, and four, it can improve your mood.
Dr. Scholz: [01:35] One of the things to realize about testosterone is that the blood tests give you an accurate number, but they don't necessarily tell you how you're going to feel. Throughout the years I've seen how some men have rather low testosterone, but feel perfectly fine. Other men may have somewhat or mildly diminished testosterone, but really feel poorly. So, one of the things to know in this whole realm of giving testosterone is that the lab numbers, the amount of testosterone in the blood, is not the most important thing—it's how men feel—because giving testosterone is designed to restore a better quality of life, provide energy, improve libido. If men are already feeling well, you really can't improve on that.
Liz: [02:22] Is testosterone something that's tested annually or do men have to ask what their testosterone levels are?
Dr. Scholz: [02:29] Oftentimes this is something that gets overlooked. Of course, physicians tend to think that as men get older, their testosterone levels are going to drop and that even if they are somewhat low, that's just part of life. So I think it's a good question to put to your physician is “is my testosterone normal?” This is particularly relevant for men that are over age 60. If testosterone levels are running low, there are situations where men are going to feel better if they take some supplemental testosterone.
Liz: [03:00] So Dr. Scholz, if you have an older man who has no known prostate cancer, and he goes to the doctor and asks about testosterone replacement, will the doctor say, “there's no way, that's going to cause prostate cancer?”
Dr. Scholz: [03:15] You may get that kind of an answer. This thinking is rooted in the fact that many people are aware of the fact that when you block testosterone, prostate cancer shrinks. So they falsely assume that
Testosterone naturally decreases with age. This can mean loss of libido, fatigue, and decrease in muscle. So why are you waiting for your doctor to talk to you about your low testosterone? What solutions are you missing out on?
Testosterone replacement therapy can help reverse side effects of low testosterone and improve quality of life. This episode of PROSTATE PROS covers how testosterone replacement therapy can be used for aging men, men with chronically suppressed testosterone after TIP, men with advanced prostate cancer, and even spouses.
Dr. Scholz: [00:03] We’re guiding you to treatment success and avoiding prostate cancer pitfalls. I’m your host, Dr. Mark Scholz.
Liz: [00:09] And I'm your cohost, Liz Graves.
Dr. Scholz: [00:13] Welcome to the PROSTATE PROS podcast.
Liz: [00:20] Testosterone is the primary male hormone. As men age testosterone naturally decreases. Low testosterone can mean loss of libido, fatigue, or muscle loss. This episode we're going to talk about testosterone replacement for aging men and men with prostate cancer.
Dr. Scholz: [00:39] So this is a controversial thought. Men with prostate cancer often are treated with testosterone blockade. There are situations though to consider giving testosterone. We're going to briefly cover three broad categories: aging men, as Liz mentioned, category number two will be men that have had previous TIP or testosterone inactivating pharmaceuticals and their testosterone just isn't recovering normally, and then the third situation is in very advanced prostate cancer. There are controversial new treatments to administer high-dose testosterone as a form of therapy to control prostate cancer.
Liz: [01:22] There are a lot of appeals of testosterone replacement. One being that it can help return your libido, two, it provides energy, three, it assists in muscle gain, and four, it can improve your mood.
Dr. Scholz: [01:35] One of the things to realize about testosterone is that the blood tests give you an accurate number, but they don't necessarily tell you how you're going to feel. Throughout the years I've seen how some men have rather low testosterone, but feel perfectly fine. Other men may have somewhat or mildly diminished testosterone, but really feel poorly. So, one of the things to know in this whole realm of giving testosterone is that the lab numbers, the amount of testosterone in the blood, is not the most important thing—it's how men feel—because giving testosterone is designed to restore a better quality of life, provide energy, improve libido. If men are already feeling well, you really can't improve on that.
Liz: [02:22] Is testosterone something that's tested annually or do men have to ask what their testosterone levels are?
Dr. Scholz: [02:29] Oftentimes this is something that gets overlooked. Of course, physicians tend to think that as men get older, their testosterone levels are going to drop and that even if they are somewhat low, that's just part of life. So I think it's a good question to put to your physician is “is my testosterone normal?” This is particularly relevant for men that are over age 60. If testosterone levels are running low, there are situations where men are going to feel better if they take some supplemental testosterone.
Liz: [03:00] So Dr. Scholz, if you have an older man who has no known prostate cancer, and he goes to the doctor and asks about testosterone replacement, will the doctor say, “there's no way, that's going to cause prostate cancer?”
Dr. Scholz: [03:15] You may get that kind of an answer. This thinking is rooted in the fact that many people are aware of the fact that when you block testosterone, prostate cancer shrinks. So they falsely assume that
20 min