Testosterone in Women

Overall Health Benefits

• Improves Reproductive Health/Fertility [1-4]
• Lowers Risk of Heart Disease [5-10]
• Prevents Cancer [11-12]
• Helps Lose Weight [13-15]
• Boost Brain Power [16-18]
• Treats menopausal symptoms [19-34]
• Improves mood [35-43]
• Improves bone heath [44-53]
• Improves body composition [54-56]
• Protects against rheumatoid arthritis [57-60]

Proven Health Benefits

Improves Reproductive Health/Fertility

A number of high-quality studies suggest that testosterone plays an integral role in women’s reproductive health:

1. A study showed that low-dose testosterone therapy is efficacious in restoring women’s sexual interest. [1]
2. In premenopausal women, testosterone therapy improved well-being, mood, and sexual function. [2]
3. In women with poor ovarian response to in-vitro fertilization (IVF), testosterone therapy increased the success rate of IVF. [3]
4. In women with poor response to assisted reproduction, pre-treatment with testosterone improved live birth rates. [4]

Lowers Risk of Heart Disease

Studies also show that testosterone can help protect women against cardiovascular disease:

1. A study showed that low total testosterone concentration in women was associated with an increased risk of heart disease. [5]
2. In postmenopausal women, low testosterone levels were associated with a higher risk of heart dysfunction, coronary artery disease, and other heart problems. [6-10]

Prevents Cancer

A good deal of evidence suggests that testosterone has anti-cancer properties:

1. In women with breast cancer, testosterone prevented the recurrence of the disease. [11]
2. A study showed that long term therapy with subcutaneous testosterone lowered the incidence of invasive breast cancer in women. [12]

Helps Lose Weight

Studies suggest that testosterone can help improve body composition by promoting weight loss:

1. In mid-life women, higher blood testosterone levels were associated with low total body fat percentage. [13]
2. In obese postmenopausal women, testosterone replacement therapy promoted weight loss. [14]
3. In obese children, normal levels of testosterone were associated with weight loss. [15]

Boosts Brain Power

Studies also found that testosterone plays an integral role in cognitive health:

1. In women with low testosterone levels, short term administration of testosterone was associated with improvement of cognitive function. [16]
2. A study showed that postmenopausal women had better improvement in verbal learning and memory after receiving testosterone gel. [17]
3. In healthy women, testosterone administration improved spatial cognition involving 3D-visualization. [18]

Treats Menopausal Symptoms

A number of convincing evidence found that testosterone replacement therapy can help treat a wide array of menopausal symptoms:

1. In women with surgical menopause, testosterone replacement therapy reduced menopausal symptoms. [19]
2. In women diagnosed with hypoactive sexual desire disorder, continuous testosterone therapy produced significant benefits on menopausal symptoms. [20]
3. In both pre- and post-menopausal women, continuous testosterone alone, delivered by subcutaneous implant, relieved hormone deficiency symptoms. [21-22]
4. In postmenopausal women, testosterone replacement therapy increased bone mineral density and lean body mass, reduced hot flashes, and improved well-being. [23]
5. In women with surgical menopause, treatment with testosterone alone improved sexual function. [24]
6. In women with hypoactive sexual desire disorder, treatment with transdermal (patch) testosterone improved sexual function as evidenced by reports of satisfying sexual episodes and sexual desire. [25]
7. In postmenopausal women, administration of testosterone patch improved sense of well-being. [26]
8. Studies suggest that adding testosterone to hormone therapy has a beneficial effect on sexual function in postmenopausal women. [27-28]
9. In women with or without oophorectomy (surgical removal of the ovaries), testosterone administration for 24 weeks improved several domains of sexual function, lean body mass, and exercise performance. [29-34]

Improves Mood

Studies found that testosterone has anti-anxiety and antidepressant properties:

1. In postmenopausal women, administration of testosterone pellet implants reduced symptoms of depression. [35-36]
2. In women who had premenstrual syndrome-type symptoms, skin application of testosterone reduced depressive symptoms. [37]
3. In women with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder, administration of a low dose of testosterone significantly improved ratings of depression. [38]
4. In women, sublingual administration of a single dose of testosterone reduced anxiety in the fear-potentiated startle response. [39]
5. In women experiencing age-related declines in androgens, skin application of testosterone significantly improved mood and psychological well-being. [40]
6. Studies found that salivary testosterone levels were lower in female patients with depressive disorders, generalized anxiety disorders, and phobias. [41-42]
7. A study reported that testosterone supplementation in women has positive effects on depression, libido, and energy. [43]

Improves Bone Heath

Several lines of evidence suggest that testosterone can help women combat age-related bone loss and other bone disorders:

1. In older women, higher blood levels of free testosterone were found to be associated with greater bone mineral density. [44-45]
2. In women, testosterone hormone deficiency is linked to the development of osteoporosis. [46]
3. In postmenopausal women, testosterone replacement therapy prevented bone loss associated with low bone mineral density. [47]
4. In androgen-deficient women, testosterone replacement therapy increased bone mineral density in the hip region. [48]
5. In normal postmenopausal women, testosterone replacement therapy prevented osteoporosis, with improvement in bone density and reduction in vertebral fractures. [49]
6. In postmenopausal women, the combination of testosterone with estrogen increased bone mineral density at different skeletal sites by suppressing bone breakdown. [50-53]

Improves Body Composition

An increasing body of clinical evidence suggests that testosterone can help improve body composition by increasing lean muscle mass in women:

1. In women with eating disorders, treatment with low-dose testosterone for 12 months increased lean body mass. [54]
2. In HIV-positive premenopausal women, administration of transdermal testosterone patch increased overall mean body weight and body mass index. [55]
3. In postmenopausal women, treatment with concurrent estrogen-testosterone therapy increased fat-free mass ratio. [56]

Protects against Rheumatoid Arthritis

Testosterone has also been found to beneficial in women with rheumatoid arthritis:

1. In postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis, administration of testosterone replacement reduced the symptoms of the disease. [57]
2. A study found that testosterone replacement therapy in postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis reduced the levels of inflammatory substances. [58]
3. Testosterone replacement therapy in postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis was also found to reduce the risk of disease activity. [59]
4. In postmenopausal women with active rheumatoid arthritis, testosterone replacement therapy resulted in improved general well-being. [60]

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