One among the strongest hormones in our body, testosterone is the first male sex hormone. It’s what makes men “men.”
Flooding the male body at puberty, testosterone levels proceed to rise all the best way until their late 20s. After this, it is common to see a person’s testosterone levels decline, but some men see such a dramatic decline that it starts to affect their lives negatively. Luckily, these days, there is a fix: testosterone alternative therapy (TRT).
But, as with anything that guarantees to vary your life dramatically, it’s value examining the science. So let’s break down the partitions surrounding TRT therapy, so you’ll be able to be armed with the knowledge to take back your vitality.
Table of Contents:
- What’s Testosterone?
- What Causes Lower Testosterone?
- What Is TRT?
- 8 Best Advantages Of TRT
- Risks Of TRT
- Who Should & Shouldn’t Consider TRT?
- Get Prescribed Testosterone
- FAQs
What’s Testosterone?
Testosterone, a steroid hormone categorized as an androgen, is predominantly synthesized within the testicles of males, with smaller quantities produced within the ovaries of females.
In males, this hormone assumes a vital role in the event of reproductive organs just like the testicles and prostate, in addition to the emergence of secondary sexual characteristics during puberty, equivalent to increased muscle mass, body hair growth, and voice modulation.
Moreover, testosterone plays a pivotal part in sperm production and maintaining a strong sex drive. Adequate levels of testosterone are essential for the right functioning of the male reproductive system. Further, testosterone also helps with red blood cell production, which is crucial for physical exercise and workout performance.
Females also depend on testosterone for the event of reproductive tissues and a healthy sex drive. Nevertheless, the degrees of testosterone in females are notably lower in comparison with males, which is a major contributing factor to the variance in muscle mass observed between the 2 genders.
Beyond its reproductive functions, testosterone contributes to varied non-reproductive processes in each women and men. These include preserving bone density, promoting muscle growth, and facilitating the production of red blood cells.
As well as, testosterone influences the speed of protein synthesis, enhancing muscle constructing. It also impacts every thing from mood, energy levels, and overall well-being in each sexes.
What Causes Low Testosterone?
Our natural testosterone levels decline as we become old. Nonetheless, testosterone levels dip not necessarily due to your age but relatively lifestyle selections that generally occur as we age. Nevertheless, below are among the significant issues maintaining high testosterone levels.
- Chubby or obesity
- Unhealthy food plan
- Smoking
- Drinking
- Not getting enough sleep
- Inactivity
One of the crucial profound causes of testosterone deficiency, physical inactivity, can also be extremely easy to fix¹. The highly unscientific phrase “use it or lose it” seems to use to our testosterone levels. Sitting all day and never exercising repeatedly is a sure option to decrease your levels.
In the event you’re not currently on a workout regimen, find a very good workout split and include some HIIT into your weekly routine. We discuss this in additional detail in our article: Does Working Out Increase Testosterone Levels?
What Is TRT?
TRT, or testosterone alternative therapy, is used to treat hypogonadal men. Hypogonadism is the term used to explain a condition in men who’ve low testosterone levels. The common testosterone level in men can range from 300-1,000 nanograms per deciliter (ng/dl), meaning that hypogonadal men have testosterone levels below this number.
There have been many types of testosterone therapy previously, but essentially the most effective by far is testosterone alternative therapy. TRT differs significantly from these other methods resulting from its specific mechanism of motion.
While other types of testosterone therapy try to boost the quantity of naturally-produced testosterone, TRT directly injects synthetic testosterone into the body. In this fashion, TRT can control precisely how much or how little testosterone you get.
Using TRT has exploded over the past decade or so. This popularity is primarily resulting from the web and widely-available education, which has eroded some stigma.
People often hear the word “testosterone” and consider illegal steroids, but that is simply resulting from the confusion between the 2. While the testosterone utilized in TRT can also be synthetic, TRT products are produced in licensed medical labs.
Further, you obviously will need to have a prescription and direct doctor supervision to take TRT and take it. If you’ve any lingering doubts about its legitimacy vs. anabolic steroids, read our article: Is Testosterone A Steroid? Key Differences Explained.
8 Best Advantages of TRT
What are the advantages of taking testosterone therapy? Why should you concentrate on pursuing TRT? Plenty of reasons.
Testosterone plays a necessary role in so many facets of a person’s life, a lot that their entire life might be hindered by anything lower than normal testosterone levels. Proper TRT can drastically improve your quality of life should you suffer from low testosterone.
1) Increases Sex Drive:
Since test is a sex hormone, it’s pretty easy to assume that your testosterone levels will affect your sex drive. And it does.
For instance, a study from 2006 examined the connection between low testosterone levels and low libido, described as having sexual desire lower than once a day². This study found a powerful relationship between testosterone levels and sexual desire, with T-levels dropping together with frequency, from once a day to 2-3 times every week to having no sexual desire at all³.
Studies have shown a rise in testosterone can be proportional to a rise in sex drive, which falls in step with the findings of most other studies. Fortunately, TRT has been shown to extend sexual desire in men with low testosterone.
2) Improves Sexual Function:
Hypogonadal men not only have lower sexual desire, but once they do have sex, they’re less prone to perform well. Many men with low testosterone levels will experience erectile dysfunction of some magnitude.
We should always be clear that erectile dysfunction, and other detriments to sexual function, is a multifactorial condition, meaning quite a few mechanisms might be liable for its cause. Nonetheless, low testosterone has been found to play a job. Most studies have shown that TRT is able to improving erectile dysfunction and will help completely alleviate mild ED³.
3) Increases Metabolism:
Lipid metabolism is fancy option to say fat metabolism. In other words, it is your body breaking down fat for use for energy production.
Low testosterone levels have been found to diminish the flexibility of your body to effectively metabolize lipids for energy use. Doing so could exacerbate other effects of testosterone, equivalent to lower energy levels and increased body fat.
Luckily, studies have shown that TRT treatment can reverse this adaptation and increase the body’s ability to utilize fat stores for fuel at a mean of about 10%⁴.
This increase in fat utilization causes a rise within the patient’s BMR or basal metabolic rate. An individual’s BMR is largely the quantity of calories an individual’s body utilizes just being alive. So, to be clear, because of this TRT turned the entire calories burned from just existing from 2,000 calories to 2,200.
4) Improves Body Composition:
Testosterone has been found to positively affect lean body mass at healthy levels⁵⁻⁶. As mentioned above, an individual’s BMR can increase by 10% with testosterone alternative therapy. As well as, their energy levels and physical activity will increase. It is sensible that one would improve their body composition when the 2 are combined.
We wish to be clear that this doesn’t suggest just losing body weight. It means decreasing your body fat percentage by losing fat, gaining or at the very least maintaining muscle, and even improving bone density.
5) Increases Muscle Mass & Strength:
It’s no secret that men have more muscle mass than women, and one in all the first reasons for that is the difference in testosterone levels.
While low testosterone in men will still be higher than normal levels in women, it may well still get low enough to impair recent lean muscle mass growth. It may even decrease muscle mass if you’ve enough muscle to start out with.
Multiple studies have found a relationship between testosterone drop and the rise of sarcopenia as we age⁷. Sarcopenia is the name of the means of losing muscle tissue as we become old. While several mechanisms are occurring concurrently, these studies have seen a precise correlation between the drop in testosterone levels and increased sarcopenia.
As well as, TRT has been found to extend muscle mass in older men.⁸ I need to say that this happens just by bringing lower testosterone levels back as much as a standard range. In other words, you needn’t bring your levels up ultra-high to see results.
Need to dig into this further? Try The Ultimate Guide to Using TRT For Bodybuilding to learn more!
6) Improves Mood:
One of the crucial essential advantages of TRT is its effects on a person’s mental well-being. Over the past years, a number of research has been done on how testosterone affects the mental state of not only men but women as well.
These studies have shown a definite relationship, and markers equivalent to depression, confidence, and general outlook on life are affected by your testosterone levels⁹.
One thing to bear in mind is that this relationship doesn’t appear to necessarily be dose-dependent. In other words, someone whose levels are 505 won’t necessarily be happier than someone with testosterone levels of 500. Slightly, those with healthy or higher numbers shall be happier than those with below-average levels.
That is so vital because our mental well-being can bleed into nearly every other aspect of our life. For instance, depression may cause many symptoms of low testosterone, equivalent to increased body fat and low sexual function. Add in actual low T levels, and it becomes a dangerous cycle.
7) Increases Energy:
“I feel like I’m young again” encapsulates the sensation many men report feeling after they start TRT. Studies have shown that men feel more energetic after about 3-4 weeks of therapy, and their lethargy fades away.
If you’ve ever woken up on a random morning and feel like you’ll be able to conquer the world, that is what TRT seems like. While previously, it trusted getting the correct amount of sleep and waking at the correct time, now your full tank of energy comes out of your higher testosterone levels.
8) Improves Brain Function:
While studies still aren’t sure of the precise mechanisms, it’s clear there may be a relationship between testosterone and brain function. For instance, spatial abilities appear to be specifically affected, while memory, learning, and recall are also improved¹⁰.
As well as, TRT may additionally play a job in combating more severe ailments equivalent to Alzheimer’s disease. A big meta-analysis from 2016 checked out seven different studies with 240 cases of Alzheimer’s¹¹.
A definite correlation existed with the researchers stating “that low plasma testosterone level was significantly related to an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease in elderly men.”
Potential Risks Of TRT
Do not forget that testosterone is a really powerful compound that dramatically affects the human body, so it’s imperative only to take TRT with a licensed medical skilled.
The more common unwanted side effects include:
- Increased pimples
- Increased hair loss
- Growth of breast
- Liver damage
- Enlarged prostate or prostate cancer
- Impotence or erectile dysfunction
Luckily, any possible unwanted side effects of testosterone alternative therapy are easily avoidable. All it’s essential do is perform your TRT under the supervision of a medical skilled at a licensed TRT clinic.
Who Should Consider Testosterone Alternative Therapy?
While testosterone alternative therapy is an efficient type of therapy, it is not for everybody. Selecting to follow TRT is a giant decision and needs to be utilized by those that actually need it.
Let’s discuss who should consider it before stepping into an inventory of those that shouldn’t.
The one group of men who should seek for a top quality treatment center are those that hit the entire checkmarks. First, they needs to be over the age of 30. Any issues which will present themselves before this age might be temporary issues that might be fixed.
Second, they must be experiencing at the very least just a few low testosterone symptoms. As mentioned above, only one doesn’t justify the inclusion of exogenous testosterone. For instance, erectile dysfunction could be a mental problem, and fatigue could also be from poor sleep.
Last, they should have been tested and located to really have low testosterone levels. As mentioned above, not one of the symptoms of low testosterone are isolated to low testosterone. They will all arise from different conditions, so we won’t conclude you’ve low testosterone just from having among the symptoms.
And should you fall into this category, the excellent news is that there are tons of options to assist you. As an added bonus, it’s now more convenient than ever to get testosterone. We discuss this in additional detail in our article: Where to Buy Testosterone Online.
Who Should Avoid TRT?
While the next people may not experience immediate opposed effects from TRT, it’s likely unnecessary, costly, and potentially could cause long-term issues.
TRT might not be the most effective option for you if:
- You Have Short-Term Symptoms Of Low Testosterone: As men living in a busy world, we are able to all undergo “funks.” In the event you notice that you are feeling a bit drained someday and have an issue getting an erection, there might be a plethora of reasons this might be happening, equivalent to stress or lack of sleep. Many low testosterone symptoms also can exist with other ailments, so it is best not to leap to conclusions.
- You Have Only One Symptom Of Low Testosterone: Generally speaking, physicians will wish to see just a few low testosterone symptoms together with their low readings (<300 ng/dl). If an individual has low testosterone but only one symptom, this might indicate one other issue is at play. Or, perhaps your low testosterone is merely a short-term, mostly symptomless condition, that can resolve itself over time. Regardless, your doctor will likely wish to wait or run other tests before prescribing TRT.
How To Get Prescribed Testosterone
Unlike a decade ago, getting prescribed testosterone alternative therapy is definitely relatively easy now. All it takes is an easy blood test, and with the rise of TRT clinics, almost everyone can get the method began immediately.
As we’re now living within the digital world, you’ve two options to get this done:
- Walk-in clinic
- Online clinic
Each have pros and cons, so it’s best to resolve which is best for you. Some men just like the face-to-face aspect and feel higher with this medium. Nonetheless, this might be the harder approach as you have to discover a clinic near you and take the time to drive to your appointments.
Then again, online clinics are extremely convenient, and technology has allowed them to supply high-quality interactions. When you concentrate on that the doctors you are working with have had extensive training and experience with online appointments, I personally love them.
One among my favorite online clinics is Fountain TRT. They provide a free personalized TRT evaluation, which incorporates a testosterone test that you just then review with a Fountain provider in a 1-on-1 video call.
During your consultation, your symptoms shall be assessed, and your provider will schedule blood work to find out whether you’ve low testosterone levels. Once your blood work is complete, you may work along with your provider to provide you with a customized treatment plan.
Excited by learning about more great options? Try these 8 Best Online TRT Clinics to seek out your perfect fit!
FAQs
To ensure we covered our bases, we looked for other specific questions people had concerning TRT. Listed below are among the mostly asked questions.
Does TRT make you stronger?
In a roundabout way, but it may well offer you the flexibility to get stronger through training. What it may well do by itself is prevent the lack of muscle mass.
What are testosterone boosters?
Testosterone boosters are a type of testosterone therapy that uses various compounds to stimulate the natural production of testosterone. Try our article on the 7 Best Testosterone Boosters for more information!
How long does it take to feel the advantages of TRT?
Most men begin to feel the advantages relatively fast at around 3-4 weeks.
How much is TRT?
In our opinion, while you compare the entire advantages of TRT you receive for the worth, it’s one in all the most affordable medical treatments on the market. Most men will spend $1,500-$3,000 a yr for injections. Liquid testosterone for injections only costs $50-$100 for a 10ml vial of 200mg/ml. Nonetheless, the cream will cost around $500 for a similar amount, which can cost significantly more.
Does insurance cover TRT?
Many insurance firms have began to cover TRT. Nonetheless, many will still have out-of-pocket costs, however it’s relatively low-cost. It is best to check along with your specific insurance carrier for a definite answer.
How do I maximize my TRT results?
To maximise your results, have a look at a few of your lifestyle selections that might be contributing to your low testosterone levels. Once identified, you’ll be able to then treatment them. The largest things you’ll be able to do are eat a healthy food plan, follow a resistance training program, give up smoking, and drink moderately.
Advantages Of TRT: Final Takeaways
We live in an age where medical therapies exist to treat many conditions, including low testosterone.
Despite the fact that it affects men in some ways, from sex life and energy to brain function and all-around quality of life, affected by low levels is nothing to be embarrassed about. It is a natural, expected a part of aging for men.
But, as mentioned above, TRT can completely rejuvenate your life. In the event you’re experiencing symptoms of low testosterone, we strongly urge you to fill out the free personalized TRT evaluation. It stands out as the best decision you’ll be able to make to your health.
