Health and Wellness, Hormones

Reducing Your Risk for Cardiovascular Disease with Hormone Therapy

Did you know that you can reduce your risk for cardiovascular disease by optimizing your body's hormone levels?

In the past, Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) has been controversial amongst the medical world due to concerns about cardiovascular risk and disease. However, due to further and more extensive research, medical opinions have changed. Hundreds of more recent studies have shown higher levels of testosterone have a positive benefit to your cardiovascular health. Check out this study from Science direct for more information on this topic.

Researchers found that men with low testosterone showed a higher risk for cardiovascular disease and mortality (compared to men with higher testosterone). Go to https://scholar.google.com/ and type in “testosterone morbidity” and see the thousands of articles showing  how “higher levels” of testosterone decreases risk for cardiovascular disease and many other health conditions!

The “danger” one hears regarding testosterone therapy and heart risk is most often due to improper management and monitoring of estrogen conversion and blood cell counts. With a competent and thorough medical provider who monitors closely, patients do not need to worry about this.

Furthermore, the idea that men have a higher incidence of coronary artery disease than women of a similar age simply due to testosterone (androgen) levels is not true. To date, there is NO epidemiological or pathophysiological evidence to show that a hyper-androgenic state or androgen replacement is associated with cardiovascular disease in either sex. In fact, studies have shown that women with low testosterone levels do not fare any better than men when it comes to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.

How does testosterone help reduce cardiovascular risk? This is still being investigated. Clinical studies have suggested that testosterone supplementation in aging men and women has a positive effect on cholesterol/lipids. Additional potential protective cardiovascular effects of testosterone may be related to its effect on endothelial function and vasomotor tone (blood vessels and blood pressure). And testosterone will increase muscle strength without exercise, and with exercise, it will increase it even more. The heart is a muscle, and testosterone is thought to increase cardiac muscle function just as it does with skeletal muscles, which we can see visibly.

In conclusion, there are no risks to properly administered and monitored testosterone therapy in both men and women.