Frustrated, again! – BHRT & Chronic Diseases

I have a sixty-one year old friend who in the past has mentioned to me his frustration with a lack of energy, focus, decreasing strength, and an increasing abdominal girth. This morning he casually told me he had his testosterone level checked. I looked at him as I asked, “What was it?” He paused for a second and then I saw a smile come across his face. Noticing his smile, I thought, “Could it really be a good level even though he has significant symptoms of andropause?” (declining testosterone).

Do you remember what I wrote in an earlier blog? As the late Yogi Berra is purported to have said, “Déjà vu all over again!”

He replied, “My doctor said it is LOW NORMAL.” My friend then stated his doctor went on to say the equivalent of “Don’t you even consider using testosterone. It causes cancer.”

Can you believe it? He essentially is telling my friend to, “Live with your symptoms, continue to get physically and mentally weaker and while you’re at it, add on some more abdominal fat so you can develop more health problems like diabetes, heart disease, and osteoporosis. Then I can start you on prescription drugs that have lots of side effects and yet never get to the root of the problem.”

Well, I’m sure the good doctor would never actually say those exact words, but that is really what is being implied to my friend. And to top it off, I challenge him or any doctor to show me a single, reputable scientific study that shows bio-identical testosterone administration causes cancer–there isn’t even one. But, there are 50 years of studies that show benefit to the symptoms my friend is experiencing and to providing protection to many of the chronic diseases that plague men (and women) as they get older.

Taking care of patients with BHRT would be so much easier if it wasn’t for doctors!