GynoFiles

Your memory as good as it should be? Think it's also a hormonal issue? Our brain chemistry values do flop around during the menstrual cycle . And dramatic changes in our brain functions including memory have been associated with menopause.  Want to test your brain power? How do you do it? That is a whole science in and of itself, but gynos are given a few clues. I can tell you that obvious road blocks still hold: did you get a good night sleep before your test, did someone just text you before your test, do you care about the test? These things all being optimal for you will help you perform better. And then again, you can study for these tests! You may have trained for a specific type of memory test, for instance,  some puzzle players might do best on the “Finding As” test…you quickly cross out all the words with a as possible. There are memorization tests which test recall of short or longer lists of mundane items. There are tests that favor the visual and t...

If you have been prescribed testosterone, it's time to gab with your gyno on the prescription and whether it really is the correct medication for you, as it has not been endorsed for most women. The Endocrine Society in their 2014 meeting, surprising many, issued a statement against the use of testosterone therapy in healthy women . Echoing what every study of sexual function and testosterone treatment has concluded, the society admitted that there are small improvements in sexual function with testosterone, especially in menopausal women. Te Endocrine's position is that the risks are not worth the small benefits for healthy women, but in women with HSDD (hypoactive sexual desire disorder) there may be benefits.. Details of the society's position can be found in “Androgen Therapy in Women: A Reappraisal: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline,” was published online in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (JCEM) , a publication of the Endocrine...

Generally when we prescribe a hormone we expect that we will get the effects of that hormone. But most women forget to think about how individual hormones are metabolized. It how they are metabolized that will most often determine how they function. Testosterone in women is metabolized to estrogen, and much of it's hormone effect is through the receptors of estrogen action. If a menopausal woman doesn't have estrogen receptors then she is not likely to have as much effectiveness from her testosterone use as a woman who has these cell receptors. The way we get estrogen receptors is usually with the use of estrogen. So this may be why women using testosterone in menopause are not as successful with their therapy as women who use both estrogen and testosterone.

Male hormones are made by the ovary, and they are important for good health, but can get out of control as well. Male hormone levels can cause acne and unwanted hair growth. We like to think in simple terms of what to do and what to not do for controlling unwanted hair or unwanted hormonal side effects. For women who have excess and undesirable hair, a number of new studies have been undertaken to look at how we can best control the unwanted hairs in places like on your lip, chin or chest. There are a few simple 'dos' that can help you combat this. When it comes to overall treatment for women with hormone imbalances, especially PCOS the gynos will have to think about cycle control, control of infertility, control of your weight as well as control of unwanted skin effects like chin or lip hair. Controlling hormones and controlling our metabolism are the two most important 'dos.' Knowing if your hormones are imbalance, getting an actual diagnosis (such as PCOS) are two...

Actually it was a study of cynomolgus s monkey breasts. The whole question has been, as women age, and loose estrogen, and loose progesterone, and even eventually drop their testosterone levels what effects does this have on our tissues. For a time we are "androgen dominant" meaning only weak circulating estrogens, and still producing some male hormones. Although we can look a our patient's levels and see if her hormones on spot checks fall out of the normal ranges, and we can look at trends of hormone levels over time. There is still not an agreed upon method to make a formal diagnosis of male hormone (androgen) deficiency. The male hormones have been known to improve sex drive and give us more lean body mass relative to fat mass, but can they cause breast cancer, or alternatively protect us from breast cancer? Petri dish studies and rat studies seem to indicate that if estrogen causes breast cells to grow, testosterone does the opposite. But what do the studies in re...