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Low T – Production or Conversion Problem?
May
If you are struggling with low T (Testosterone), there are a few things you need to know. The first thing you need to know is there are 3 ways to increase your levels of testosterone.
- Sleep
- Exercise
- Sex
How well you do with 1, 2 and 3 is only part of the equation, the other part of the equation is whether or not you are giving your body the necessary raw materials (nutrients) needed to make TT.
The next question is, are you having a a Production Problem? A Conversion Problem? Or both?
- Are you not making enough TT? Is your body too stressed and or depleted that it can’t make enough TT?
- Or are you Converting too much of your testosterone into estrogen, which isn’t good for either men or women!
Both problems can usually be addressed and fixed naturally, but they require different protocols and most importantly require you to have to change something about what you are currently doing!
If you’re not producing enough testosterone, it usually is a result of stress. All the cortisol and adrenaline your adrenal glands are having to produce, due to all the stress in your life is interfering with the normal bio-chemical pathway it follows in the production of TT.
Fyi…the demand and need of cortisol, due to stress – interferes with the production of growth hormone (GH) and testosterone. So, how can both men and women expect to add lean muscle and burn body fat if you Can’t produce these two very important hormones? Don’t forget, testosterone helps drive our libido?
If it is a conve
rsion problem, you are converting more of your testosterone into estrogen, than you are supposed to. This is going to lower your testosterone numbers for both men and women, because instead of having 90% of your TT stay as TT, and approximately 10% convert into estrogen (EST), for men. You may shift to an 85 to 15 percent ratio of TT to EST.
For women the numbers are basically flip-flopped. Approximately 90% of their testosterone converts into estrogen, leaving them with about 10% testosterone. Their conversion problem takes them from a 10 to 90 percent ratio, to a 5 to 95 percent ratio of TT to EST. Can you say Hormonal Imbalance or Estrogen Dominance!
Whether it’s a production or conversion problem, both men and women can be helped with testosterone. BUT…There are 2 Big Buts Here!
The first but is – If you start to artificially providing testosterone – your body will basically quit making it on its own. This means you will probably have to keep using testosterone indefinitely, the rest of your life! How do you think you’re going to feel when you stop taking them?
The Second But…is if it is a conversion problem – you will feel better for a short time with the additional TT, but you will also have a greater percentage of estrogen in your system. This is because you have more testosterone to convert into estrogen. So that’s not really good for either men or women.
FYI….if you do use testosterone medications? You Absolutely, Positively Need to Have Your Estrogen Numbers Tested Too. Don’t forget, it’s very important that they run a free testosterone screen on your blood. A ‘total’ testosterone count is essentially worthless.
Lastly, and this applies to both men and women. Your body fat produces estrogen! So the more body fat you have the more estrogen you produce. This applies to both men and women. Remember it’s about training and dieting smarter – not harder or longer!
We’ll talk more about this later, and how to fix these two problems naturally. You can also find info on this subject in my books and blog. Hope this is helpful, if you think someone else would benefit from it please pass it on.
