Posted by CareBear04 on April 12, 2008, at 0:10:08
In reply to Does taking testosterone help women's depression?, posted by PhoenixGirl on April 11, 2008, at 19:29:42
hey--
i don't know much about testosterone in women, but i have done research on T levels in men. there is definitely a correlation between T levels and mood, and the trend tends to be parabolic. men with very low levels (usually below about 100 with the normal minimum being about 270) almost invariably experienced depression and/or mood swings. on the other hand, men with very high T levels also had moodiness and anger-related issues. my impression is that there seems to be a range, and outside of that range, more mood instability occurs. i don't know, though, whether taking T can improve the mood of a person with an otherwise normal T level but who is depressed. also, within the normal range, T levels fluctuate quite a bit during the day, which i'm not sure are matched by corresponding mood changes.
another research team did find that T helps with wasting in women with AIDS, so women have the same physiological response as men on that point.
here's another consideration-- both men and women naturally convert (at least some) testosterone into estrogen. i don't know whether it's estrogen or progesterone or both that affects mood in women, but increasing the amount of T in your body may throw off your other hormones.
in any case, most forms of T are controlled substances. in our studies, we used Androgel, which is a C-III. is your dr even willing to prescribe it?
hope this helps,
cb
poster:CareBear04
thread:822767
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080330/msgs/822812.html