You probably think of testosterone as the male sex hormone. Indeed, the FDA currently only approves supplemental testosterone treatment — available as injections, topical creams and gels, patches, pills, and more — for cisgender men who have low levels of the stuff.
But the reality is that testosterone is also a crucial hormone for women, whose ovaries produce it right alongside estrogen and progesterone. All three hormones decline as women age, meaning that in spite of the FDA’s lack of approval, they’re finding ways to take it — and raving about the results.
Like with men, testosterone boosts sex drive and aggression in women, and limited studies show it may support bone health, as well as contribute to mood and energy. Testosterone production tends to peak in women’s late teens and early 20s, and slowly declines thereafter; after menopause, its levels are halved.
Add it all up, the New York Times reports in a new feature, and many are framing testosterone supplements as something akin to an off-label fountain of youth.
“It’s changed my marriage,” a 41-year-old marketing consultant told the paper, adding that she’d gone from uninterested in sleeping with her husband to having sex upwards of six days a week.
It’s not just a libido thing, either: many women experience an uptick of ambitious energy on testosterone therapy. One NYT source even reported that her daughter said she’d become argumentative “like a teenage boy.” (No surprise there; adolescent boys produce over 10 times the amount as their female peers.) Other purported benefits include decreased fatty tissue, increased muscle mass and cognitive performance, and even better skin.
Not everybody is convinced. Doctors warn that some women report unpleasant side effects ranging from increased facial and body hair growth to changes in body odor, and the risks of long-term use are under-studied. And like all health crazes, the narrative has been filtered and distorted by social media and influencer culture.
“Advertising that testosterone is going to fix all that stuff is very premature and overblown,” Elektra Health chief medical officer Nora Lansen recently told National Geographic, though she didn’t advise against women experimenting with the treatment if they thought it might help. “It’s inappropriate for now because we don’t know whether, like, you know, what the real story is.”
The treatment also remains dangerously marginalized. Because women’s health has long been underserved by the medical system, options for women to pursue testosterone therapy are typically limited to more nontraditional avenues like wellness centers, nutritionists, med-spas and longevity practitioners. Unlike testosterone clinics for men, none of those are covered by insurance for women.
And even with that limited availability, critics might note the irony of the NYT rapturizing over the benefits of hormone therapy for cisgender patients after it’s spent years fearmongering about similar treatment for transgender people.
Still, it’s a powerful substance, and everybody should have options to pursue treatments that might be helpful to them.
“Testosterone is like a religion,” one urologist told the NYT. “People have strong feelings when it comes to testosterone.”
More on testosterone: Smearing Testosterone on Men Makes Them Into Horny Beasts, Scientists Find