Nurse Niki

The library

Do women need testosterone?

Women produce testosterone throughout life and it contributes to energy, muscle, mood, cognition and libido. Levels decline with age. It is frequently left out of hormone assessment entirely, which is why a woman can have a hormone panel described as complete when a meaningful part of the picture was never measured.

Testosterone is thought of as a male hormone, and in terms of quantity that is fair. In terms of relevance it is not. Women make it, use it, and notice when it falls.

When it is low, the description I hear is rarely about libido first. It is more often flatness — motivation that has gone quiet, workouts that stopped producing results, a sense of having lost some drive that used to be there.

It is worth measuring alongside everything else rather than in isolation, because it interacts with the rest. What we do about it, if anything, depends on the whole panel, your history, and what you are actually hoping to change.

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