REIGNITING YOUR SEX LIFE: A TESTOSTERONE BOOST
When a man is truly testosterone-deficient, replacement can work wonders. This was the case with a fifty-four-year-old patient named Bill. When he couldn’t help but notice the progressive decline of his sex life, he quickly—and wisely—brought it to my attention. A man who enjoyed a regular sex life with Emily, his wife of twenty-three years, Bill was incredulous. “I’m losing my urge to have sex,” he said. “I guess it’s sort of inevitable at my age—maybe I just don’t have all the testosterone I used to.”
I told Bill that his assessment was probably right and ran a blood test to support our view. His hormone level measured a low 220 nanograms—any reading under 300 is considered deficient. After checking for evidence of abnormalities that could be contributing to his deficient levels—testicular or prostate cancer, pituitary disease, and cirrhosis of the liver are known offenders—and coming up negative, I recommended that he have an injection of testosterone.
A few days after getting a shot of 200 milligrams, Bill reported back to me; his libido had definitely been stirred. After two more weeks, he received a second shot, and soon afterward, I switched him to prescription transdermal patches. With them, he could easily self-medicate. Each night he placed two patches on his body, on either a thigh, an upper arm, his back, or abdomen. Each 2.5 milligram patch gradually released the hormone through the skin and into the bloodstream. After a month of using the patch, Bill called me again. “I have that old urge back,” he told me. “It feels like an old friend has come back for good.”
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