Testosterone: The Hidden Key | Andre Harris | TEDxDayton

[Music] [Applause] [Music] I think it was a Tuesday night that we decided to go to dinner to talk things over as you can imagine when a couple isn't seeing eye to eye things could get a little tin ewis I said something inflammatory she came back with a doozy next thing you know we are in the middle of a nice restaurant having the biggest fight of our marriage after 21 years of marriage Charlotte and I had hit a brick wall there just didn't seem a way that we could get over this thing even though we had managed to raise five children graduate from nursing school we graduated from medical school we started and still owned a practice today we had one huge issue in our life and that was sex now as we got older our intimacy seemed to get a little mechanical it was forced it didn't matter what I did it didn't seem like I could break this cold what is it about my sexy 39 year-old wife that has or not wanting to hug me for too long because it may lead to sex or get undressed in front of me or take a shower with me in the room even the times when she would make a good effort at intimacy it seemed like I was watching a hostage video sometimes instead of I love seeing it goes without saying she just didn't have that feeling anymore so I searched high and low for an answer and I really just came up with nothing even the marriage counselor did I talked to her in the scene looked at me after she found out I was an ob/gyn and said well you're the doctor don't you have something for that would help I'm like no of course not there's nothing in the literature that talks about low libido in a 39 year old woman now because the fight seemed inevitable and I didn't see a way out I decided to settle I settled with the idea that we were going to be great friends married business partners but we just weren't gonna be lovers so now fall of 2013 comes around and we go to this conference and at this conference we run into an OBGYN from Chicago who describes this hormone pellet therapy that she was doing that was changing the lives of her patients she described how hot flashes night sweats vaginal dryness low libido women to hold the phone did you just say low libido no question I had to learn this therapy I go off and get trained come back and of course my first willing participant was my lovely Charlotte D now in the back of my mind I'm thinking there's no way this is 39 year old woman hormones are that far off that was true all the way up to the day that I got her lab work back everything was jacked up her FSH was elevated her estrogen was low okay so this is the night sweats she's dealing with her testosterone was almost not it exists and so was this the key to what was going on as far as her libido was concerned a couple hormone pellet doses later it was on and poppin to say that we were doing better would be an understatement life had gotten so much better for us our marriage turn around it revolutionized things went so well with just adjusting her hormones that I decided to let me take a look at myself now I had heard about low testosterone and the effects that it can have on a man I was dealing with some weight you know I was getting tired all the time so I decided to check my testosterone levels June 2nd 2014 I found out that I was an 80 year old man now I know all you're saying you look great for an 80 year old but it was on that day that I found out that my testosterone level was 316 now let me put this in perspective you would expect an 18 to 20 year old to have a testosterone around a thousand at 43 years old my testosterone was 3:16 dang nigh I expect my testosterone levels to kind of drop after age 30 but 316 I had to get more understanding about this now pops my old textbooks I'm on google searching and I came to understand this one thing about low testosterone and about it as a hormone hormones are like these messengers were the key that go around unlocking the sales potential now to give you a visual of this why aren't baby boys born with a full beard and mustache now besides scaring the crap out of a new mom the reason is is that testosterone hasn't been released in high enough levels yet to unlock that sales potential and those hair follicles are grown thinking about that you can understand how important hormones are in our development but I started thinking about what happens when your testicles betray you and your testosterone levels start to plummet well for me it was almost like I was carrying this bag of sand that somebody decided to poke a hole in insidiously overtime I was getting fat flabby and fatigued so I decided to get my tea up now after the first dose of testosterone pellets things started to change 33 pounds of change to be exact yeah it wasn't as though the weight just fell off diet and exercise played a huge part in what I was doing but here's where the testosterone came into play I had these energy levels and the muscle development that was happening that it started to really change and transform my life I got to the point where I had run a 10k I did it a couple of times I was in the gym working out started to see the gun show again baby it was wonderful testosterone was being released in these younger levels and it was unlocking these cells that I hadn't had unlocked in a long time but here was the rub it was kind of this man in the mirror moment that I had it wasn't all her fault in my righteous indignation I wanted to blame everything on my wife and how where she was at in this whole whole process the reality is is that my low testosterone levels had caused a shift in a change in my body that didn't yell out come get me you sexy thing my testosterone levels had affected our marriage just as much as hers now I could spend the rest of this talk describing to you how men and women are like are affected by your hormones how women can go through hot flashes night sweats vaginal dryness low sex drive and energy levels that can plagued them for a decade before they even go into menopause how the guys in the room you could deal with these low testosterone levels that are causing you to have more central obesity and fat around your organs that can lead to high cholesterol hypertension diabetes heart disease I could even tell you about testosterone being views in some cases to treat osteoporosis by itself to treat Alzheimer's disease to treat Parkinson's disease I can even tell you about the patients that I have personally treated in their 40s 50s 60s 70s that are regaining their life back because of these elevated levels of hormones in their life but I have one big point that I want to make sure we all get it's the ideal of settling now as we age we expect that our hormone levels will start to drop and this becomes our new normal now just because your car gets old doesn't mean that you're gonna stop changing the oil in it on the contrary you've realized that there's more care as the car gets older listen you're not just tired all the time the kids aren't the reason why your sex drive is gone and it may not just mean that you have a poor ability to lose weight because if you pick up the fork too often it's your hormones I will tell you that your hormones are not a part of any routine testing you're gonna get done in the doctor's office if you want it you're gonna have to ask for it I will also tell you that there is a lot of people that will tell you a lot of physicians that are going to tell you that it's not even really necessary I'm here to tell you that your hormones can affect your weight your sex your sleep your energy your emotions they affect your life in the wall of my office there's a quote this is to improve is to change to perfect is to change often it now the first place I actually this was actually said by Winston Churchill but the first place I actually heard it was on the house of cards and for some reason I thought Frank Underwood said it it shows me that reading is definitely fundamental and don't get your history lessons from Netflix also I don't want you guys to settle with these low and unproductive hormones in your life it may mean that you have to find a physician that will listen to you when you say I just don't feel right anymore let's all be like Winston Churchill let's improve let's change let's perfect but please please don't settle [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 2,350,780

Rating: 4.8741384 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Health, Aging, Body, Medicine, Sex

Id: ZiDfZLJZTGU

Length: 11min 0sec (660 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 05 2018