As you may know, testosterone is a hormone responsible for promoting growth, strength and sex drive in men. Recent studies have shown that increasing testosterone levels can help treat depression and anxiety in men. So if you're struggling with depression, increasing your testosterone levels will likely improve these.

Transcript

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Brian Mckinley: Hey, so, welcome back. Today, we're gonna be talking about TRT and Compella relates to mental health. I'm Brian's Elf MD. And so We we have a couple of patients who have really exemplified, why it's relatable. So you wouldn't necessarily think testosterone Treats something like mental health because it's you know, there's medicines for that, right? But we have a couple of good number of patients who really have turned their dependency and feelings on like other substances around and

Brian Mckinley:  it's mostly because of testosterone for them. Many people have said, it's changed to their lives. It's changed how they felt. It's gotten them through some very stressful times in their lives. Whereas otherwise, they don't think they could have. And, you know, the main reason that it does impact mental health. So, well, is because a lot of what causes, if you don't have like, a predisposed mental health condition, where you just are suffering from another nothing you can do about it therapy, doesn't help, that kind of thing. A lot of things, like anxiety and depression can be caused by external stressors. And you can be put into a state where you're depressed because of how you feel about yourself, how you feel about your life, how you feel about a lot of things. And when you tend to start fixing those types of things, instead of your pot, Boiling over it's now just simmering and you don't feel pressed. And so that's how testosterone can help that because, you know,

Brian Mckinley:  a lot of people can feel tired and not have the energy to kind of deal with problems in their lives. Well, testosterone makes you sleep better rest more. Let people have like a lot of visual issues with how they look and think that they're unattractive. Well, for the most part testosterone, generally pushes you to do the things that make you look more attractive. You know, drop fat, gain muscle, have more self-confidence. And then, you know, once you're desired by other people, that kind of fixes that issue, you know with with mental health There's also a thing to be said about like libido and how you perform with your partner and testosterone helps with that performance. And a lot of people are self-conscious and kind of get into their own heads when they get into that.

Brian Mckinley:  When they get into that kind of like headspace and that can cause a lot of depression if they feel like their partner isn't satisfied. So like there's a lot of reasons testosterone, you know, to be related. To mental health. You know, I think Garrett has some other points to make here too about it. Other than just my rambling.

Garrett Soames:  No, I'm I think it's just it's abundantly clear that low testosterone is intrinsically tied to well-being and mental health. So

Garrett Soames:  One of the more common symptoms that occurs with low testosterone is just a poor sense of self like Brian touched on that. Sense of self includes your self-worth. In regards to your relationship with your significant other and your sexual performance, your self-worth. In regards to your your motivation level, and the desire you have for your normal things, such as your, your passion, for your work, your self-image in regards to how you appear in the MIR. However, your aisle, you feel and again, how strong you feel, all of those are again intrinsically tied to ourself image in who we are. And so low testosterone is, is very central to all of those separate things. And so, it's now standard of care for. If you see your doctor and you're complaining of

Garrett Soames:  Question, and you're a man, It's standard of care for your doctor, to actually search for something like hypogonadism, because, although depression is extremely common, and absolutely does occur without low testosterone. It is also one of the more common causes that for depression, that is actually a physiologic cause, so an actual treatable cause or a medical cause for a mental health disorder. So, One of the main issues that that comes up to, with guys that have low testosterone that have mental health issues. And this is true for both depression and anxiety is that if if you're being treated for either depression or anxiety, the the medications that are used to treat those conditions actually can cause

Garrett Soames:  Low testosterone. So it's sort of a bit of a catch-22 we damned If you do damned if you don't, you want to treat yourself to, you know, to feel better or mentally. But those things can sometimes lower your testosterone levels, which then again can make you feel worse. And so in patients with recalcitrant, you know, depression, or anxiety. It's even more important to have your testosterone levels checked, because you may have started with just normal depression, and then your doctor prescribed, you something to help you feel better. But unfortunately, that medication is now suppressing your normal testosterone production and now your hype will go natural or Even worse. You had depression because you were already hypogonadal. Your doctor didn't test you for that. And then they add this medication which further, suppresses your testosterone production. So,

Garrett Soames:  Long story short, I think the the lesson to be learned in, in all of that is basically, if you are feeling depressed or you're feeling anxious, you have absolutely should, you know, talk to your doctor because there are, you know, treatments for this but it's also important that you discuss with your doctor whether or not, you know, it makes sense to test you for low testosterone. Because again, like, I say, that is a, it is really one of the more common, actual treatable causes for medical trigger. For mental health issues,