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New Findings, New Thoughts
Thoughts on Fibroids
Fibroids are benign muscle tumors that form in the wall of the uterus. They
are very common, occurring more frequently in African-American
women and women who are overweight. The official position is that the cause is unknown.
Fibroids may or may not bring on symptoms. If they do, they can cause
menstrual cramping, excessive bleeding, frequent urination, painful intercourse, and infertility or recurrent miscarriages.
Women with very large fibroids can feel them as a hard mass in the lower abdomen.
It is known that fibroids begin to shrink after the menopause. This is when estrogen levels substantially decline. There
are drugs that can shrink fibroids, and they also work by drastically lowering estrogen levels.
Since I began treating large numbers of testosterone deficient women with testosterone replacement, one of the
most common feed-backs has been that their menstrual cramps have lessened or disappeared, excessive bleeding
has lessened or normalized, and their fibroids have become smaller. Indeed, I have at least two patients who avoided a
hysterectomy apparently because testosterone replacement shrank their fibroids.
Is there any reason to believe that the loss of testosterone is responsible for the development of fibroids?
> Fibroids commonly begin to form in the thirties or forties.
> Female testosterone levels can begin to significantly drop
in the late twenties.
It is common for symptoms of testosterone deficiency to appear by the late thirties and forties. This is many years
before estrogen decreases enough to bring on the end of menstrual periods - the menopause.
> Fibroids are more common in overweight women.
> Testosterone loss promotes fat and weight gain.
> Obviously, estrogen itself is not the cause of fibroids.
If this was true girls would begin to get them with the onset of puberty.
We have then the most logical explanation for the development of fibroids: The loss of testosterone at an age younger
than the loss of estrogen results in a hormonal imbalance - too much estrogen for the amount of testosterone,
or, more accurately, not enough testosterone for the amount of estrogen.
Fibroids are known to shrink with less estrogen, and I have routinely found that fibroids shrink with the replacement of
testosterone. Which is the more desirable treatment, to shrink fibroids by becoming a neutered female eunuch, or by
effectively replacing the missing testosterone and becoming a whole woman again?
Effectively replacing testosterone will also bring back a woman’s missing strength and energy, stop and
reverse osteoporosis,
inhibit the onset of diabetes, heart disease, and vascular disease, improve mental function, alleviate depression
and/or anxiety,
bring back an active desire and enjoyment of sex, and probably delay the onset of senility, among other things.
Every woman facing a hysterectomy would do well to demand a free testosterone blood test, and if on the low side
(which almost all will be), demand at least a six month trial of effective testosterone replacement before surgery.
At the proper replacement dose there are no significant side effects.
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