hi everyone I'm dr. Samina and today we're gonna be talking about all about testosterone how to
know if you have high levels what it really means for PCOS and how to naturally reduce it
in your body based on some of the research that we know with naturopathic medicine so
today really I wanted to focus on the fact that testosterone can be elevated in PCOS primarily
in the adrenal glands but also can be elevated in the ovaries as well so really it's about learning
about where the testosterone is coming from and then treating it based on lab results so the
reason why testosterone is high in the blind with PCOS is because oftentimes it comes from
higher amounts of insulin in the blood insulin can actually drive the production of testosterone so
it's really important to get your insulin levels tested and also check to see if you have insulin
resistance this can be done with fasting insulin and fasting glucose test also hba1c or an insulin
glucose challenge test and once you know if it says insulin is high maybe that's kind of
what is driving that testosterone production but also like testosterone can come from the
adrenal glands and it's be high in the blood as well so it's really important to test different
types of testosterone that we know of the first is free and total testosterone free testosterone
is just testosterone molecules floating around total testosterone includes testosterone free
but also bound to a protein called sex hormone binding globulin there's also testosterone that
comes from the adrenal gland these are the glands that sit on top of the kidneys they're small like
triangle shaped gland that helps us to produce our adrenaline so ignore epinephrine epinephrine
and cortisol which is our stress hormone so when testosterone is coming from the adrenal
glands it's let's known as DHEA and this is the testosterone that's primarily produced by the
adrenal glands and there's a small amount produced by the ovaries the the third one is interesting
and I own this is a hormone that actually is produced by half by the adrenal glands and half by
the ovaries so you know what we're really trying to figure out is where the testosterone is coming
from and then based on that use that knowledge to treat it and lastly in the last testosterone form
is called DHT or dihydrotestosterone and this is the most potent form of testosterone in the body
it's actually produced from testosterone so when we look at the hormone pathway it goes like DHA s
creates interest and I own understand iron creates testosterone and testosterone can creates DHT so
and the conversion from testosterone to DHT uses something called 5-alpha reductase and so when
we talk about saw palmetto this is a very strong herb that is referenced a lot in the literature in
terms of reducing testosterone levels it actually blocks 5-alpha reductase so this is where we see
if DHT levels are high that it would work really well signs of high testosterone so let me go back
actually so different types of testosterone we set free and total testosterone we said
DHEA s and r s t and i own in DHT so these are the labs you should consider running or asking
your healthcare provider to run for you some of the signs of high testosterone in PCOS include
you know acne or along your jawline so this kind of area deep cystic acne is very common on your
chest on your back those are like some of the locations where we see testosterone related acne
hair growth so anywhere on your face your chest your breast area your arms your legs hair loss
it's also a common sign so any of these signs can mean that you have high testosterone so an so it
doesn't necessarily need that you have to have high testosterone in your blood as long as you
have these signs of high testosterone it means that you do have testosterone that is elevated
um so let's see here what I want to talk to you about I just have a list and this is also on an
article that I wrote about it's called tired of being hairy all the time learn about top ten PCOS
treatments for high androgens so this is on my blog so you can read about it but I'm going to
talk a little bit more in depth of some of these herbs that can be really helpful so we have a
conversation today a little bit about spearmint tea on the group spare my tea has been researched
in the literature to help reduce free and total testosterone it was actually in the study they had
three cups of test spearmint tea to help reduce testosterone levels and I was daily and so you
can put all three tea bags into one cup of tea and drink that one cup or you can actually use
3 cups and drink it throughout the day and also some of the other herbs the two verbs that are
used side by side or together are licorice and white peeny these are Chinese medicine herbs
and combined together it actually inhibits the conversion from understand.i onto testosterone
so this means less testosterone circulating in the hair follicle so therefore there'd be less
growth and also less hair loss because what happens is testosterone goes into the follicle
create sebum creates inflammation and that's where we see hair growth or hair loss so yeah
that's white peony and licorice so in the studies it was a one to one ratio of white licorice and
we're sorry white peony and licorice and that was shown to help reduce testosterone levels and then
when we talk about adrenal focused antigen so the antigens that are coming from your adrenal glands
where we produce cortisol that is really about figuring how to reduce your stress levels so
there's a few herbs few things you can do to help reduce those levels the first one is that I want
to talk about that's not on the blog is called resveratrol so we're spiritual actually comes
from the skin of a grape and this is a very potent antioxidant and it's been shown in the research to
help reduce DHA s which is really cool so if that level is high in your blood reports then
I'm considering respirator all as a supplement is is would be good and then alpha amine is actually
found in green tea so its main role is to help to balance this HPA axis so HP accesses hypothalamus
pituitary adrenal access so the connection between the brain and the adrenal glands and it really
actually it crosses the blood-brain barrier and calms the nervous system down this is what I
tell my patients all the time who like have these racing thoughts worrying all the time it's really
great and I'm using the nervous system or just calming the nervous system down it won't give
you lots of energy it doesn't have any green tea and it is just an extract from green tea another
one is phosphatidyl serine this helps to reduce cortisol levels in the blood and so it can be
really helpful if there's high stress like you're feeling anxious all the time worried you waking up
with like a heart that's racing phosphatidylserine can also be helpful and then let's talk about cell
Camaro so saw palmetto is one of the most you know used treatments I would say in my world for
reducing androgen levels or just aa strong it's a very potent but it works it's kind of like the
Buckley's for PCOS because it tastes horrible if anyone's tried it in tincture form that's a
liquid form so maybe capsules might be better but basically what it does is it really helps
to reduce testosterone levels and you know even from my personal experience trying it I noticed
that taking it daily I see less hair growth and just overall just better feeling better
because really what's happening is when there's high testosterone it's actually blocking your
estrogen production and when your estrogen is low then that's when you know you kind of you
don't feel as well you don't feel as confident you know sexy like you don't feel as good when
you don't have as much estrogen and so that's why reducing testosterone almost helps us in
PCOS because it allows estrogen to shine and so saw palmetto can be really really helpful
in a case like this I've used it for patients who have here girls hair loss they're gonna acne but
it really depends on kind of what your type of the symptoms that you're experiencing and then
using that to guide the treatment let me see if there's anything else I wanted to talk about in
terms of this testosterone is really one of the key components of PCOS and so it's really about
figuring out a do you have insulin resistance that's driving testosterone production because
if that's the case we need to really change how you eat be if testosterone is high in the blood
we need to figure out where it's coming from is it from the adrenal glands where we produce cortisol
or is it from the ovaries and if it's from the adrenal glands and maybe we really need to give
you botannical that help to reduce stress okay so these are things like feening there were a
spiritual hospital serine and any adaptogens these are herbs and help us to adapt to stress so even
the licorice would be good in this scenario or if it's coming from the ovaries maybe beat you
something like sapa meadow or white peeny that can really have an effect on the ovaries so it's
really about figuring out what's happening in the body and then treating it based on that if
you guys have any questions please please feel free to put them in the comments and I'll be
sure to answer them as soon as I can I hope this was helpful and I'll see you next week take care