Testosterone Replacement Therapy Side Effects:

Testosterone replacement therapy side effects can be good, bad, and downright ugly. Testosterone levels have been steadily dropping for decades. This leads to low energy, poor performance athletic and otherwise, infertility, and erectile dysfunction. The common solution is to take a shot or other form of therapy to raise your testosterone levels. Shouldn’t the solution be to fix why your testosterone is low in the first place?

The Good:

Higher testosterone comes with improved energy, endurance, strength gains in the gym, muscle growth, and performance enhancement in sports, the gym, and bed. What’s not to like? True informed consent means you need to know the possible negative side effects of artificially raising your testosterone.

The Bad:

If you are taking a higher amount of testosterone than the body wants it there’s going to be issues. If your testosterone is low there is a reason. Excess testosterone goes through a process called aromatization. This converts the testosterone you are taking into estrogen. If you’re thinking, “that’s just an estrogen shot with extra steps,” you’re right.

All that extra estrogen then leads to more feminizing properties, such as:

• Gynecomastia (man boobs)
• Mood swings
• Erectile dysfunction
• Infertility
• Loss of muscle mass
• Weight gain
• Fatigue

Another side effect that could potentially fit in the ugly side-effect category is decreased testicular size. Since the body no longer needs to use the testes for testosterone size the testes decrease in size, thus lowering sperm count and fertility. The “good” news is when you stop testosterone therapy sperm count will come back to normal levels after 6 to 18 months. That’s right, it could take your body anywhere from ½ a year to 1 ½ years to recover from taking testosterone.

The Ugly:

Now for the ugly testosterone replacement therapy side effects. The excess testosterone (and estrogen) are processed in the liver. This adds extra stress to the liver leading to an increased chance of benign and malignant tumors on the liver. Liver failure, cancer, and inflammation are all potential side effects of TRT. This lowers several essential nutrients that help with energy, nerve conduction, methylation, immune system function, and much more.

Testosterone stimulates an increase in red blood cell production. This increase thickens the blood and increases your risk of clotting. It adds extra strain to the heart and arteries as they have to work harder to move your blood. This increase in blood pressure can exacerbate vascular diseases leading to poor blood flow to and from the brain, lungs, limbs, and other organs. This can worsen sleep apnea, congestive heart failure, and many other cardiovascular conditions.

All these negative side effects should be heavily considered to determine if lifting a few extra pounds at the gym is worth it.

“This is all good information but how do I raise my testosterone levels?”

I’m glad you asked. Click here to read about natural testosterone support.