Estrogen and progesterone are the primary sex hormones in women, whereas testosterone is the primary sex hormone in men. However, the female body also produces testosterone, which plays a vital role in women’s health and well-being.
Supplementing testosterone can be an important part of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for some women. However, there is no FDA-approved testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) treatment for menopause symptom relief. In some cases, the hormone may be prescribed off-label with dose modifications or, more commonly, in combination with estrogen for postmenopausal women experiencing decreased libido.(1) While testosterone is a controlled substance, DHEA is a non-controlled option for increasing natural testosterone levels.
In women, testosterone is mainly produced by the ovaries, with levels peaking during their 20s and then decreasing by approximately 50% as menopause approaches.(2) When women have both ovaries surgically removed via a procedure called oophorectomy, levels drop precipitously. Because testosterone has many important functions in female physiology, those functions can suffer when testosterone decreases.
