Note: I have made a special pellets page with lots more information. Please refer to that page as it will answer most questions.
Below is an email I received followed by my response.
Hello. Thank you for taking the time to read my email.
I have a question.
I am a 39 years old female.
I went to a doctor that dose the testosterone pellets. I’ve only done it twice last year. It’s been 5 months since my last pellet injection. I was very concerned about having this done & asked a million questions. However I don’t think my doctor had a clue what he was doing.
So here I am 5 months later & I had my blood work done because my hair is falling out & I have the worst acne ever. My blood work showed I had 3x the amount of more testosterone then a man!
How long do the pellets take to rid my system & will my hair grow back? Will I fully recover from these testosterone pellets?
I’m very worried about the mistake I’ve made & I’m hoping the side effects are not long term.
My hair was thick before & now I’m almost completely bald. Will my hair grow back & stay?
Thank you again. I’m sure you get so many emails but I’d really appreciate any advice or knowledge to help myself at this point.
Thank you,
Heather
Hi Heather,
I am never too busy to read or respond to my emails. Thank you for emailing me. For more experiences like yours with pellets, please go to my website’s blog and scroll down to my blogs on pellets. They are popular and I’ve shared close to 200 emails from women with similar horrific experiences like yours. I’ve also written a book, “Own Your Journey……to Optimal Hormone Balance” for more information, and you can order this on my online store if you are interested.
At our Happy Hormone Cottages, we don’t believe in pellets. In fact, we believe pellets give what we do a bad name. We are ALL about HORMONE BALANCE in all areas: estrogen, progesterone, testosterone (our sex hormones), cortisol from our adrenal glands, and thyroid. Let me explain. We understand from the biochemistry of our bodies that we must refill our hormone receptors that deplete as we age, because our hormones perform many, many jobs in our bodies. Why do our hormones deplete? It is part of the aging process. Think about it. Years ago, most women (and men) didn’t live much beyond their 30s or 40s so their depleting hormone levels weren’t a big deal. But now that we are living into our 70s, 80s, and sometimes our 90s, we have to replenish them to continue to be healthy AND to prevent disease. Progesterone begins depleting around age 35 and is kind of a big deal because progesterone performs significant tasks like:
-promoting sleep
-preventing anxiety
-preventing depression (progesterone gives us our ‘joy of life’ feeling)
-preventing sugar cravings
-elevating our mood
-preventing aches and pains
-helping to prevent breast cancer
When our progesterone levels dip in our mid 30s, these above issues begin to happen. Sleep is impacted. Women become fatigued. Tired women don’t want sex, so libido decreases. This negatively impacts marriages. (This explains mid-life crises and why men look to younger women for their sexual needs) This is when women become aware of their hormones, although hormones have always played a huge role in our development from girls to women to pregnancy (and then on to and through the aging process to death). And this is when having the testosterone pellets implanted become popular. Putting a whopping dose of testosterone in our bodies does not make sense to us and in fact, we understand biochemically, the dangers of doing this. We never measure hormone levels in blood, except thyroid and then we do an 11 point thyroid blood panel in conjunction with our innovative thyroflex machine. We find just having a number in blood for our sex hormones and cortisol is somewhat meaningless. It does not give us much information. We are more interested in what our hormones-sex hormones and cortisol- are DOING inside our bodies; how they are metabolizing and methylating. Then we can work with our clients to create a strategy customized just for them, using our bio-identical hormone creams compounded from plant-based powders, to refill our hormone receptors over time for optimal hormone balance. Doing so eradicates the symptoms of our hormone imbalance (sleeplessness, anxiety, irritability, fatigue, low libido, brain fog, weight gain) and, more importantly, helps prevent disease as we age. What diseases? Osteoporosis, heart disease, dementia, breast cancer. Once you understand that estrogen, which depletes during Perimenopause and drastically depletes through menopause, performs over 300 tasks in our bodies to protect our heart and our brain; and testosterone that helps build strong bone (by signaling the osteoblasts to make more), helps memory recall, gives energy and helps libido WHEN we also address our tired adrenal glands……you will understand why replacing these hormones that deplete as we age is so important. In fact, our mantra is, “Hormones are to women what water is to plants!” I hope you now understand why we simply don’t believe in pellets- supraphysiologic dosing of testosterone just does not make sense when you are immersed in Functional Medicine, holistic health, like we are.
For you specifically, these testosterone pellets will decrease over time and your testosterone level will go back to what it was. But the damage to your body is more long-lasting. You can pick up saw palmetto (we sell it on my online store) to help stop the conversion of your testosterone to DHT for your hair loss. You can also get Biotin (yes-on my online store) to help grow hair. Over time, and you will need to be patient, your hair should come back. I’m hopeful that your acne will also subside as the pellets wear off. I highly suggest you give us a call at 513-444-6343 to set up an appointment for a consultation ($25) for over the phone or in person so we can work with you to restore your hormone balance. We have 4 Happy Hormone Cottages in the Cincinnati-Dayton area. Our nurse practitioners work at 3 of them. You can do everything off-site if you live out of our area, but you will need to come and see our practitioner in person for your hormone therapy prescription.
I hope this information is helpful to you. I often wonder why women go through with pellet implantations when they sense the doctor implanting them “doesn’t have a clue what he was doing,’ and more importantly, why there aren’t lawsuits against these practitioners and the companies who make the pellets? Someone, somewhere needs to be held accountable and this madness should be stopped. We spend a lot of our time helping women who have been negatively impacted by pellets.
Take care and keep me posted. I hope you decide to work with us. We are all about hormone balance and wellness. I’m most interested in your journey to health and wellness.
Best,
Lyn
Read more about our view on pellets here
