Is testosterone replacement therapy affecting your ability to conceive? In this episode we dive into the connection between TRT and male fertility. The long term effects TRT has on your natural testosterone production, how it impacts sperm health, and what options exist if you're trying to conceive while on or after TRT. I hope you find this episode helpful.

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Summary

In this episode, Dr. Jane Levesque and her guest Tina discuss the critical issues surrounding fertility, infertility, and testosterone replacement therapy (TRT). They explore the impact of toxins on male fertility, the mechanisms of TRT, and the importance of preparing for parenthood. The conversation emphasizes the need for comprehensive hormonal testing and addressing root causes of low testosterone, while also providing practical steps to reduce toxin exposure and improve overall health. The episode aims to empower listeners to make informed choices about their fertility and health.

Episode Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Fertility and TRT

02:46 Understanding TRT and Its Impact on Fertility

06:00 The Role of Toxins in Male Fertility

08:48 The Mechanism of TRT and Sperm Production

12:02 Preparing for Pregnancy: The Importance of Timing

14:28 Navigating TRT: Medical and Natural Approaches

17:56 Supporting Testosterone Production Naturally

20:48 The Importance of Nutrients for Sperm Quality

23:39 Holistic Approaches to Male Fertility

26:29 The Future of Fertility: Prevention and Education

29:26 Understanding Hormone Levels and Testing

32:29 Final Thoughts on TRT and Fertility

Key Insights/Takeaways

Pregnancy is a natural process, and support is crucial.

TRT is increasingly used among younger men, raising concerns.

Toxins can have irreversible effects on male fertility.

TRT can stop sperm production due to hormonal feedback.

Preparation for pregnancy should start early.

Nutritional support is vital for male fertility.

Comprehensive hormonal testing is essential for understanding health.

Addressing root causes of low testosterone is necessary.

Empowering individuals to make informed health choices is key.

Memorable Quotes

"Pregnancy is a natural process."

"TRT can stop sperm production."

"Stop warming food in plastic."

Connect with Dr. Jane Levesque

Website - https://www.drjanelevesque.com/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/drjanelevesque/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/DrJaneLevesque/

Pregnancy is a natural process. So if it's not happening or if it's not sticking, something is missing. After having a family member go through infertility and experiencing a miscarriage myself, I realized how little support and education women have around infertility. I wanna change that. I'm Dr. Jane Levesque. I'm a naturopathic doctor and a natural fertility expert. Tune in every Tuesday at 9 a.m. for insightful case studies, expert interviews and practical tips.

on how you can optimize fertility naturally. If you've been struggling with infertility, pregnancy loss, women's health issues, or you just want to be proactive and prepare yourself for the next big chapter in your life, this show is for you. Today, I sat down with one of my practitioners, Tina, and we broke down TRT. There is a lot of young men and older men who are leaning towards TRT because they have low testosterone levels, but they never...

got to the root cause of why that testosterone level was low in the first place. And you maybe have no idea the side effects of TRT when it comes to fertility. So Tina and I are going to break that down, what you can do naturally to support testosterone levels, what the optimal levels are, and what you can even do while you are on TRT to support sperm production. I hope you guys enjoy this episode. Hi Tina, we're back.

Talking about a favorite topic of yours, TRT and fertility. I don't think a lot of men, there's a lot of young men on TRT and not realizing what it is doing to their fertility. And then we are also meeting older men on TRT, not realizing how much or what it's doing to the fertility or maybe not even using it properly and not getting the results that they should because sometimes we are assuming that TRT is going to fix everything and it does not.

So where do you want to start? Because you are the experts here.

So I want to start with why we are seeing a prevalence of having to use TRT to begin with, right? I am a big proponent of hormones. I do believe TRT is fantastic. However, when we're seeing it being used in 30 year olds, I'm questioning.

20 year olds. 20 year olds.

20 year olds. Why? Right. And so there's really interesting information on toxins and the impact that toxins have on the male baby in utero. So toxins definitely impact both male and female. However, males seem to be more sensitive to phthalates, for example, in utero. And the problem with that is for our male

clients, right, that are exposed to phthalates or let's say they smoke, for example, they can quit smoking and they can improve sperm quality within a few months if they clean up lifestyle and they do the other things that we prescribe for them. However, if a baby, male, gender specifically, in utero is exposed to certain toxins, the damage is actually irreversible.

Mm-hmm.

there is no reversing the exposure in utero.

Yep.

So for example there was studies that looked at anal genital distance. I'm sure you've heard this as well and it's actually shorter for males that are exposed to phthalates, some males in utero and that shorter distance has been correlated with testosterone production and thereby sperm production. So this toxic soup that we're living in...

of the genitalia I remember right? size of the actual penis is smaller in the testicles and all of that.

Yes, yes, it's all connected. They're actually called like micro penises because they're much smaller. And this goes on to impact fertility. Okay. But before we even get to fertility, we're worried about testosterone levels, right? And if a male is feeling depressed, huge impact on mood when they're having low testosterone. So now we have this 20 year old guy who isn't really thinking about fertility.

He's thinking about why can't I lose fat? Why am I depressed? Why do I have no muscle? Why can't I be intimate? Why do I have no libido? And so because TRT has become very popular, which is a good thing because it was avoided for so long and you know, we're quicker to give somebody ketamine for treatment resistant depression more than we are to look at hormones, which are

naturally occurring within the body. So it's really good that hormones are being talked about and being prescribed. However, that 20 year old is not thinking about fertility and a lot of doctors are not aware of how TRT impacts the body.

this point in time, highly trained urologists in hormone or TRT are actually going to be the most well versed in TRT and its impact on the body. But your standard doc or the TRT clinics that are popping up on every corner and they're anti-aging or they're here to help you put on muscle, they don't know the impacts that that can have down the road. And I had clients with me who there was a

genetic diagnosis at a young age, very young age, teen years. And I said, did they ever tell you, you know, at 16 when they put you on TRT, what the outcomes would be? And he's like, no, I'm sure they handed my parents some pamphlets, but nobody spoke to the impact on fertility.

Yeah. mean, it's a simm birth control, rig the side, it's maybe because so many women wer control is candy and now I think the desire for the man are overweight, they're overb stressed. And so that is which is essentially, well, belly weight, you can't put

mask, you have brain fog, you don't have a libido, and so this TRT is like a, hey, it's gonna fix all these problems.

I think that there's a time and place for it. agree with you as well as I'm learning and diving in, but it's understanding what you're using it for and what other systems need to be working well in order for your body to get the most out of it. Because I always say with any drug, you want to find the lowest effective dose, you know, and even with supplements, it's like you can take 16 caps or you can take two. Some people need high dose, some people don't. And it's finding that lowest effective dose for that.

person so you're not unnecessarily overburdening systems because even if it's a quote-unquote good thing there's still such a thing as too much of a good thing.

That's right. And, you know, when we look at testosterone and it's created in the testes, right? It's very different from a woman who is in her fifties and going through menopause where the ovaries shut down. The testes should be able to produce testosterone into, you know, a male's seventies, eighties and beyond. Totally. Right. It's not like the ovaries that do shut down eventually.

So I think you are correct. I think we need to not run to testosterone replacement therapy and we also need to keep the conversation open around use of testosterone replacement therapy because I think that's why these clinics that are lacking the education and know-how are popping up is because men were just not being heard by their doctors and they were in a bad place and that's why these clinics are so profitable.

because it's easy. It's a drive-through testosterone.

Well, in the big effects that I don't know if you actually mentioned it, but like if a man is on testosterone, he stops producing sperm. So essentially they, because of the negative feedback loop, the testes go, you don't need me anymore. There's testosterone that's coming in and it stops producing sperm. And so there is, you can do irreversible damage in terms of being, being sterile, you know? Yeah.

That was...

Go ahead. No, that's what I was going say. It's like, that's the big thing that we're talking about in the fertility space where the sperm is sent through the man. We think that the man that's on testosterone, because now he has muscle mass and he's focused and his libido is great, we automatically assume that that's going to mean that he's making good sperm because we always say the men's health is a reflection of his, like his sperm quality is going to be a reflection of his health. But

I don't want say it's fake health because it's not like he's getting the testosterone, but the TRT isn't addressing the root cause of why that testosterone is low. And for some of us, you'll need it just so you have a good quality of life. But if having babies is your goal, then we have to find other ways.

That's right. Yeah. So what happens or what the mechanism is there, cause people don't understand why I have testosterone. Why wouldn't I be making sperm? So when it's given exogenously, which means it's coming externally into the body that signals to the brain that it doesn't need to release FSH and LH, which signals the testes to create testosterone and sperm. Because now the brain is thinking, I have all the testosterone that I need.

but it's not being made by the testes. So it's the same thing when somebody is given thyroid hormone, eventually their own thyroid production does decrease because the brain is being told that the body has enough. And that is what happens, that is the mechanism of how exogenous testosterone replacement therapy shuts down fertility. Because the testes are no longer doing the...

Like it just, took her a year, her body to, even though she did a lot of work. And so it's the same with men. There's a couple of people actually that I know have been open about being on TRT, like influencers that I follow and then shared that they were pregnant, but then also shared that it took two years because it was basically sterile and thank God they were able to reverse it and they had to work so hard to reverse it. yeah. So just, you know, a little bit more.

education around it so we can still make babies because like when you say it's not reversible, it's because it's changing the way that the body is growing and maturing. Like we can't reverse that. And we're coming to a very scary place in the fertility space where the ovaries are shutting down.

The sperm is really poor quality that in the next 20 years, it's like, I don't know what's gonna happen. And so it's like, need to, we see it. So we're trying to always educate people and be any woman that's sitting out there and going, maybe I wanna have kids. Maybe I should prepare. It's like, no, yesterday, start preparing yesterday. Get your man on board yesterday. It's a real thing. It's a real problem.

There is very few people who are getting pregnant easily and not having any complications during pregnancy. It is the norm now to struggle. Like that is the reality, unfortunately. And so it's like, unless we do something about it, unless we start advocating, unless we change the way that we live, we're just going to continue going down it. And obviously that's why we're here. Cause it's like, I refuse for that to be the reality. And I believe in humanity. have children. want them to have a good world. Like you do too, you know?

Just anything we can do to empower people to make better choices.

You broke up there. Repeat that.

I don't, I think it, it will just take over wherever. So you're good. I just said, empowering people to make better choices so we can make changes now. Nope. You can just kind of go on into the next part.

question.

Yeah.

Okay, awesome. Yeah, so you mentioned timeline there and you also mentioned, you know, we're seeing things in the fertility space. So I want to touch on those two things there. I mentioned, I think it was on our live just last week where I want to be seeing people coming to us, not because they're struggling with infertility, but because they want to prepare for pregnancy. And when I speak about, you know, the women carrying those boys and exposing them to toxins, that is what I mean by preparing for that pregnancy before it happens because

in exposing them we are decreasing the ability for that child to then reproduce and this trickle down effect right so if you remember the statistics on this but from

It's huge.

So that is, it's huge. So that is where I'm saying, you know, we need to come and we need to start preparing for that pregnancy because your son or daughter also wants to potentially reproduce. Yep. Right. So that's a big part of it. And then you mentioned timeline of kind of this reversing TRT and the impact that it has on creating your own testosterone. And there's actually a huge range.

And it can be anywhere from six months to two years to actually be able to start producing your own testosterone and sperm if it happens. Okay. And a lot of people, and I saw this in clients that came to me, doctors are not doing it properly. It's terrifying. I mean, we're pulling people completely off of their TRT, like no titrating down, nothing, and throwing them on Clomid, which I mean, you

to have all the estrogen symptoms in the world, that's how to do it. And then you have no TRT on board, so you're being pulled off TRT to be able to be fertile, but you have zero libido or ability to have an erection because you have no testosterone left in your system. It's terrifying what's being done.

It's just like a bad science experiment. Do know what I mean? You're like, we're testing on humans, by the way. Yeah.

And there's no need to actually pull someone off of TRT. There's actually great benefit of keeping someone on TRT and introducing something like an HCG. You can actually be using both of those in combination so that the male is able to keep testosterone in the body and have the HCG helping to create sperm. know, testosterone is great for libido and

erection and all of that. But by ripping people off of TRT so drastically, now we have to look at what's happening to metabolic function when you're doing that to somebody. Cognitive function, you know? So I think it is important that doctors are trained in how to use TRT if someone is already using it in the fertility space. And this is something that we guide clients on because we've

read the research and we have the knowledge around it so we can help empower our clients to know what to do with their prescribing doctor and ensure that they're having the best outcome at overall health and fertility.

When it's also addressing, like you talked about, phthalates is being like, that's the irreversible damage. And that's why we're seeing, you know, much lower numbers of testosterone in males now in teenage boys than we have in, you know, in the last 50 years for sure, definitely a hundred. But then there is the inflammation and the blood sugar dysregulation and, you know, the microbiome imbalance that is also contributing to the low TRT and then to just low testosterone levels. And that's never addressed.

when you are put on TRT for most people. And so if we're gonna go ahead and start addressing those things, not only are we usually gonna be able to find a lower dose, but then I don't know if you've done, do you do any alternative like.

I obviously, don't do any, I don't think I've had any male patients with TRT that has come to me. Usually I have men with low testosterone and they want to go on TRT eventually, but they want to have a baby. DHEA can be a really great tool. And then obviously there's a lot of herbs and supplements that we use to help support. And what with my husband, a big aha moment has been that he's actually making plenty of testosterone, but it's

converted into estrogen because his aromatase enzyme is just hyperactive because of what happened of like the weight he was as a teenager and kind of how he screwed up his metabolism and so his body still remembers. And so we had to do a lot of aromatase inhibitors because his body is making testosterone it's just going straight into estrogen and so it's like that's a very different problem you know than someone who doesn't have any testosterone or isn't making it.

Yeah. And when it comes to, you know, that treatment and the herbals that we can use, you mentioned DHEA, Tribulus. There's some good research around Tribulus. Melatonin actually, some good research around melatonin in helping with male hormone and fertility. So those would be two that are really great if somebody is not on TRT and they want to support testosterone production and sperm production. Those would be two.

that really stand out to me. And then of course, supporting mitochondria, just like we do that for the female, we do that for the male. Because I mean, your sperm needs to swim far. And in order to do that, they need the energy and the vitality to be able to do that.

Yeah, the mitochondria is what lets it do that. And it takes up to 72 hours to get to the egg. Just FYI, if you guys didn't know that. the swimmers need to be strong and we need lots of them. Zinc is a really big one. That's probably one of the most missed nutrients for men. And I mean, I don't know if you could say that because vitamin D is really high up there and managing inflammation. And yeah, there's lots. There's lots we can do to support it.

Yeah, yeah, and if somebody is using TRT because of whatever reason, we also want to be supporting with nutrients because that sperm quality still matters. Yeah. It still matters. Even if you have all the count in the world and you have testosterone, the quality of what's coming out of you is still important. And we need those nutrients to ensure that the quality is good as well.

Yeah, and so you're saying that some men can be on TRT and still make sperm while others won't.

Yeah, I think

If we look at long term, the majority can actually become fertile again with the proper therapy. So that's typically a combination of HCG, TRT and FSH. It's a very expensive treatment protocol. FSH is very expensive. HCG, it's become very difficult to get HCG. And if you can, it is very expensive as well. If it is a younger male,

They can consider Clomid, however that's, you know, not everybody responds really well to Clomid. It can be quite harsh. The more expensive but ideal route is the TRT, HCG, and then layering in FSH. And then the chances of being able to conceive again are pretty high. It's just the timeline is variable across.

Got it, and that's the six months to two years. And so that's from the medical, like if they're doing that medical, you also at the same time then trying to use herbs like Tribulus or to support it at the same time?

Yeah, I don't know if I'd be looking to use herbs to increase sperm production or testosterone production. You can, of course, because I mean, that could shorten the time. But I think I'd be focusing a lot more on quality so that when they are producing again, we're making sure that's high quality sperm. Let's go, you know.

That's where the nutrient things in that's the selenium and the zinc and the vitamin E and omegas and all those good things for the mitochondria and

the quality of Yeah, and ensuring the body is in a good state because if the body is less inflamed and you have less toxic load, the chances of that two years being shorter is far more likely.

For sure. And so is it an option to take somebody off the TRT and then just support, like wean them off slowly and then support them and see if that production of sperm can come back and even production of testosterone can come back? Versus like going the more medical route, would that be more expensive?

Yeah, yeah, so unless there is some genetic disorder that is not reversible, right? I was talking in, you know, social media on my stories the other day about secondary hypogonadism and how that's the signaling from brain to testes is just not strong enough. So the testes are not hearing the pituitary gland speaking to them, right? And the reasons why that can happen are all things that we

can resolve in our clinic mold exposure, high toxic load, stress, oxidative damage, right? Coming from the stressors of the world, excess weight, you know, just like we see for women who have poor egg quality. Okay. It's the same when it comes to men that hyper hypogonadism. Like I said, a male should be able to produce testosterone well in

to their senior years unless, like I said, there is something that can't be turned off. But otherwise, absolutely, if they come in and they're working with us, we can get off of TRD.

and do.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think comes down to the family goals. And I always ask couples like, is your family goal? And sometimes they're like, you know, well, we've been struggling for so long, we'd be happy to have one. And that's usually just coming from a place because they are just desperate to have anything worked. And it's they can't imagine struggling for another five years to try again, because they just don't even have that timeline. But I think that, you know, with proper when we address big components of fertility and whether that's

that's before sperm production or ovarian function health. It's we can do things to help actually say, OK, what is the family goal here? And yes, we'll be happy with one. But how can we make it work? if that's the goal, then we need to set you up for success. Like that green line that we draw for people versus the red line. It's like, how do we get you on that green line? And then how do we because most people are on the red line where they don't they're not realizing that the actions and the behaviors that are taking they're doing are actually take them

further away from their goals instead of closer. And that's because they just don't have this whole picture in seeing specialists in just one area who isn't looking holistically. You know, like that's my frustration with, I mean, even the fertility clinics, it's like, you guys, you can't just look at this one component and nothing else, you know?

That's right. Yeah. And I mean, and we like thrive off of this, right? So for example, you know, I started diving into this specific genetic diagnosis to see, this even reversible? Right. And I got, mentioned to you, right, I got into the world of kiss, pepton and kiss, pepton actually signals the hype. So the beginning of this testosterone production is the hypothalamus releases, GNRH, which signals the pituitary to release FSH.

LH. But before the hypothalamus releases GnRH, it's kisspeptin that actually signals the hypothalamus. And this kisspeptin begins in utero.

Yep.

So when we're looking at the male in utero and exposure to toxins, what's going on with kiss-peptin production at that point? What is happening? you know, okay, so let's look at what we can do because we're in a beautiful point in the world where we have access to so many different things. And how can we resolve this first stage of the signaling up here in the brain to make everything downstream function better?

We do all of this because we know that we can't just look at anything in a silo. need to, okay, so the testes make testosterone. I'm not going to just focus on the testes. Like there's so much more upstream from there that we need to consider.

Yeah, and what I'll say like the human body is so resilient and obviously the more that I learn the more I'm like how are any of us here? Like how are any of us here? Life is truly a miracle and like everything that has to happen in order to have that baby grow and come out it's it is truly a miracle and I don't want to like sound discouraging you know when we say like hey the time to take action is now the time to you know fix all these things. We've seen incredible things in practice when you address the

physical component, the mental, the emotional, and even the spiritual, depending on where the person is energetically and what needs to be addressed. And it is incredible what we see in terms of how the body is able to heal. But you have to be open and trusting the process that like, trust my body, I'm on the same team, I have something to learn from this experience. So then...

you're not passing that on to the next generations because we've definitely have accumulated some damage. And we can see that in the health of the children, right? And that's the hard break. It's because those kids don't even, I don't wanna say they don't get a chance, but it's like, they're just, they think that's how you're supposed to be. They experience the world through being sick. And that's really sad.

It is. And that's why when we started, said, you know, this exposure and utero, it's not reversible. When you hear that, you should right away be thinking, well, then how do I prevent it? I can't reverse it, how do I prevent it?

Yeah. Yeah. And that's something is huge for when women are pregnant. We always are like avoidance, avoidance, avoidance, because you're not going to detox. So it's like, am so you're not going out to you're not eating crap. You don't know. Like you're not. Do you know what I mean? You're minimizing that as much as possible. It's not like, oh, it's just a one time thing. It's like, no, you're poisoning yourself and you're growing a baby. Get that out of the system. You know, can we talk about

just the normal levels of TRT and or sorry, testosterone and what we should be seeing. Cause I think that there's a lot of kind of misinformation around that. I'd love to finish on that. What is optimal? And even FSH and LH, right? Cause that's, we test that a lot. A lot of men don't get tested there. And I think, you know, we need to educate.

you

Yeah, so speaking to testosterone levels, this is variable person to person, to be honest. Somebody can have testosterone levels of 400 and feel like they're in the basement of a house, whereas 400 for somebody else, they'll feel like they're on the top floor, meaning they feel fantastic. If I'm seeing, you know, and the clinics don't agree on this either, and it's even worse for women when it comes to testosterone levels, okay.

I really would love to see men at 600, 800. I think 400 and 200 is sad.

Oh, 200 is brutal, I've never seen a man in 200 or 300 that feels great, like 400 usually, maybe. But most men will start feeling much better in that 500, 600, 700.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's where I'd like to see men around that area, I think is key for feeling good. If somebody is at 400 and they say they feel good, they probably have no idea how much better they could feel.

Yes, for sure. talk about the sex hormone binding globulin, because that usually doesn't get tested. DHE doesn't get tested. DHT doesn't get tested. So then it doesn't give us a whole picture, because you can have the good levels of testosterone, but it's all feeding into the quote unquote bad pathway. And then all of sudden you are balding and you have acne and you

Yeah, yeah, and so let's talk about because some people will only get a total testosterone tested.

Not enough, by the way.

Not enough. I'd like to speak to why. Total testosterone is bound to protein. So it's not all usable, right? So if we only check total testosterone, we have no idea how much that male is actually able to use. And that's why it's important, like you said, to check SHBG and free testosterone. Okay. And the ideal measure of free testosterone would be the LC-MS. That would be the...

ideal most sensitive blood to take for free testosterone and that's going to tell you how much is not bound, how much you're actually able to use of testosterone. Because if you have elevated SHBG, your total testosterone can be a thousand, but if you don't check free testosterone, you might only be able to access 200 of that thousand.

And so it's not giving a clear picture. We need that clear picture. The FSH and LH is important because that's going to help us know.

Like I said, secondary hypogonadism, that's going to present with normal or low normal FSH and LH. If it's primary hypogonadism, the FSH and LH are going to be very high because the, not the dysfunction, but the signaling that's impaired is the testes. They're not hearing the brain. In secondary, it's the brain isn't speaking loud enough to the testes. And if we don't check FSH and LH, then we don't know.

where the breakdown is happening.

Yeah, and with the sex hormone binding globulin, I just learned a little tad bit of information, but it does primarily bind to testosterone, but also estrogen. So a lot of the times when it's high, there's like estrogen dysregulation, which we see a lot in males. And then obviously it impacts testosterone as well, because then that testosterone is just going into estrogen. And that's why you're not, you know, you're not getting to feel the effects. So, and that's just from the hormonal, again, like cholesterol.

That's the place where it starts. So being able to see what the cholesterol is doing and good levels of cholesterol versus bad. And then I always just picture this stereogenesis map from the Dutch where you could see every enzyme and how it's going. And it's like, well, all those enzymes are usually produced by the liver and the new nutrients and it is going to, or the gut or something. So that's where gut function is important. Liver function is important.

you know, overall inflammation, blood sugar dysregulation, cortisol stress, like you said, nothing acts in silo. We need to look at the whole picture. But if you're just gonna hyper-focus on testosterone, please at least get a proper analysis of that testosterone.

That's right. Yeah. And just see where the breakdown is happening.

Yeah, totally. Anything else that you want to leave people with?

Did anything we missed? You've been diving deep into this research.

I guess.

Yeah, think, no, think understanding that it can sound really doom and gloom, but it doesn't have to be. I think we share this because we really, like I said, we want you to say, okay, how do I prevent this then? So that.

I support you, guess it's the way that it is.

That's right, that's right. to speak to some simple things that you can start with, mean, don't warm up your food in plastic.

Like start there. Right. So when we, when we talk about, okay, what can I do? Start there, go through one room at a time in your home and start there. and start clearing things out so that we can stop the trajectory. That seems really scary because if we start to look at, know, from up here at like everything that needs to change, you'll never start. I think you need to go to a micro level. So we are saying we look at everything.

up here, big picture, but as an individual, start small, start with your Tupperware, switch to glass. And I think that's.

here.

Start filtering your water if you haven't already. I think people I've had, I still can't believe how many people are like, is tap water bad? And I'm like, yes. Where have you been? Have you been living under a rock for the last 10 years? It's just so bad. You need to start filtering your water yesterday. And even the small things, I love what you said about stop. I remember again, MetaKline and her BPAs were so high and I'm like,

Where do think you're getting all this plastic from? And she's like, well, I do still warm up my lunches in my plastic container. And I was like, you do? I didn't mean to. I was just like, that's crazy. I'm like, stop doing that immediately. Yeah, it's nuts. It's nuts. Anything with plastic. But here's what I'll say. Cans are plastic with aluminum outside. you melt the metal on the outside, it is a plastic interior. And they've done those memes that show that.

That's

So if you're drinking a lot of canned things, that's plastic exposure. If you are obviously the water bottles, that's plastic exposure. If you think about all the Starbucks and all that nice shiny lining, that's not paper. The outside is paper, inside is plastic. And then you put a nice plastic top on that Starbucks hot drink.

Yeah. That's just melting into it. Like that's all plastic. And I think most people just don't realize how much plastic we actually use. And we need to start questioning these things because then it's like, well, everything I use is plastic. And like, and that's exactly the problem. The fact that we're finding plastic, microplastics in women's ovaries and men's testicles, that's the problem. You know, like until we start to wake up and go, huh, this is plastic. Yes, it's plastic.

We need to stop supporting plastic production so it stops being in our ocean and in our fish and in our water and everything, you know? That's right. It's sad, but if we don't do it, we're not, it's just, we're doomed.

Yeah. fun fact, actually very interesting. I thought this was just with sea turtles, but sea turtles, the gender of the offspring is actually determined by the temperature in the environment when fertility or fertilization happens. This is actually the same in humans. the temperature or global warming, they're actually seeing a correlation with less males being born.

than females because of the changing environment. So again, if we look at the macro level, we're like, well, what can I do? But we can do a lot by just starting at one room at a time in your house.

Yep. Yeah, I love that. It's actually, Leah always drops, you know, like, and this is how you make a male baby versus a female. And I'm like, okay, hold on. Like what? And she's like, vegan diets help make more males. And I'm like, why? And it's like, it's the alkalinity, which is that environment of, I don't want to say cooler, but if I think of acidity, I think of inflammation, which is generally going to be a higher, you know, temperature, but that's very interesting.

And yeah, for sure. I I wish that was, you know, thank you. You know, this is a good topic and yeah, I hope that people find some value in terms of understanding, you know, women send this to your man. I think that even for a man, like my husband has struggled with low testosterone for like way before. This is the highest he has been now since we've

We're sea turtles. all sea

worked on him for 10 years. Obviously it doesn't take 10 years, but we've done some specific things at different times and let it settle and so on and so forth. And then there's life and stress and all that kind of stuff. So he's been able to continue to increase his testosterone instead of a decline, even though he's aging and there's higher stress. TRT is not the only option. And when it is an option, we want to make sure that we're using it well. And obviously you have to be done with family making at that time. And then if you

still want to have a baby and there's low testosterone, there's options. You just have to work with professionals who look at you as a whole instead of just, just go on TRT and all your problems will be solved.

That's right. Yeah, and if you are on TRT and want to make a family, also work with a professional who knows how to do both because things that are happening are really scary.

Totally.

Yeah, for sure. And like even to, know it's unlikely that we'll have like a 20 year old listen to this, but you know, before you go on TRT, just like women, before you go on birth control, like, hey, figure out why it's low in the first place and make sure you understand what you're signing up for, because you are signing up for life a lot of the times, or really unpleasant symptoms coming off, which essentially decreases your quality of life. There, it's, it's,

I feel like we've just been making these really big life decisions without realizing how big these life decisions are. Like putting women on birth control and saying that like, no, it doesn't matter. And I'm like, no, that really does matter. Like we need to stop downplaying that. Anyways, more range to go.

Irreversible things happen. Irreversible. Yes. For men and women on certain things.

Let's be smart about making our decisions. Thank you so much, Dina, for being here. Always love connecting with you. Thank you. And we'll see you soon. Thank you so much for listening. To read the full show notes of this episode, including summary, timestamps, guest quotes, and any resources that were mentioned on the episode, visit www.DrJaneLevesque.com forward slash podcast. And if you're getting value from these episodes, I'd love it if you took two minutes to share it with a friend.

rate and leave me a review at www.Ratethispodcast.com forward slash Dr. Jane. The reviews will help with the discoverability of the show and who knows, I might share your review on my next episode. Thank you so much for tuning in and let's make your fertility journey, your healing journey.