For those of you who are considering taking testosterone as a replacement therapy, be careful because a study came out in 2006 from the Yale SOM that demonstrated high levels of exogenous testosterone kill brain cells. Ensure your doctor is giving you a physiological dose as opposed to a pharmaceutical dose, and make sure you get tests of your levels.

Also, a lot of physicians will prescribe DHEA concurrently with Testosterone. If yours does, be careful with this as well because it depletes cortisol levels, which is an important neurohormone. If you are supplementing DHEA, ensure that your adrenals are functioning correctly before hand and if they aren't, make sure they are getting the necessary support.

I would hope that any doctor who prescribes testosterone, does it based on blood levels and not just a shot in the dark. Since Testosterone can be effected by DHEA and Vitamin D3, blood levels need to be monitored every six months or so while trying to determine a proper dose.

** your dose is determined by your blood levels after the intake of the hormone. It is almost impossible to predict how much of a hormone will be absorbed by the body in different individuals. It can also be different based on the way an oral supplement is taken. The acid level and fiber, etc. can drastically change how much is absorbed.

Some pharmacist types, especially those sold out to Big Pharma try to claim the Bio-Identical Hormones are inconsistent in potency. This complaint would only matter if you failed to test blood levels after a period of Hormone Replacement Therapy.

Getting you blood levels tested until you and your doctor determine the proper dosage is the Gold Standard of Bio-HRT protocols.

This holds true when there are any changes in dosage.

btw, many expensive compounding pharmacies and some doctors will try to steer you away from mail order pharmacies. They will often claim that the cheaper mail order pharmacies use a cheaper and less reliable compounding base cream for topical application. The premium compounding base cream costs about $300 per quart/liter in small qualities and $800-$900 per gallon.

The truth is that the big mail order compounding pharmacies like Women's International have experience with thousands of patients and their doctors. It is a better value to use a cheaper base cream and use a higher dose of the hormone to bring the blood levels up to the desired level.

The same holds true for Omega-3 fish oil. Fish oil can have EPA and DHA levels from 40% to 85%. If you buy the low end oils, you are likely not getting enough DHA and EPA for your money. If you use an 85% oil, you are likely spending more than you need to to get the DHA and EPA.

So, if you need to shop for best value, read the fine print on the label and do the math. The DHA and EPA should be listed separate of the total oil.

Personally, I believe it is imperative for us to understand what we are taking. If we leave it to the doctors, we are delegating our health to someone who has to see too many patients per day to have time to be as conscientious as we would like.

With the internet and Bing and Google, the information is out there for the searching. Then there are plenty on this forum who can help with the research.