Testosterone for Women Over 40 | Why My Labs Were Wrong

Have you ever gotten a "normal" lab result but still felt off?
Chalene Johnson
episode
Description

Testosterone, not GLP-1s, is what finally let Chalene Johnson lose body fat and build real muscle after 40, and she’s laying out exactly how in this episode.

Chalene explains why her total testosterone always looked normal on paper while she still felt exhausted and stuck in the gym, until a clinician finally tested her free testosterone and SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin) and found the real problem. In her words, total testosterone is the money in the bank, free testosterone is the cash in your pocket, and SHBG is the bank teller deciding how much you actually get to spend. She also gets into why she skipped the growth peptides everyone’s talking about (tesamorelin, ipamorelin, CJC-1295) and switched from monthly testosterone injections to a daily cream instead.

She talks candidly about the mold exposure that wrecked her hormones, caregiving through her father-in-law’s Alzheimer’s, and why she stopped weighing herself and started tracking body fat with an InBody scale instead.

Topics discussed: testosterone for women, free testosterone, total testosterone, SHBG, hormone replacement therapy, perimenopause, GLP-1, tesamorelin, ipamorelin, CJC-1295, HGH, IGF-1, progressive overload, body composition, InBody scale, DEXA scan, mold toxicity, testosterone cream

with
episode
Questions

Have you ever gotten a "normal" lab result but still felt off?

I'd love to hear how you advocated for yourself, or wish you had.


What's one rule around eating, fasting, or exercise you finally gave yourself permission to break?


When it comes to strength training, are you tracking your weights and reps, or just guessing you worked hard?


episode
Timestamps
00:00

Why GLP-1s cause muscle loss


00:06:50

Starting hormone replacement therapy in perimenopause


00:11:37

Overtraining, inflammation, and stalled progress


00:13:28

Protein-first eating over intermittent fasting rules


00:18:05

Progressive overload and choosing the right weights


00:20:15

SPF, OneSkin, and skin advice from a beauty influencer


00:29:59

Mold exposure and hormone disruption


00:32:39

Peptides, SHBG, and switching to a testosterone cream


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