Todays clinical pearl comes from Justin Groce, NP who collaborated with me on the recently released Thyroid Optimization Course. I hope this little pearl of knowledge helps you with your hypothyroid patients:

Did you know that hypothyroidism can cause low testosterone?  

Yeah, in fact, if you have patients coming to you for possible low testosterone, you better make sure you check their thyroid panel as well (TSH, free T3, free T4, TPO antibody) because if their low testosterone is secondary to hypothyroidism, you could essentially fix two birds with one stone!

On the other side of the coin, if you have male patients with hypothyroidism, then you need to ensure you check their total and free testosterone levels!

To keep it brief — hypothyroidism can down regulate the functions of FSH and/or LH, which stimulate the testes to produce sperm and testosterone, respectively.

Even in patients who have subclinical hypothyroidism, it CAN cause hypogonadism.

So, before you start prescribing testosterone to low testosterone guys, make sure that your patient isn’t actually a hypothyroid patient! This could prevent the patient being started on an unnecessary hormone!

If you are wanting to learn more about how to truly optimize your patient’s thyroid, learn a new skill to integrate into your practice, increase your practices revenue, and earn 6 CEU that includes 2 pharmacology hours, then checkout The Thyroid Optimization Course while it is still on sale!