Men on the Path to Love
Relationship coach Bill Simpson offers stories and wisdom, to inspire men be the best version of themselves in relationship and live the life they love.
Men on the Path to Love
BONUS: Hormone Replacement Therapy: How Hormones Impact You and Your Relationship
What if the missing spark in your relationship isn’t a communication issue but a chemistry issue? In this BONUS episode, I sit down with biochemist and entrepreneur Ryan Root to unpack how hormone optimization can reshape energy, mood, and intimacy—and why so many people have been misled about the risks. Ryan’s path runs from operating one of the largest underground testosterone labs to serving time in prison, and building a nationwide, fully legit Hormone Replacement Therapy company.
If you’re tired, foggy, and disconnected—or if your relationship feels stuck in low gear—this is a fresh, evidence-based lens on what might be holding you back. Check out the Hormone Replacement Therapy: How Hormones Impact You and Your Relationship, BONUS episode.
Links:
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Hi, and welcome to the Men on the Path to Love Podcast bonus episode Hormone Replacement Therapy How Hormones Impact You and Your Relationship. I'm Bill Simpson, your host. You may be wondering what the hell does hormone replacement therapy have to do with relationships? Well, Men on the Path to Love is about becoming the best version of yourself, right? Emotionally, mentally, and physically. Because the man you bring into a relationship matters. Your energy matters. Your vitality matters. Your health matters.
Bill Simpson:In this bonus episode, you'll hear my compelling interview with Ryan Root, a biochemist, entrepreneur, and one of the most unconventional voices in the hormone optimization space. Ryan's amazing story is one of ambition, collapse, accountability, and redemption. From running one of the largest underground testosterone labs in the world to going to prison, to rebuilding his life and founding the legit hormonetermine.com and dope market. Ryan brings a level of real-world experience and empirical knowledge that few people can match. And what I learned, when a man is depleted, exhausted, foggy, or disconnected from his body, it doesn't just affect his mood, it affects how he shows up as a partner, how he leads his life, and how he experiences purpose and connection. That's why this bonus conversation matters as we bring it full circle into relationships. So stick around. You just might learn something. It's the Men on the Path to Love podcast. Welcome, Ryan, to Men on the Path to Love.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you very much.
Bill Simpson:Yeah, man. Uh you know, you'd reached out to me uh to be on the show, and your story really intrigued me. Years ago, I went through some hormone therapy, human growth hormone, testosterone, all these things to optimize my health. Not that I was trying to to bulk up and do all that stuff. I just wanted optimal health and and I felt amazing and it was a great journey. Uh and I I remember a a female friend of mine said when she saw heard that I was taking testosterone, she was like, Oh my god, are you gonna be mean and you know are you gonna be violent and all this shit? And uh I was like, No, no, no, I'm just optimizing my health. So I I I wanna get into all about hormones and and and even how doing hormones together can can enhance a relationship. Tell me your story, man. I mean, ex con and uh man, I gotta hear this. Tell your story.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, no problem. Yeah, thank you. Like yeah, uh a part of a part of what uh our my mission has been, right, is to is to debunk a lot of those myths. One of the reasons I my story unfolds the way it does is because of the stigmatization and demonization of one of the most beneficial medications in the history of medications, testosterone. Um it's really been misunderstood and misinformed. You know, that's part of what the mission is, is to normalize the discussion. Let's start talking about it, let's get the facts right, and let's debunk a lot of them um or all the myths. And uh, like you just named one of them, right? So let me get into it and tell you how everything came full circle where it is today. Um, it started when I was younger. I was I
Speaker 2:I now know I had low testosterone my whole life. Um, you know, at the time I didn't know because but now I can see all the symptoms were there. So when I was 13, I started getting picked on for because I was skinny. And I didn't I didn't want to get picked on anymore, and it was well, it was hurtful. And um I started lifting weights at that point because I didn't want to be skinny anymore.
Speaker 2:Now it worked to a degree, but I still didn't mature like my peers. You know, I never grew facial hair until I started taking testosterone. I um I was fatigued, lethargic, I had to nap every day. I used to get caught called a lazy piece of crap by adults. Uh and I thought like, well, this is just I guess I can't do this life thing, right? Because I uh I I'm just tired all the time and and I'm not maturing right. And um I was you know, consequently I was depressed. I I let myself get walked on. I was not confident. Um, so in my early 20s, I started to just like I started to realize like I'm just not like everybody else exactly. So uh I started asking my doctors for help and nobody would help me. They said that there's no way somebody in their early 20s can have lower testosterone, so we're not even gonna check you. They wouldn't even look at it, they wouldn't even check my my labs.
Bill Simpson:Well, you know, I I want to interrupt you there because I remember, you know, I'm in my 60s now, and I remember you a few years back I was asking my primary care physician to test me for testosterone, see where I was, because I had done all that stuff in the past. And he said, Do you have ED? And I'm like, No, man, I'm vi you know, I'm I'm good. And he goes, Well, I can't insurance won't pay for it, I can't do it.
Speaker 2:And that's part of it, right? Like they think it's oh, it's just for erectile dysfunction. Testosterone is one of the foundational hormones in in in our evolutionary pathways. We um every vertebrae has testosterone. Um, every even lizards, plants, most plants have testosterone and estrogen. Um, it's a foundational hormone that's just necessary for everything. It signals, it signals metabolism, it signals neuroplasticity, it signals there's there's androge receptors all throughout your body, in your brain, especially. And it just has so many functions, so many foundational functions.
Bill Simpson:And I want to get into all that, and I interrupted your story. So you're in your twenties, doctors saying, Oh man, no way you have a low testosterone.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Bill Simpson:So there you go.
Speaker 2:So I started, I took my health in my own hands, I started taking testosterone at 23. Right. And when I as soon as I took it, very quickly, it dramatically, dramatically improved my quality of life to the point where I lived two different worlds, two completely different lives. Um, I suddenly became energetic, ambitious, I had motivation, I had confidence. Wow. Um brain f I was lifted, I could actually just function better, I was more social.
Speaker 2:So um, you know, it was and it was it was to the point of it's not it wasn't just me that changed, it was the people around me that changed in accordance with with the new me as well. I don't want people to think it's only about muscle, but one thing that shows you that you know, because I worked out really hard because I was so skinny, like I I at least wanted to look normal, and I worked out as harder than anybody I knew, and I still maybe look normal, right? But I put on 32 pounds of muscle and I was lifting tremendously more in just five weeks. Like my body was starved for testosterone. I just I hyper-responded, I got a lot bigger, but also the other things, right? Like confidence and sense of well-being, motivation, ambition. Turns out I wasn't a lazy piece of crap, I just needed the right amount of testosterone.
Bill Simpson:And how did you get this testosterone?
Speaker 2:You know, you couldn't get it from the medical community, right? Right. So I had to source it on the black market, so I had to get it on my own. And it's part of the problem, right? Like we'll we'll kind of go into that, but the you know, there's a there's a need for this medication. Not only do people want it because it makes them feel better, but like we just discussed it's one of the foundational hormones. And if they're if the government and the medical community is gonna put such restrictions and regulate it so heavily that a black market is gonna create, like they've fueled a black market, they've fueled this thing, right?
Speaker 2:So, you know, that's where I had to go. So, you know, just an idea of what the way other people start treating me with the new me is that like now I would walk into a bar and heads would turn. I'd walk through that bar and people would part out of my way. People suddenly wanted to befriend me. You know, the new confident person, the new how even if people want to don't want to admit it, like our physical appearance is important to the way other people treat us, right? So I people wanted to befriend me suddenly. I was I was instantly respected by everybody. Um, I had a while I was in college, I had a job as a plumber and I hated it. I was terrible at it. I wasn't gonna be a plumber, it was just my summer job. And I suddenly, as soon as I started taking testosterone, I suddenly got a raise for no better reason than I stood before him with this new confident stout person, right? So the world started treating me differently. So my world changed, like everything was just different, right? Um, so I started reading voraciously. I happen I've always been a science guy. I happened to be in school for biochemistry at the time. So I tailored my degree to the study of hormones.
Speaker 2:I also read voraciously because as we'll learn here, that there isn't a lot of um official information on hormones. They do not learn about it in medical school. The science books, the medical books, do not write about it. It's one of the problems. It is not in their curriculum, they just don't learn about it. That's what's kind of fueled a lot of this ignorance about what it's about, right? It's just not taught. So I had to do my own research and I read voraciously. Why most kids my age were coming home and playing video games? I was coming home and I couldn't wait to study hormones. So I just dove into it, made my entire life about it. I got really, I started to really understand it. So now other people came to me and they said, I've seen how you dramatically improved your life. How did you do that?
Speaker 2:So I said, Well, let me show you. So I started helping other people. When I started helping others dramatically improve their qual quality of life, the the admiration, the uh gratitude that I received from helping other people, it just drove a dose response, dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins. Just by helping others, just by helping others, right? Yeah. That means and we evolved to be social creatures, so we produce those neurotransmitters when you help others, right? So so that drove a passion, right? Now, so now I'm getting dopamine from helping people, and and it drove a passion.
Speaker 2:And I just I I made my life about it. I finally found my niche, right? Like I was still in my early 20s, and and to that point, like you know, I kind of a lot of us are like this is in our early 20s, but we don't know where we fit in, we don't know exactly what we're doing, we don't know what's going on. And but my niche started to illuminate before me, right? Like I I I was good at this, and I was better at more than anybody else I knew at it, and and I can actually be a benefactor of society by helping people. So I continue to do that. Um one day I one of my clients said, Hey, there's some people doing this online, and you're more knowledgeable than and you have better prices, and uh, and I could bring it to the people.
Speaker 2:So eventually I went and I checked online, and um, sure enough, I I researched that I could I could do this better than anybody else on there. So it was an arduous process. After some time, I built a website. I didn't know how to do that, I had to get help, so I had to do all these steps, but eventually I got there and I became what's called a source on this on this site, this source forum is what it's called. And it turned out to be the biggest, the largest source forum in the world. Right? There's millions of unique kits a month. So I became a source on this forum, but still there's a thousand sources on there, and how do I stick out, you know? And so I just started, I just had a double bag, duffel bag full of testosterone's derivatives and a laptop, and that's that's all I had. I was, you know, I l I enjoyed helping people, but at the time I also just had a lab tech position at a local hospital, and I I only made like $270 a week, right? And I couldn't afford to live. The only reason I could I wasn't homeless is because I lived in my grandmother's house, right? And I didn't have to pay rent. But other than that, I was just I could barely afford to live. So um I was helping people, and and at one at some point I figured I had to monetize this this thing I was doing, right? So I was hoping, hoping that I could help people and make an extra two or three hundred extra dollars a week, right? This was like 2010 time, and I was hoping because that would make me comfortable, but I thought that was too much. Like, how am I gonna find clients to make that much to make even two or three hundred extra dollars a week? Like I thought that was overzealous, right? So by implementing just a few simple good business practices that no one else was doing, the business just blew up. So again, I hope to bring in two to three hundred extra dollars a week. Yeah, within six months, I was bringing in twenty-one thousand dollars a week.
Speaker 1:Whoa.
Speaker 2:I uh and then it just got bigger from there. I just expanded and it got bigger, and I was making thirty, fifty thousand a week. There's a few weeks where I made five hundred thousand dollars.
Bill Simpson:You were in demand for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right. So right, and it kind of shows you, right, like the the market is strong for this, and um, especially for somebody who knows what they're doing. Like, so what what I did in there is I helped a lot of people. Like, one of my things was customer service, and I would help design protocols and help people because it's complex, right? It's like it's not I could give the same protocol to a thousand people, I'm gonna get a thousand different responses. So it's it it it takes a really knowledge and understanding of the deeper mechanisms and just experience where I've seen this thousands of times.
Speaker 2:So I really like you know, now I'm honing my skill on a unique scale because I had 20, I must have guided 20,000 people through the use of these hormones. And now I you know I was just gaining this extra expertise that nobody else is gonna have because I'm doing it on a scale that no one else is doing. Right. So eventually it caught up to me. And 2015, uh September of 2015, I was indicted by Operation Cyberjuice, which was a federal program to kind of stop this internet sale of testosterone and derivative steroids, essentially. And I was indicted. Uh I was sentenced to six and a half years in prison.
Bill Simpson:I'm curious, like, did they contact you online? Did they come knocking on your door?
Speaker 2:Like what Yeah, yeah, okay. So I was I I lived in a penthouse overlooking Manhattan. And I one day in the morning, they I mean they had been doing an investigation for two years. I didn't I didn't know it. Um I mean I did the whole the whole my whole reign was like five a little over five years, and and then the last two years they were doing an investigation, and then it all culminated in 2015. I was in my penthouse overlooking Manhattan, and I got a knock at the door at five pounding on the door at 5 a.m. And I actually got mad. I was like, who is knocking on my door? Like really like I threw my shirt on and I went out there and I'm gonna go I'm gonna tell this person you don't pound on my door. And I went there and threw the door open, and it was like 15 FBI agents and in bulletproof vests with guns pointed out my head. Yeah. I was sentenced to uh six and a half years in prison.
Speaker 2:Um in prison, I used my time wisely. I I studied business voraciously. I wrote a business plan to actually do this legitimately. I had a a mentor that I wrote a business plan with, somebody who's you know a business genius. So we sat there and and for almost two years we wrote this business plan and just refined it and honed it. And then when I got out, I executed on this business plan. So here we go. Now I have now I own hormonesforme.com, which is a which is a clinical arm of for hormone replacement therapy. We have 50 states that we're nationwide. And um, we boast the you know the most knowledge, the best customer service. I did I I knew I could build this better than anybody else. So that's what we did.
Speaker 2:Now, what did all my experience in this story get me? Well, it again, as I indicated before, I experienced this at a much more vast level than than any any physician, any endocrinologist, because again, medical doctors go to a medical school, they study a broad range of topics, very little of which has anything to do with hormones. And then it's so demonized and stigmatized that they don't use it in practice, they very rarely use it in practice. So I have studied solely this field for 25 years now, and I've got it 25,000 people through the use of hormones. I've just experienced this at a more vast level than just about anybody in the world.
Bill Simpson:I'm curious as to what made the difference between legit and and illegal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right. So the illegal path was just getting the raw powders from China, we had it imported from China, and then I set up a lab operation to mix it all up and make our own our own testosterone and derivatives. I like I would rent out a building just to have this lab setting, and and we would do it. We would do it some there.
Bill Simpson:Some people some people kind of like a meth lab, but you were doing testosterone. Right, yeah, but it was testosterone, right? Right, right, right. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, we use like hoods and ventilators, so it was like, you know, it was it was a sophisticated lab. Right, I got you. But yeah, it's uh you know, a lab like that. So yeah, yeah, what I want to highlight here is okay, so now this is a story of redemption. The whole time I knew what I was doing was illegal. So it's not like I was cut off guard. I knew what I was doing is illegal. Again, I I drew this passion. You know, uh, another one of the the things is I had um I had uh addiction problems when I was younger. But you know, I'm I am an addict, but I've been sober now for over 10 years. I had addiction problems and I had a uh I had one felony, but that it kept me from from really advancing in my career. So so I'm sitting there and everything just kind of came right to to build this empire because I tried to get so many other jobs I couldn't get one because of my felony. I was barely able to survive on my own. I needed to make some more money. Um, I had nothing to lose. Had I been in medical school or something, I never would have done this because I had a promising career like going. But you know, like I made some mistakes, but it also like it it kind of just created this thing, right? And mainly what I want to highlight here is that I understood what I was doing as legal, and I am accountable for those actions and I understand that. And I did my time. I went to prison.
Bill Simpson:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:I got it. I I would I did the wrong thing. We're a product of our experiences, right? So I experienced, I failed a lot, and now I'm a better person for today for all those experiences. I always tell people like, if I could go back and change anything, I wouldn't change a thing. Even though I had a lot of trials and tribulation, I hit rock bottom, I was at rock bottom for a long time, it all created the better person I am today.
Bill Simpson:Yeah, you had to go through all that to be who you are today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So so now it's about it's a store of redemption, right? It's about doing this the right way. It's about doing this legitimately legally with long-term health and safety in mind for people. And we do that by partnering with providers, right? So the thing that makes us different is and we vet the providers with people who really understand hormones and understand how to do this properly in the in a way that that I that I know how to do it. Right. Um so I can vet the providers and we use specific providers that really know how to do this properly. And we have four providers now and we're gaining more, but we have 50 state coverage. We kind of built this system to be able to treat our national audience and and we push them to the providers depending on what state they are and then maybe some other specifics.
Bill Simpson:That's just an awesome story, man. I mean, coming full circle to where you are today. And you've already explained some about hormone replacement therapy and and all that you're doing. Uh let's just take some time to explain to the folks who are wondering, just tell a little bit more about it and what it can do for folks and sure.
Speaker 2:Well, there's a couple things I'd like people to get from this podcast, and we'll bring it around full circle to the to what this podcast is about. But the first thing I want I want people to understand is that testosterone hormones in general have been demonized and stigmatized for decades and decades.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Unfairly. And they are not uh every single risk factor has now been debunked for testosterone and estrogen and progesterone.
Bill Simpson:Really? Every single one.
Speaker 2:All of it been debunked. So recently the FDA took the black box warning off of women's HRT, estrogen and progesterone.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Because there's no evidence that it actually did increase any risk for cancer. Um, in fact, it suppresses many forms of cancer, um, or causes blood clots. Right. Though there were black box warnings were put on and that stigmatized it. Same thing for testosterone. There was a black box warning on, and about six months ago, they took that black box warning off of testosterone, which indicated that it could increase the risk for cardiovascular disease because it doesn't, and it never did. There was just a Again, with the stigmatization, the FDA at the time, this was back in 2015-ish, with all the stigmatization happening, there the FDA was just quick to slap a black box warning on there with very little data and some poorly, poorly run data.
Bill Simpson:Yeah, I was gonna ask, how did they come up with that conclusion?
Speaker 2:So there were four studies that showed a potential increased risk for cardiovascular disease. There was over a hundred studies that proved not only was there not an increased cardiovascular risk from testosterone, but that it reduced cardiovascular disease. Testosterone is actually cardioprotective. But the FDA listened to those four studies mainly because of stigma. There's just this like the the culture itself was rooted in this steroids or label. Like if you hear the word steroids or anabolic steroids, right, you think negative. Well, those are bad things.
Bill Simpson:And you think of uh the athletes that get you know fined, that's exactly it.
Speaker 2:Right. So it comes from that too, right? So you realize that the stigma didn't come from one thing, it all it was this coalition of different factors, and another one was exactly what you're talking about. In night the 1990 Steroid Control Act, which is where they controlled testosterone and put it the schedule three controlled substance, testosterone, all the derivatives. It was made a controlled substance, despite the DEA, the FDA, and the American Medical Association suggesting that they don't do it because it didn't meet the criteria to control a substance, it didn't meet the addictive requirements to make it a controlled substance.
Speaker 2:Remember when Sammy Sosa and uh Mark McGuire were belting those home runs? Oh, yeah, right again. And then and then there was a steroid scandal sort of around that. And then Congress had congressional meetings about the about baseball and steroids. Now, what does Congress have to do with with steroids and baseball? Like, what is the it there's no there's no relevance there? They never should have been involved in that, but they were. When you lay out all the facts, it looks really fishy, right? Like drug companies control Congress because they fund their campaigns.
Speaker 2:Drug companies control the the DEA because they're extensions of Congress. Uh drug companies control the FDA because get every single FDA commissioner of the last 15 years now has a cushy job at the top of a drug company where they're just they're just paid, right? So it's like you know, if you play ball, if if you're an FDA commissioner and you play ball with the drug companies, you're gonna have a job that just secures you for the rest of your life. Right? Wow. So you start to see like, okay, all of these government agencies are just extensions of drug companies, right? So we don't have any direct evidence that there's something fishy going on, but it just looks really bad when you lay it out all the facts, right?
Speaker 2:So uh why would they want it to be stigmatized? Why wouldn't they want it to be widely used? Because I have seen testosterone get people off of blood pressure medications, cholesterol medications, SSRIs and uh depression medications because it's dopaminergic, gives you a good sense of well-being and energy. Um I've seen it get people off of pain medications because it's systemically anti-inflammatory and reduces all kinds of joint pains and back pains and everything. Um and it reverses diabetes. I've seen it reverse all metabolic disorders, right? So all of the medic Why wouldn't they want this? Because they're making a lot of money. Um comes down to money. Prescribing all of the medications that testosterone itself would solve, right?
Bill Simpson:That is something that could work, then that takes away their bottom line.
Speaker 2:No, listen, we don't have any direct proof that that's happened, that they that the drug companies have have incentivized the criminalization of testosterone and stigmatized it intentionally. Right. But when you lay out all the facts, it's just it it just points to it. Like of course they would do this. And if you start to look at studies, that there's a meme that goes around, it's pretty funny. It says that 99% of all scientists agree with whoever's funding them. So you start to look at these studies, and and one of the problems why women's HRT, they thought there was an increased risk of cancer, was the women's health initiative of 2002, right? And that single-handedly worldwide reduced the amount of of women's HRT just because they said it could increase the risk of cancer.
Speaker 2:And we and and now we subsequent studies and uh the the women's health initiative was widely discredited, it was proven to be wrong, and it took till just recently for that black box warning to come off of women's HRT. Why? Because one study was promulgated throughout the world and it just put it into everybody's head this could cause cancer, and it was promulgated. The original authors have now retracted their statements for that study, but those retractions, the other studies proving it was wrong, were not promulgated, only the original study, which had resounding effects for the next two or 20 years.
unknown:Sure.
Speaker 2:Women's HRT is incredibly beneficial, it reverses metabolic disorder, it uh helps with bone with bone strength and prevents bone track bone fracture, reduces fall risk, um, prevents dementia, prevents cognitive decline, um all these massive benefits. There is hundreds and hundreds of millions of women who were not able to experience the dramatic improvement in quality of life, who had to live a life of despair and menopause because of this one poorly run study that is now proven wrong.
Bill Simpson:Yeah. Right.
unknown:Yeah.
Speaker 2:What I want to say is testosterone is not dangerous at all. Every single risk factor in women's HRT, every single risk factor has been debunked. Only benefits if used therapeutically. Um, and that hormone deficiency is much more pervasive than understood. We live in a time of environmental toxins, it's been proven. There are studies out that prove that the food you eat, the the pesticides you use, the antifungals, the plastics in the environment, the soaps you use, the receipts, ink and receipts are been known endocrine disruptors. It's in the things you touch, the water you eat, the the water you drink, the food you eat, it's in everywhere. And they're endocrine disruptors which are destroying people's hormones, and it is pervasive. It's much more common than people understand.
Bill Simpson:Thanks for clarifying and and bringing attention to all that. Now I want to come full circle again to you know, men on the path to love, it's all about relationship, man. And you know, yeah, ED, you know, erectile dysfunction, that can definitely mess up a relationship, but that's not what testosterone is all about necessarily. So how can uh this hormone therapy, hormone replacement therapy bring that into light in in terms of relationship? Sure.
Speaker 2:The number one email or sentiment I received, and the whole time I was doing this when I was doing it in my illegal apparition, and to still today when I'm doing it in my legal apparition, the number one thing that people wrote to me, and I get I get this every day, like a lot of men and women saying thank you. They tell me thank you. Thank you for making me a better husband or wife to my partner. Thanking you for thank you for making me a better father or mother to my child, and thank you for making me a better supporter of my family. And what is it that makes them better? What makes them better is there's a few things here. A the energy, the motivation, the ambition, right? You now have the energy energy to put into your spouse. You have the energy to to be with them, and not to mention that there are estrogen and testosterone receptors throughout your brain. These hormones also do control emotion, right? So so um there is there's just this heightened sense of connection, this heightened sense of duty, right? Of of duty for men and women, and women should one another one of the biggest bouts of misinf misinformation is that testosterone's a male hormone, estrogen's a female hormone. That's just ridiculous. They're human hormones. Um, these are foundational hormones that both men and women need. Women need testosterone. We treat all of our female HRT patients with testosterone. Now they use a lot less, but it's still important that they have an adequate amount of testosterone.
Speaker 2:What that does is it it gives people energy, confidence, motivation, ambition to do better and be there for your partner. And it and there's also oxytocin factors that come from this. You can really release oxytocin, become closer to your partner. Also the energy to play with the kids now, right? I I have a lot of guys that say, Man, I came home, I couldn't play with my kids on the weekends. I had to lay down, I had to I had to sit on the couch. You you're not tired to have to do that anymore. Um and again, now there's the the libido enhancement, right? So the libido is enhanced, and this leads to a better relationship, a better sexual relationship, just yields a better relationship all over.
Bill Simpson:When I hear you say about you know all these good things that can happen in the relationship because of this, it totally debunks what my friend was saying to me when I was doing testosterone therapy, saying, Oh, you're gonna be violent, you're gonna be mean, you're gonna be, you know, be this, you know, this brute. And you're saying the total opposite.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So it's important to debunk all of these myths, right? And one of the myths is this roid rage or testosterone.
Speaker 1:Right, right.
Speaker 2:It has just been proven time and time again that it's not a not a factor, not a function of what it does. So there was a there was a study done on rats, right? And in this study, it one of the problems with making testosterone a controlled substance is that it makes it difficult, if not impossible, to research on humans, right? So we don't have a ton of human research because it's been a controlled substance and it it's difficult.
Speaker 1:Gotcha.
Speaker 2:So, like a lot of our studies come from rats, right? So there was a rat study, and it showed that rats on testosterone were only more aggressive when other rats threatened their territory or their family. And they said in other circumstances, um testosterone rats who were taking testosterone had no further aggression, right? So I think you and I could both agree that having something that makes you only more aggressive in defense of your of your family and your home is a positive thing. That's not necessarily that's not a negative thing.
Speaker 1:Right, right.
Speaker 2:There was another Robert Sapolsky, a a world-renowned neurobiologist. He has written several books where he teaches, and his famous quote is testosterone gets a bad rap. Right. And so they they did this study where they had people on testosterone playing this game and people who weren't taking testosterone. And there's certain rules to this game, and the people on testosterone, they just did what it took to win the game or be better, right? And a lot of times, if in the game being altruistic gave you status or made you win the game, then they would be more altruistic, right? So aggression wasn't wasn't really a function of it, right?
Speaker 2:Testosterone just motivates you towards achievement, right? Doing better. And this is why people also thank me for allowing them to be a better supporter of their family. They would go out and they would try to get that raise, or they would try to get a better position, or they would they would have the motivation and ambition to leave their job and go get a better one, right? And so this is what we see. We don't see aggression, we just see those characteristics.
Bill Simpson:So it's helping to drive them towards success and you know, overall life happiness, I guess. Yes, yeah, in general.
Speaker 2:Yeah. We also did a I did a video. I could actually send you a link of this podcast I did on couples using HRT together. What I have seen is like a lot of times just the the man will come and want testosterone, right? And we'll give it to them to the man. The the male gin starts to do better. Uh he's uh he's more energetic, he has a better sense of well-being, he's more confident. Uh, he looks better because you know it's reversing his metabolic disorder, he's losing fat, gaining muscle, um, just feeling better and looking better and doing better all over.
Speaker 2:And sometimes I have seen this before that when the female is not doing any of this, she feels like left behind. There's this disparity in the in how well people are doing, and then that can lead to some animosity. However, that's why I always tell all my patients do it together. Like if you have a wife, do it with your wife. Like, this is important, do it together. Do hormone hormone replacement therapy together. When couples do this together, it brings them closer together. They have this new thing that they're that they're doing. They're both, you know, accelerating and improving their lives together in this new thing, and it brings them closer together. We scoured Reddit and we found a lot of Reddit posts about couples who are doing hormone replacement therapy together, and it just brings them closer together. Are their marriages better? Are they obviously their sex life is better, they're and they're they're just they just feel closer and their marriage is better. Uh and and you can see a lot of examples of that. We did a whole podcast.
Bill Simpson:Yeah, man. Ryan, you've just shed a whole lot of light on a subject, like you said, that's been stigmatized. And seeing what it's done for you and all of your clients, your patients, um, I I really appreciate you taking the time to share this with me. Any last-minute uh things you want to throw in before we we sign off?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would just like to say if if anybody is you know curious, like you can always reach out to us at hormonesforme.com. I have a hormones for me YouTube podcast. We actually do live shows where we educate about hormones. I also have a Dope Martian podcast. We have a new company called Dope Martian, and that's gonna be really educating people on a lot of different things. But um hormonesforme.com is where you can come. The first step is if you're curious about it, let's get your blood work and let's talk about it. We'll help you do that for free.
Bill Simpson:And in order to get that blood test, uh, how do you do you prescribe that? And does insurance cover that just for those who are curious?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we find other ways besides using insurance, just because even though insurance will cover it a lot of times, sometimes they won't, and then they'll kick it back and they try to charge you a large price. So it depends on what state you live in. For most states, we can just use a third-party blood work company that it's not too expensive at all to get your blood work. And for certain states, we would have to write you a blood order because they don't allow third-party blood work. Um but so it just depends on where you live. But if you just reach out to us, we'll walk you through the whole process.
Bill Simpson:Awesome, man. And I'll have all that information you mentioned in the show notes, so uh links and everything. Well, once again, Ryan, thanks so much, man, for taking the time to enlighten us today. And I wish you continued success with what you're doing, man. Doing great stuff.
Speaker 2:Great. Thank you very much, and uh thank you for for everything. Uh you you do a lot to help people, and and uh and we all really appreciate that.
Bill Simpson:Thanks. And that will do it for this bonus episode of the Man on the Path to Love Podcast, hormone replacement therapy, how hormones impact you and your relationship. I want to say thanks again to my guest, Ryan Root, for sharing his amazing story and wisdom with us. You'll find Ryan's contact information and the link in the show notes. And if you got something out of listening to this podcast, then please share the link to this podcast and share the love. And until next time, keep your heart open and stay on the path to love.