Here is the fact that reframes this entire subject of female hormonal health: a healthy woman circulates several times more testosterone than estradiol. Not a trace amount. Not a leftover from the male side of the ledger.
The reason almost nobody knows this is that the two hormones are conventionally reported in different units, which quietly hides the comparison. Standard reference ranges give female testosterone as 15 to 70 ng/dL and estradiol as 30 to 400 pg/mL. [1] Convert them into the same units and testosterone runs roughly 150 to 700 pg/mL against estradiol's 30 to 400. After menopause the gap widens sharply, because estradiol falls below 30 while testosterone continues at a broadly similar level.
Two honest qualifications, since precision is the point of this page. Estradiol is far more potent per molecule at its receptor, so circulating at a higher concentration is not the same as having a larger effect. And testosterone is not the most abundant steroid in a woman's bloodstream either, since DHEA-S circulates hundreds of times higher still. The accurate claim is narrower and still surprising: between the two hormones everyone actually talks about, the one nobody discusses is the more concentrated.
Testosterone is filed in most people's minds as the male hormone, which is why it goes almost entirely undiscussed in women's health, and why the assumption persists that a woman with more of it will start to look like a man. Neither is right. Testosterone is a primary female hormone operating at lower concentrations than it does in men, and it does specific jobs that estrogen and progesterone do not.
Do women actually need testosterone?
Yes, and not marginally. Testosterone is produced in the ovaries and the adrenal glands, and it also serves as the raw material your body converts into estradiol. Every molecule of estrogen a woman makes was testosterone first. A woman low in testosterone is low in the precursor to her own estrogen.
That precursor relationship is the part most discussions miss. Testosterone is not a competing hormone sitting on the wrong side of a male-female divide. It sits upstream of the hormone women are told to care about.
What does testosterone do in the female body?
Five things, and they overlap with almost every complaint that gets attributed to age.
- Sexual desire and response. Testosterone contributes to libido, arousal and genital sensitivity. This is the best studied of its roles in women and the only one with an approved therapeutic indication. [2]
- Lean muscle and strength. Androgens support the maintenance of muscle mass and contractile strength. This is why the decline shows up as feeling weaker at the same body weight.
- Bone. Testosterone contributes to bone mineral density alongside estrogen, and it is also converted to estradiol inside bone tissue itself. More on the mineral side of bone remodeling.
- Mood, drive and mental sharpness. Androgen status is associated with motivation, confidence and cognitive clarity, though this is the least cleanly evidenced of the five.
- Energy and vitality. The vague one, and the one women actually notice first.
More on what testosterone does generally.
When does testosterone decline in women, and why?
Gradually, with age, starting far earlier than most women expect. This is the single most commonly misstated fact in this subject.
Testosterone does not fall off a cliff at menopause. Estrogen does. Androgens follow a different trajectory: they decline slowly across the adult decades, and the postmenopausal ovary continues secreting them well after estrogen production has largely stopped. A 2025 cross-sectional study of women at midlife found testosterone tracked with chronological age rather than with menopausal stage. [3]
Which means two practical things. A woman in her late thirties may already be well below her twenties levels while still cycling normally. And a postmenopausal woman has not necessarily lost her androgens just because she has lost her estrogen.
Beyond normal ageing, several things can lower androgen production, and each is a clinician's question rather than ours: surgical removal of the ovaries, which causes an abrupt drop rather than a gradual one; disorders of the adrenal or pituitary glands; corticosteroid medication; some oral contraceptives and oral hormone therapies, which raise sex hormone binding globulin and reduce how much testosterone stays free and available; chronic severe stress; significant undereating or overtraining; and polycystic ovary syndrome, which can present with either high or low androgen readings depending on the individual.
Note the mechanism in that list that has nothing to do with production. Oral estrogens raise SHBG, and SHBG binds testosterone. Your ovaries can be making a normal amount while very little of it is free to reach tissue.
What are the signs of low testosterone in women?
They are frustratingly non-specific, which is the whole problem: reduced sexual desire, persistent fatigue that rest does not fix, low mood or irritability, difficulty concentrating, loss of strength or muscle tone with an increase in body fat, thinning scalp hair, drier skin, and poorer sleep.
Read that list and notice it overlaps almost completely with thyroid dysfunction, iron deficiency, chronic stress, poor sleep, and perimenopause generally. Any honest article has to say so. A symptom list like this is a reason to investigate properly, not a diagnosis you can give yourself from a blog post.
Can a blood test tell you if your testosterone is low?
Remarkably, no. And this is the most important thing on this page.
In 2019 an international panel convened by the leading endocrine and menopause societies published a Global Consensus Position Statement on testosterone therapy for women. On the question of measurement, it is unambiguous: "No cutoff blood level can be used for any measured circulating androgen to differentiate women with and without sexual dysfunction," and "A blood total testosterone level should not be used to diagnose" the condition testosterone is prescribed for. [2]
There are good reasons. Female testosterone concentrations sit near the lower limit of what standard immunoassays measure reliably, so the same sample can produce different answers on different platforms. [4] Levels move through the day and across the cycle. And the amount that is free rather than bound to SHBG matters more than the total, which a total testosterone result does not tell you.
So when you see a company selling women a testosterone number, or promising to move one, understand what is being sold. The specialists who wrote the guidelines say the number does not settle the question.
What can be measured reliably is your mineral and heavy metal status, which is a different kind of information and worth being precise about. A hair tissue mineral analysis measures minerals and heavy metals, not hormones. What it can show is the status of the cofactors your body uses to build and clear hormones. That is information about the inputs, not a readout of the output, and anyone telling you a mineral test reads your estrogen or testosterone is overselling it.
What does the research show about botanicals in women?
More than the category admits, and this is where the evidence gets genuinely interesting, because these trials were run in women rather than extrapolated from men.
Strength and muscle. A 2009 randomized, double blind study gave 31 women aged 45 to 59 either 100 mg of a standardized tongkat ali extract or placebo for 12 weeks. The supplemented group improved on bench press, leg press, handgrip strength, muscular endurance, balance and rectus femoris cross sectional area. [5] In a separate pilot in physically active seniors, the 12 women taking 400 mg for five weeks showed increases in total and free testosterone alongside a fall in SHBG and a 20.8% rise in muscular force. [6] Twelve participants is a pilot, so treat those hormone figures as encouraging rather than settled.
Bone. The longest and best designed trial on any ingredient in our formula was conducted entirely in postmenopausal women. Sixty women with low bone density took placebo, 250 mg or 500 mg of purified shilajit daily for 48 weeks. Bone mineral density at the lumbar spine and femoral neck declined progressively on placebo and did not in either supplemented group, dose dependently, with the bone breakdown markers moving in the same direction. [7]
Mood and sexual wellbeing. A randomized, placebo controlled crossover trial in postmenopausal women found maca reduced anxiety and depression subscale scores and measures of sexual dysfunction against both baseline and placebo. What makes it useful here is what it also found: no change in estradiol, FSH, LH or SHBG. [8] The benefit arrived without moving a hormone, which is a different and more believable proposition than a hormone claim.
Stress. In a 16 week randomized trial of 80 adults, a standardized French grape seed extract reduced scores on a validated perceived stress questionnaire, and the effect was more pronounced in the women than the men. [9]
None of this means any supplement raises a woman's testosterone. No trial here demonstrates that, and we are not going to imply it. What the research supports is that specific standardized botanicals have been studied in women, at stated doses, with measured outcomes in strength, bone, mood and stress. That is a narrower claim and it is the one we can actually stand behind. More on minerals and menopausal symptoms.
Should you consider testosterone therapy?
That is a conversation with a clinician, and the consensus statement is the right map for it rather than anything you will read on a supplement website.
Its conclusion: the only evidence-based indication for testosterone in women is the treatment of postmenopausal women diagnosed with hypoactive sexual desire disorder after a formal biopsychosocial assessment. That is graded as their strongest level of evidence. [2] The panel also noted that no testosterone product formulated specifically for women has regulatory approval, which means prescribing involves adapting male formulations to female physiological ranges.
We are not going to tell you to try a supplement before seeing a doctor. If your symptoms are significant, get properly assessed, and take the consensus statement with you. What a formula like ours is for is the ordinary case: a woman who feels less capable than she used to, whose bloodwork is unremarkable, and who wants to support the systems involved rather than replace a hormone.
Frequently asked questions
Do women make more testosterone or more estrogen?
By weight, healthy women produce more testosterone than estradiol. Testosterone also serves as the precursor your body converts into estradiol, so it sits upstream of the hormone more commonly discussed.
Will supporting testosterone make a woman look masculine?
No. Masculinising effects are associated with androgen levels far above the normal female range, typically from anabolic steroid use or an underlying medical condition. Nothing in a plant extract formula introduces a hormone.
Does testosterone drop at menopause?
Not the way estrogen does. Estrogen falls steeply across the transition, while androgens decline gradually with age and the postmenopausal ovary continues producing them. [3]
Can I just get my testosterone tested?
You can have it measured, but interpret it cautiously. The Global Consensus Position Statement concluded that no cutoff blood level distinguishes women with and without symptoms, and that a total testosterone level should not be used diagnostically. [2] Female concentrations also sit near the reliable limit of standard assays.
Can women take a testosterone support formula made for men?
It depends entirely on what is in it. A formula built on plant extracts with trials in women is a different proposition from a hormone or a prohormone. Read the label and check whether the research was done in women at all.
Who should not take it?
Anyone under 18, and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding. If you take prescription medication, manage a health condition, have a hormone sensitive condition, or are considering or currently using hormone therapy, talk with your healthcare provider first.
The bottom line
Women need testosterone, produce more of it than estradiol, and lose it gradually with age rather than suddenly at menopause. It contributes to desire, strength, bone density, mood and energy, and the symptoms of having too little look exactly like the symptoms of half a dozen other things.
The part worth remembering is the measurement problem. The specialists who write the guidelines concluded that a blood level cannot tell a woman whether her testosterone is the issue. That is an argument for taking symptoms seriously, getting properly assessed when they are significant, and being sceptical of anyone selling you a number.
Upgraded T is built on five standardized plant extracts, four of which have been studied in women specifically. It contains no hormones, which is why the same formula suits both sexes.
References
- Reference ranges for testosterone and estradiol in women as published in standard clinical guidance: testosterone 15 to 70 ng/dL (0.5 to 2.4 nmol/L); estradiol 30 to 400 pg/mL premenopausal and 0 to 30 pg/mL postmenopausal.
- Davis SR, Baber R, Panay N, et al. Global Consensus Position Statement on the use of testosterone therapy for women. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2019;104(10):4660-4666.
- Testosterone and pre-androgens by age and menopausal stage at midlife: findings from a cross sectional study. eBioMedicine. 2025. [Reported finding: testosterone tracked with chronological age rather than menopausal stage. Specific figures not verified against full text.]
- Rosner W, Vesper H, et al. Measuring testosterone in women and men. Steroids. 2019;146:83-88.
- Effects of strength training and LJ100 supplementation on strength and muscle size in middle aged women. 4th Asia-Pacific Conference on Exercise and Sport Science and 8th International Sports Science Conference, 2009. [Conference abstract]
- Henkel RR, Wang R, Bassett SH, et al. Tongkat Ali as a potential herbal supplement for physically active male and female seniors: a pilot study. Phytother Res. 2014;28(4):544-550.
- Pingali U, Nutalapati C. Shilajit extract reduces oxidative stress, inflammation, and bone loss to dose dependently preserve bone mineral density in postmenopausal women with osteopenia: a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled trial. Phytomedicine. 2022;105:154334.
- Brooks NA, Wilcox G, Walker KZ, Ashton JF, Cox MB, Stojanovska L. Beneficial effects of Lepidium meyenii (Maca) on psychological symptoms and measures of sexual dysfunction in postmenopausal women are not related to estrogen or androgen content. Menopause. 2008;15(6):1157-1162.
- Schön C, Allegrini P, Grangeon M, Petrangolini G, Riva A. Grape seed extract positively modulates blood pressure and perceived stress: a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled study in healthy volunteers. Nutrients. 2021;13(2):654.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Hormones are a system, not a switch. Support the whole system, and test, don't guess.