Wall Streeters Buying Testosterone for an Edge

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Traders on Wall Street are always looking to get an edge and pull ahead, especially in this catch-a-falling knife market. The latest secret weapon isn't some complex trade or computer algorithm, it's something more primal - testosterone.

Testosterone has been blamed for many a bar fight but for some aging traders and executives - and aging on Wall Street means 30 and up - who feel these young kids breathing down their necks and the economic screws tightening, say boosting their testosterone levels has helped them get their edge back.

Testosterone levels in men tend to be anywhere from 150 to 850 nanograms per deciliter (ng/dL), depending on age and other factors. Testosterone levels typically start to decline after age 30. For some men, as they get older, those levels fall to 200 or below. "Low T" as its been branded, has been attributed to that sluggish feeling, muscle aches, belly fat, low stamina, low sex drive and lack of focus that many just attribute to the aging process.

One of the most widely known ads for Low T is of a shirtless 64-year-old man whose head looks like a 64-year old, but whose ripped body looks like that of a man half his age. That's for a Las Vegas-based mega-clinic called Cenegenics, which has 20 centers and 20,000 patients in the U.S. They opened a Wall Street clinic a year and a half ago in the Trump Building on Wall Street. And, while some other businesses on Wall Street were floundering during the recession, their business tripled. So much so that they're hiring more doctors and moving to a bigger space by year end.

Dr. George Shapiro, the CEO and chief medical officer of the Wall Street clinic, was a cardiologist for 20 years when he decided to seek treatment from Cenegenics to get his energy, focus and muscle tone back. After becoming a patient, he was such a believer, he joined Cenegenics as a doctor to help other men - and a few women - who were similarly struggling with symptoms most just chalked up to the aging process, figuring there was nothing they could do about it.

"I get feedback within two to four weeks" from patients, Shapiro said. "Their lives have changed. It's a 180-degree turnaround. They say they can't believe they felt this way for so long and it was something that could be helped."

Dr. Lionel Bissoon had a practice on the upper west side of Manhattan doing a booming business in Botox and cellulite treatments. That all but dried up during the recession. He said one day he walked in and he had no patients on the calendar. He decided he wasn't taking the recession lying down, so he shifted his practice to testosterone treatment. At first, he was worried he was just going to get a bunch of gym rats who wanted to pump it up. To his surprise, most of the people who walked through his door were guys who worked in the financial-services industry and who were beaten down during the recession and looking to get an edge anything they could get their hands on.

They all had common complaints: "'Doctor, I'm tired. I'm run down. My muscles are sore. I get home and I don't want to play with my kids. I feel my creativity slipping. I don't wake up with morning erections,'" Bissoon said. "I said, 'If you wake up in the morning and the only thing stiff is your back, you should be taking testosterone!'"

The treatments are aimed at getting a patient's testosterone level up to an optimal range, around 850 to 900, Bissoon said.

He said about 90 percent of his patients are guys who work in finance - traders, CEOs, upper-level management. And it's not just the little guys or executives from small companies. He's got patients from some of the biggest names in finance, including Goldman Sachs (GS), Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), American Express (AXP), and Morgan Stanley (MS).

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Wall Streeters Buying Testosterone for an Edge