testosterone therapy near me

About Us

What Effect Does Testosterone Have on the Body

What Effect Does Testosterone Have on the Body

Some people use the term ‘andropause’ or ‘male menopause’ to refer to the decline in testosterone with ageing. It suggests that males don’t have enough testosterone as they get older, however there is no clear evidence that this is a problem in healthy people. Your body needs to maintain normal levels of testosterone for it to function properly. If you read back over my replies, you’ll see I wrote that kids may have a ‘distinct “nature” – that is, different behavioural predispositions on average – from adults’ (italics added). I hope I was clear that cultural norms can modify how behavioural predispositions are expressed.

See your doctor if you think you might have low levels of testosterone. A blood test can determine your testosterone levels and help diagnose underlying conditions. Testosterone deficiency during fetal development doesn’t allow male characteristics to develop normally. This is called androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS) and occurs when someone is genetically male but is insensitive to androgens (male sex hormones). Lower-than-normal testosterone levels typically only cause symptoms in males. However, the majority of testosterone produced in the ovaries is converted to the primary female sex hormone, estradiol. Some athletes and bodybuilders misuse synthetic testosterone (anabolic steroids) by taking very high doses of them in an attempt to boost performance or change their physical appearance.

This is despite having what we might think of as a distinct ‘nature’ – that is, different behavioural predispositions on average – from adults. I could go on, but I know you take quite a different line, Carole. Thank you for being open to unravelling our disagreements together. These points of divergence about sex differences are often attributed to politics but, in my view, they have far more to do with the conceptual frameworks people bring to the evidence.

Please note that the information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment. Research shows that men with higher ratios of total testosterone have a reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. There’s also evidence for a strong correlation between testosterone and thinking abilities such as verbal memory and faster processing speed. Testosterone treatment for men 34 to 70 years old has shown an improvement in spatial memory. Deciding to pursue a course of TRT involves deciding between the perceived benefit of the therapy on the symptoms of a particular individual and the risks of the treatment.

You acknowledge that sex is an important variable for understanding mating, and you don’t endorse radical sex-neutral theories. But then you take T-Rex (and me along with him) head-first into straw-man territory. This is where maleness is described as ‘a sort of “essence” that determines … predispositions of the male sex role.’ What serious biologist thinks this? My view is that the sexes are born (on average, as always) with different predispositions, leading to what are called ‘traditional sex roles’, which T-Rex gets right. This pattern, of females being more nurturing and males being more competitive, applies to our own species. We do agree on some things – such as the value of reproductive autonomy, a world free of the threat of male violence, and flexibility of gender expression.

This all points to the fact that testosterone isn’t the ‘essence’ of masculinity. My target here isn’t the crude and patently false idea that all men are like this, and all women are like that. It’s the notion that, amid all the noise of individual differences, we can extract a male ‘nature’ that is somehow natural, immutable, and driven by testosterone. Both evolution and testosterone allow for a much greater diversity and flexibility of sex roles than previously (and popularly) appreciated – especially in humans. Still think inject testosterone into vein therapy turns guys into roid-raging gym rats?

The discussion of the key results is appended below under different subsections. It acts on the male body and brain during critical developmental periods – in utero, around birth, and during puberty – with effects on behaviour that often show up down the road. Boys tend to play more roughly than girls, even though young children’s testosterone levels don’t differ very much. Scientists believe that higher testosterone in fetal males drives this preference, as it does in other mammals. Violent crime, which is overwhelmingly committed by men, doesn’t peak when testosterone peaks in the late teens; instead, it peaks in men’s 20s, the phase of life when size, strength and competition for mates are at their highest. The existence of the paternal California mouse, as well as emotionally sensitive, high-testosterone human roughnecks, is entirely compatible with the hormone driving sex differences in aggression.

Therefore, understanding the dynamics of testosterone in females, particularly in response to physical activity, is essential for designing effective, sex-specific exercise interventions. In adult men, low testosterone may lead to a reduction in muscle bulk, loss of body hair and a wrinkled ‘parchment-like’ appearance of the skin. Current research suggests that this effect occurs in only a minority (about 2%) of ageing men. However, there is a lot of research currently in progress to find out more about the effects of testosterone in older men and also whether the use of testosterone replacement therapy would have any benefits. While many scientific studies and huge amounts of data show the safety of supplemental testosterone in postmenopausal women, only about 50% of women who take it experience a significant increase in sex drive.