Men's average testosterone levels have halved in last 50 years

idleplant

> Obesity was also not controlled for, which is known to be strongly correlated with low testosterone.

xvxvx

“The solution that’s being promoted is that we give you testosterone,” he said. “But if you give a man testosterone, you switch off his sperm production. I’ve seen that in the clinic.” Interesting…

DANmode

Endocrine disrupting compounds.

bolangi

Sperm counts, too, have dropped precipitously.

OldSchool

I'm old, but I get this subjective read: of my friends and even family who had sons, they seemed smaller and less bold than we were 50 years ago.

ThinkingGuy

Could this be a possible factor in the reduction in violent crime (at least in some countries)?

mellosouls

Can't help wondering to what extent the decline is directly and/or indirectly influenced by both the positive changes (eg increased women's rights and power) and the negative (presumption of masculine "toxicity" and fallibility) in socio-culture over the period surveyed.

aucisson_masque

America found the solution, put everyone on enhanced TRT and cash a shit load of bucks in the process :) Others are trying to regulate pesticide, junk food (obesity, diabete). For instance nutriscore in Europe, also the recent change on pesticide allowed. I'm not sure it will be enough, but at least they are attacking to the root cause. You're not just adding even more problem, like the increased cardiovascular event or erectile dysfunction with overdosed TRT. Same for the semaglutides that everyone and their mother take in the usa, people wouldn't need them so much if they didn't eat absolute crap all the time. We know that semaglutides have also side effects, and that rebound happen when you stop, but I guess it's better than just fixing the food lobby ?

pembrook

I'm playing with fire going against the narrative, but I'll just say this: You should be highly skeptical of any claims of drastic variance in human biology over short time periods.

greekrich92

It's just our shitty food system and sedentary lifestyle but everyone is projecting their weird hangups on it

standardUser

“Obesity and diabetes could easily account for all of this,” Wither Ozempic? I've seen several friends and family members use it to great effect and thought it might sweep the nation. But I imagine most of the same barriers that keep people from eating better or moving more are also in play when trying to engage with any new habit.

littlexsparkee

High cortisol lowers testosterone - some adaptogens like ashwagandha modulate the HPA axis and lower cortisol release, increasing T levels

janalsncm

Before the reactions to the headline get too out of hand, the article says the study couldn’t rule out that obesity and diabetes might drive this change. Occam’s Razor leads me to lean on this more than any other exotic explanation. Of course, PFAS and microplastics aren’t great for sperm health, but neither were leaded gasoline and DDT before they were curtailed.

jmclnx

I wonder how this correlates to Prostate Cancer. From what I heard, high testosterone can be one of the causes of Prostate Cancer. But that is over a long time. So if levels are falling, is prostate cancer lowering a little bit ? But that will be hard to determine due to the advancement of Medical Treatment over the past 50 years. > Rising levels of obesity and diabetes Plastic Bottles also replaced glass starting in the early 70s too. I remember reading some type of plastic can leak estrogen into the food. So seems a lot of things happened of the past 50/60 years that will impact ones health negatively.

thot_experiment

Half way to utopia.

BoggleOhYeah

I don’t understand why obesity seemingly gets tossed aside when this subject comes up. It’s the one problem you can see in plain sight at any gathering of people.

sublinear

Lift weights. Nobody lifts weights or does labor like they used to. Endocrine function can still be normal despite obesity. There are plenty of fat guys with solid testosterone levels because they work with their hands all day. I'm not saying that's all there is to health, far from it, but what kind of bubble does one have to live in to not see this counterexample? Do we just casually ignore them because they fit undesirable stereotypes of "toxic masculinity" or what? You don't have to become that guy just to lift weights.

notaigenerated

Nothing a war couldn't solve

BobbyTables2

I really wonder, what is “normal”? One class of doctors thinks roughly 250 is enough for a middle aged guy - anything over shouldn’t be medically treated. Of course, the “men’s clinics” don’t rest until it’s over 1000... With the standard range so wide (even after age adjustment), why isn’t it measured annually, like the CBC and others? Sure, it’s easy to point at obesity, but statistical ranges completely fail the individual.

snootypoot

soy, cortisol, plastics, birth control remnants in the water and food supply, adipose tissue accelerating conversion of testosterone into estradiol, and compounds acting to keep free testosterone levels low and bound testosterone levels high. combine that with sedentary lifestyle, the demonization of red meat healthy fats and cholesterols (cholesterol is extremely close to testosterone and converts easily) and the systematic promotion of a plant based heavily processed diet can easily lead to this. the traditional diets of slaves and serfs was low meat & high grain to keep them weaker dumber and shorter in general. the lowered testosterone and will to fight and resist oppression was also a "feature, not a bug" as my llm likes to say every chance it gets. the industrial revolution has been a disaster for the human race.