What does testosterone do, and how do you increase low testosterone?

What does testosterone do, and how do you increase low testosterone?

Doctors don’t always recommend TT if you have a normal age-related drop in testosterone. Prescription testosterone treatments are available as gels, skin patches, and intramuscular injections. The potential side effects of prohormones plus their unproven clinical benefits make them a poor, possibly dangerous choice for boosting testosterone. Your hypothalamus and pituitary gland control the amount of testosterone your gonads (testicles or ovaries) produce and release.

Testosterone is a sex hormone that is essential to the development of male growth, per Harvard Medical School. In men, the hormone is produced mainly in the testes, but testosterone isn’t exclusive to males alone. “It is also secreted by the ovaries and adrenal glands of women,” says Cynthia Stuenkel, MD, a clinical professor of medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

This allowed researchers to establish the normal hormonal ranges for the participants and monitor any deviations from these baseline levels38. Testosterone is a male sex hormone primarily produced in the testes in men and the ovaries and adrenal glands in women. It belongs to a group of hormones called androgens responsible for developing and maintaining male sexual characteristics. One function of testosterone in both men and women is the conversion into estradiol – the body’s primary form of estrogen. However, imbalanced hormone levels can result in a condition called estrogen dominance when too how much does testosterone cream cost (https://artecom-event.de/) testosterone conversion by the enzyme aromatase results in high estrogen and low testosterone levels.

In contrast, I am interested in the diversity we see across species, and the reasons to expect humans’ capacities for social learning and culture to play a key role in development and evolution. You work from the frame that there is a general ‘principle’ that testosterone drives sex differences in aggression in mammals. You expect humans to conform to that principle, and interpret the weak and ambiguous evidence from humans on the relationship between hormones and aggression through this lens. Our substantive disagreements are about the origins of sex differences. You see testosterone as one variable in the complex system of human behaviour.

Present in much greater levels in men than women, testosterone initiates the development of the male internal and external reproductive organs during foetal development and is essential for the production of sperm in adult life. This hormone also signals the body to make new blood cells, ensures that muscles and bones stay strong during and after puberty and enhances libido both in men and women. It also regulates the secretion of luteinising hormone and follicle stimulating hormone. To effect these changes, testosterone is often converted into another androgen called dihydrotestosterone.

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.

Yes, TRT has been said to lower sperm count, especially if taken without precautions. That is one reason why some men are prescribed hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) alongside TRT to maintain testicular function and fertility potential. Let’s look at the main functions of testosterone and get an overview of what testosterone imbalances can look like.

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.