All posts tagged: testosterone

Where Has All the Testosterone Gone?

Where Has All the Testosterone Gone?

The Trump administration seems to harbor a hulking obsession with testosterone. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once claimed that the president’s testosterone levels are unusually high for a man of his age, and Kennedy is known to take a supplementary dose of the male sex hormone himself. In April, the FDA moved to expand access to testosterone-replacement therapy for greater numbers of men. And last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that “warfighters” older than 30 will have their testosterone levels checked annually so that they can stay on the “leading edge of lethality.” The need for expansive testing or for testosterone replacement is questionable, according to several medical experts I spoke with. But underneath the administration’s preoccupation lies a real trend: Although most men’s levels are still within the normal range, average testosterone has been declining among men for the past several decades. A recent review of studies involving more than a million men all over the world found that average testosterone levels in blood have dropped by about 20 percent over the …

What the Testosterone Boom Is Doing to the Men You Love

What the Testosterone Boom Is Doing to the Men You Love

Almost 12 years ago, I wrote an op-ed in the New York Times called “Don’t Ask Your Doctor About Low T.” Testosterone patches and pills were being marketed to men who didn’t need it. They still are. What’s new since 2014 is who is paying the price. Women are paying attention because the men in their lives are on gels or pellets that change their moods, tempers, and sexual appetites. Partners are noticing the mood swings and relationship problems. Men who wish they were not the problem in a couple trying to have a baby are showing up at fertility clinics. Sometimes they have no sperm. This is a side effect that is predictable and an accident of retail medicine. Today this conversation is louder because clinics can ship testosterone to almost any man willing to fill out a five minute form and the Times just reported that there were almost 12,000,000 prescriptions for testosterone last year. That’s up 25 times since the year 2000. Men who are ages 35 to 44 are the biggest …