Clara Tanone - Q11: In our generation, why have testosterone levels in the blood of males decreased today compared to a few decades ago?

[Clara Tanone]

“Male serum testosterone levels appear to vary by generation, even after age is taken into account,” said Thomas G. Travison, Ph.D., of the New England Research Institutes (NERI) in Watertown, Mass., and lead author of the study. “In 1988, men who were 50 years old had higher serum testosterone concentrations than did comparable 50-year-old men in 1996. This suggests that some factor other than age may be contributing to the observed declines in testosterone over time.”

 

 

 

The NERI team carefully analyzed the data to compare men of similar ages during each phase of the study. After accounting for age and additional factors such as obesity, smoking, and medications, the researchers found that, each year, the subjects’ total and bio-available testosterone decreased an average of 1.2 and 1.3 percent, respectively.

 

 

 

For men 65-69 years of age in this study, average total testosterone levels fell from 503 ng/dL (nanograms/deciliter) in 1988 to 423 ng/dL in 2003. A normal, healthy adult male usually has blood total testosterone concentrations that range anywhere from 300-1000 ng/dL.

 

 

 

“This analysis deals with men who were born between 1915 and 1945,” said Travison, “but our baseline data were not obtained until the late 1980s, when the elder subjects were about 70 years old, and the youngest about 45. Events occurring in earlier decades could certainly help explain our results, if their effects persisted into recent years.” It is also possible that current, but unmeasured, health or environmental factors could be the root cause of the observed declines.

 

 

https://www.endocrine.org/news-room/press-release-archives/2006/testosterone_lvls_in_men_decline

 

Today it is readily observable that testosterone levels in the blood of males have decreased by a fair bit in comparison to males from older generations.

 

What cultural practices or changed environmental conditions could have caused these results to be observed?

 

Anyone have any plausible explanations as to why testosterone levels in males have decreased in our generation in comparison to those born in the early 20th century?

 

 

A U.S. team found that older males with relatively low testosterone had an 88 percent increased risk of death compared with their counterparts with normal testosterone levels, researchers report.

 

 

 

In the study, Shores and her colleagues looked at the whether low testosterone levels were associated with an increased risk of death in 858 men over 40.

 

 

 

"Low testosterone in older men was associated with an increased risk for mortality," Shores concluded. During 4.3 years of follow-up, 20.1 percent of men with normal testosterone levels died, compared with 24.6 percent of the men with equivocal levels and 34.9 percent of the men with low testosterone levels, Shores's team found.

 

 

 

Testosterone levels can be affected by illness, surgery and other medical problems. But even when the researchers excluded men who had died within the first year of follow-up, those with low testosterone levels were still 68 percent more likely to die compare to men with normal levels of the hormone, Shores noted.

 

 

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=63459

 

Furthermore, what impact will today's generation of males have on society with their lower level of testosterone (in the blood) in comparison to those from previous generations in the last few decades?

 

 

Thanks,

Clara Tanone

Edited November 10, 2015 by Clara Tanone

[cladking]

 

 

What cultural practices or changed environmental conditions could have caused these results to be observed?

 

 

 

Well, if love means never having to say your sorry then naturally modern times is hard on men. We not only are expected to apologize endlessly but our leaders even take it upon themselves to apologize for us.

 

On a little more serious note the food supply now is so adulterated that it might have any number of effects. Overweight, sluggish, and drugged people will probably all have lower levels.

 

It's really tough to say. This is the first generation of men who are expected to be "sensitive" so who knows? There are likely other factors as well.

 

I apologize if you're too young to catch the references.

[Clara Tanone]

 

Well, if love means never having to say your sorry then naturally modern times is hard on men. We not only are expected to apologize endlessly but our leaders even take it upon themselves to apologize for us.

 

On a little more serious note the food supply now is so adulterated that it might have any number of effects. Overweight, sluggish, and drugged people will probably all have lower levels.

 

It's really tough to say. This is the first generation of men who are expected to be "sensitive" so who knows? There are likely other factors as well.

 

I apologize if you're too young to catch the references.

 

I'm only 23 and my birthday is on 29 May 1992.

 

Furthermore:

 

SEOUL: A woman has been charged with forcing her husband to have sex with her, prosecutors said on Tuesday in the first indictment of its kind in South Korea, Yonhap news agency reported.

http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Regional/2015/10/27/Court-Korea-Crime-Rape/

 

What's happened to all our men? Seems as though they've become too busy training to become male nurses or chefs (professions that were traditionally seen to be fit for women only just a few decades ago).

 

They've become sissies and have lost their manliness. Many men have even gone as far as being chemically castrated for molesting your children:

 

Indonesia will start chemically castrating convicted paedophiles in a bid to fight child sex abuse, the country's attorney-general said.

 

Chemical castration does not involve the mutilation of the offender's genitals. Instead, they are injected with hormones that reduce testosterone levels, the male hormone responsible for libido.

One such hormone is medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), which is primarily used as a female contraceptive.

Continued administration of the hormone at regular intervals keep the offender's testosterone levels low, reducing sexual urges.

The effects of MPA injections are completely reversible, but can cause side-effects like diabetes, hypertension, and in the long run, brittle bones.

http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/indonesia-to-start-chemical-castration-of-paedophiles-other-countries-that-use-the

 

 

JAKARTA • Indonesia's President will soon sign a decree authorising the use of chemical castration to punish paedophiles, the attorney- general said, following a string of headline-grabbing child sex crimes.

Indonesia will join a small group of nations that allows such punishment, including Poland, Russia and Estonia, as well as some US states.

In 2011, South Korea became the first Asian country to use chemical castration as a punishment.

http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/chemical-castration-for-paedophiles-in-indonesia

[pwagen]

They've become sissies and have lost their manliness.

While your threads (not sure why you number them, this isn't an index of profoundity) often have interesting questions, this statement is very unscientific and frankly a bit childish. Who are you to say what's manly? What authority do you have to call men "sissies"?

[StringJunky]

Things I've seen mentioned are: i) Reduction in the overall consumption of red meat ii) pthaalates used in plastics to make them soft can mimic endocrine products, like female hormones.

 

I don't see overall loss of masculinity, I see men freeing themselves of cultural expectations and being who they really are. Gender identity is not purely binary; male or female... there are degrees between the two..

[cladking]

Things I've seen mentioned are: i) Reduction in the overall consumption of red meat ii) pthaalates used in plastics to make them soft can mimic endocrine products, like female hormones.

 

I don't see overall loss of masculinity, I see men freeing themselves of cultural expectations and being who they really are. Gender identity is not purely binary; male or female... there are degrees between the two..

 

Certainly all individuals have aspects of both male and female but it's all "supposed" to add up to men being masculine and women being feminine. There's nothing wrong with a man admiring or being attracted to any given masculine trait in a woman (and vice versa) but now days it can be hard to tell a man from a woman based solely on behavior, appearances, or perspectives.

 

You identify what could be a major factor; the concordance of plastic and microwaves. If you eat much food out of plastic containers you might easily impact testosterone levels and this goes many time over if the food is heated in the plastic. Some manufacturers are even lining canned goods in plastic.

 

Hollywood now presents men as trouble making troglodytes and women as the answer to all society's ills just as they've swapped underrepresention and bad portrayals of minorities and women for overrepresentation and bad portrayals of majority people and this goes many times over for men. It's only natural young men and boys will shy away from masculinity and roles normally reserved for men. Our schools fail boys very much preferentially to girls. In the LA school system only some 20% of boys ever even graduate high school while the figure for girls is usually over 80%. We spend more on these schools than most schools because it's not easy to keep children from learning. Children naturally want to learn but they teach them to hate it and still have time to declare war on Arizona.

 

A lot of the problem is the quisling media and a mindset that says traditional values and perspectives must be replaced by a feel good smilie faced status quo. Not hurting peoples' feelings has been elevated to the only good and being a man has been relegated to unthinking, unfeeling, unintelligent, brutes of past ages. Individual rights no longer exist and only civil rights now apply and civil rights are based chiefly on being the member of a minority. It's not only unpopular to assert one's rights but dangerous in the modern age. Of course much of thgis is caused by coddling criminals and failing to even remove them from sociuety. With large numbers running loose it really is more dangerous so laws restricting everyone's rights are enacted. Now days thousands of laws and regulations with the effect of law are made almost daily. Old laws are almost never removed from the books and stay in full effect but are simply not enforced. We've enterred a brave new world where men are hardly even welcome.

[Strange]

 

What's happened to all our men? Seems as though they've become too busy training to become male nurses or chefs (professions that were traditionally seen to be fit for women only just a few decades ago).

 

Traditionally, chefs have been men. It is only recently that a few women have been allowed to break into the professions. (And, until recently, midwives were almost all men.)

[MigL]

How about tight underwear ?

 

Its hard to squeeze boxers into the skinny jeans/pants which are required 'hipster' wear.

[CharonY]

There are a lot of speculations, assumptions and some misconceptions here. One of the most important points is that there is a certain amount of uncertainty in this (or basically all) longitudinal study. One of the issues is that hormone levels are not very stable and can vary due to a number of daily influences and the sampling points may not be sufficient to capture the variance and to ascertain whether there is significant decline. This is complicated by the fact that at that point the normal value estimates were based on generalized reference values (i.e. a common assumed, non-symptomatic range of testosterone) that has not been normalized against age to take the decline, and the shape of the decline into account. The reasons is that there have not been studies before that have measured the decline of testosterone in a sufficiently large, aging population to create a reference model.

 

These (and a few other) issues complicate the interpretation, though it does not mean that there is no effect.In fact, a number of other studies do indicate that male infertility may indeed be on the rise.

Some of the strongest correlations have been found with obesity and diabetes as well as smoking, IIRC. Alcohol was also somewhat correlated but I forgot how strongly.

 

Endocrine disruptors commonly found in household items and drinking water are also suspected to be contributing factors, though the extent is still under much investigation. I.e. it is far from certain whether the effect may actually shift levels beyond typical variation.

 

Unsurprisingly, testosterone levels are also heavily influenced by lifestyle, such as stress levels, sleep and exercise. Thus, another speculations is that more people have less physical jobs, may be to sedentary as consequence, while at the same time stress may have increased. I do think that these factors may actually be much more relevant in the long run as we do know that lifestyle and especially stress (though that is a very broad and complicated thing in itself) has a massive effect on our physiology. In contrast, exposure levels at best only find mild effects, which is a pity as it would make study designs much easier.

 

Other things include frequency of masturbation and sex is also correlated with testosterone levels, to provide other examples. Of course, none of these points speak to the narrative of OP, which, frankly was a bit silly to begin with.

 

 

Traditionally, chefs have been men. It is only recently that a few women have been allowed to break into the professions. (And, until recently, midwives were almost all men.)

 

It is true that most chefs are still male. Though I would not say that women have not been allowed, per se. I guess it may depend on the time period, but if we are talking about modern times I would like at least to acknowledge Eugenie Brazier who was the first chef (never mind female chef) to acquire three Michelin stars. Also the first to acquire six stars, for that matter. Among her students are famous chefs, such as Paul Bocuse.

[Mr Rayon]

These (and a few other) issues complicate the interpretation, though it does not mean that there is no effect.In fact, a number of other studies do indicate that male infertility may indeed be on the rise.

Some of the strongest correlations have been found with obesity and diabetes as well as smoking, IIRC. Alcohol was also somewhat correlated but I forgot how strongly.

 

I have found similar findings.

.The sperm count has been decreasing steadily for many years in Western industrialised countries.

http://ispub.com/IJU/2/1/7519

Other things include frequency of masturbation and sex is also correlated with testosterone levels, to provide other examples. Of course, none of these points speak to the narrative of OP, which, frankly was a bit silly to begin with.

Out of curiosity, what are the latest findings suggesting?

 

Does masterbation decrease testosterone levels or increase them? Or is it more complicated?

[elfmotat]

Obesity is strongly linked to low T. Society has gotten much fatter, so I'm not surprised that T-levels have also dropped. It would be interesting to see a study on how much of the T-level drop can be explained by increased obesity rates.

Edited May 21, 2016 by elfmotat

[Mr Rayon]

Perhaps more extraordinarily, what the researchers actually found was that those who were overweight lived the longest; they lived longer than those of "normal" weight.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/why-being-overweight-means-you-live-longer-the-way-scientists-twist-the-facts-10158229.html

 

Obesity is strongly linked to low T. Society has gotten much fatter, so I'm not surprised that T-levels have also dropped. It would be interesting to see a study on how much of the T-level drop can be explained by increased obesity rates.

Maybe lower testosterone leads to higher life expectancy? We know women produce less testosterone compared to men and they live longer than men so maybe overweight men produce less testosterone and live longer than "normal weighted" people and others as a direct result. Maybe that's why our the global life expectancy is increasing. That is to say because of the globe is getting fatter on average which causes a reduction in testosterone levels which increases life expectancy?

 

 

The world is getting fatter:

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/05/29/as-obesity-rises-chinese-kids-are-almost-as-fat-as-americans/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2394423/BBC-documentary-Indias-Supersize-Kids-Obesity-epidemic-swelling-thanks-Western-fast-food-McDonalds-KFC.html

http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/many-indonesians-getting-fatter/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/why-chinas-fat-women-refuse-to-sweat-it-out-in-the-gym/

http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2016-global-obesity/

 

Life expectancy rising:

http://www.healthdata.org/news-release/life-expectancy-increases-globally-death-toll-falls-major-diseases

http://www.nature.com/scitable/content/life-expectancy-around-the-world-has-increased-19786

Edited June 7, 2016 by Mr Rayon