millions of men have recently started taking testosterone as a pill nasal spray or injection with a new industry booming in 2021 a survey found testosterone supplementation is most common amongst younger men now more than ever before so why are so many men huffing testosterone what is it doing to your brain and body and is it linked to a decrease in testosterone infertility seen in men around the world so to start we must understand testosterone testosterone is a hormone hormones are chemical Messengers in your body that flow through your bloodstream and bind to receptors on or
in cells to stimulate action and maintain your life hormones are produced in endocrine glands in your body such as the pituitary gland pineal gland thyroid gland but your gonads also produce hormones such as estrogen from the ovaries or testosterone from the testes although testes do produce estrogen more on that later testosterone is a steroid hormone so unlike protein hormones which are made of amino acids and bind to the out side of cells steroid hormones like testosterone can pass through lipid bilayers and enter cells to have their effect after conception before six weeks in the womb
no one had visible testes in fact whether you are a woman or a man or anything in between before six weeks when you are in the womb everyone was starting to grow a vagina when conceived you receive an X chromosome from your mom but depending on which of your dad's sperm fused with the egg you either get another X chromosome or a y chromosome before six weeks all development is controlled by the X chromosome but at six weeks if you got a y chromosome the sry gene encodes an sry protein which changes the gonads the
sry protein causes the pre-overies to drop into testes the labias to fuse into the scrotum creating that line of tissue on the ball sack and the clitoris grows into a penis so yes at first we all kind of had vaginas then if the sry gene kicked in you started to grow testes and started to produce testosterone but there are are exclusions to this process because human sex is complicated you can have X Y chromosomes and can appear female with a vagina but have testes internally due to conditions along chemical Pathways that happen after six weeks
in the fetus this is known as being intersex it proves that the binary of being XX of women and X Y A man is not real for the most part if you are XY the production of testosterone will begin to change your life as your pituitary gland will release a hormone called GnRH which will stimulate the production of testosterone in the testes the GnRH hormone is decreased during childhood but when a person with testes starts to go through puberty around the ages of 9 to 14 the GnRH hormones are subpulsate again and things start to
change the first signs of puberty being the testes increasing in size and releasing more testosterone the increase in testosterone is what causes the masculinization of boys their voice lowers they grow body hair start producing sperm after puberty the testes contain continued production of testosterone is important to help maintain bone density fat distribution muscle strength facial hair growth sex drive and of course continued sperm production a feedback loop in the body regulates the amount of testosterone that flows through your blood if testosterone gets too high a signal sent to the pituitary gland to decrease hormones which
decrease testosterone in your body for this reason testosterone levels can vary quite a bit throughout your life but also vary quite a bit throughout the day this is one reason why it can be so hard to Define normal testosterone levels so why is it that so many men are now playing with their endocrine systems and adding testosterone to their bodies first the most common reason for testosterone supplementation in older men is hypogonadism known as a TDS testosterone deficiency syndrome it's a common condition in aging men but not many people talk about it when a woman
goes through menopause there is a stark decrease in the hormone estrogen from their ovaries causing typical symptoms such as hot flashes mood changes and everyone loves to talk about that men also go through a form of menopause as they age there is a decrease in testosterone from the testes and an increase in the sex hormone globulin which decreases bioavailable testosterone but this decrease isn't Stark this process is slow and gradual and for this reason in many ways it goes unnoticed it is completely normal and most likely one will never lose enough testosterone for it to
affect them but two to five percent of people with testes over the age of 40 have testosterone levels that are too low leading to a TDS known as hypogonadism symptoms include extreme fatigue decreased sexual desire reduced body and facial hair increased breast size poor concentration brittle bones erectile dysfunction and mood swings you can't just say you have hypogonadism because you feel those symptoms they could be due to something else you have to have your blood tested by a doctor for testosterone levels to Define yourself as having hypogonadism the concept of testosterone replacement therapy was developed
over 75 years ago to treat this condition and the Baltimore longitudinal study of Aging reported the incidence of hypogonadism as 20 in men over 60 30 in men over 70 and 50 in men over 80 years of age it's difficult to diagnose again as we said testosterone levels can vary so much throughout the day so you could get a low testosterone reading but not have the symptoms and not have hypogonadism a doctor needs to consistently look at your blood in order to understand if you have this condition but hypogonadism is not explaining why so many
young men are currently taking testosterone one study of men entering a health clinic found that 43 percent of male respondents were interested in testosterone replacement therapy but only half of them were even aware of what hypogonadism was they were not there for this condition testosterone supplements and therapy have increased four-fold in the last 20 years for men between the ages of 18 to 45. again nothing to do with hypogonadism and it is an increasingly popular and highly marketable industry so why are so many young men playing with their endocrine system a good place to start
is in 2000 and three when Harvard medical study found that even among men who had normal testosterone levels taking testosterone supplements led to a loss of fat and increase in muscle mass better overall moods and less anxiety in magazines health subreddits and YouTube videos it is marketed as a remedy to aging and the weakening male body there are studies that show testosterone can increase bone density and be a valid treatment for age-related decrease in muscle mass by increasing type 1 and type 2 muscle fibers a study on Aging men with hypogonadism found that testosterone supplementation
helped them bench press more and leg press more Burrows anecdotal evidence says that men who take testosterone feel younger and more sexual the most commonly reported perceived benefits of testosterone supplementations was improve sexual function increased energy and quote unquote feeling better in Rat models castrated mice would have reduced erectile function when testosterone therapy was started in a castrated Mouse erectile function improved studying men with hypogonadism it was found that testosterone therapy helped with sexual ability morning erections and sexual desire another survey found young men used testosterone therapy for reasons such as fatigue erectile dysfunction and
depression the issue is that now people are seeking out testosterone replacement therapy devoid of any connection to their doctor there is a growing industry now of people willing to sell you this chemical without any testing therefore many men are taking it without understanding if they are actually suffering from low levels of testosterone it makes sense that you might want to attribute your fatigue depression lack of sexual desire to low testosterone without actually really knowing then reaching for a supplement whose side effects might be you getting jacked the thing is there are serious risks that can
come with taking testosterone supplementation without consulting your doctor especially if you are young to start there is some very confusing and conflicting research that will change based on which studies you are reading one study clearly stated that testosterone therapy can increase your risk of heart disease but this was a very small study and a recent meta-analysis which is a study of many studies found that it had no effect on cardiovascular disease if you had no core morbidities going into the supplementation testosterone companies and people who are proponents of testosterone supplementation will be pointing at this
meta-analysis a lot one thing we know for sure is that testosterone supplementation increases hematocrit aka the amount of red blood cells in your blood this is why it is important to have blood tests and your doctor monitoring your blood while taking testosterone as your blood will be getting thicker as well if blood cell amounts get too high in your blood it can lead to cardiovascular disease stroke and Pulmonary embolisms testosterone can stimulate the prostate gland and prostate cancer to grow leading many medical professionals to worry about testosterone therapy leading to prostate cancer but many other
longitudinal studies investigating the relationship of testosterone levels and subsequent risk of prostate cancer failed to find any association although one study found that it could make already existing prostate cancer worse but not technically create the prostate cancer that's the conflicting research now onto the risks that we do know are real from taking testosterone supplementation the biggest issue with young people taking testosterone supplements is decreased sperm count and decreased fertility GnRH is the hormone needed for spermatogenesis to occur when you take increased testosterone it blunts the release of GnRH decreasing spermatogenesis and can even decrease the
size of the testes this is why testosterone therapy can be okay for older men with hypogonadism because they've usually stopped trying to make a family but if young men are taking this supplement without talking to their doctor to get bigger muscles to feel better more sexual Etc they may not realize that they're decreasing their ability to start a family as well as shrinking their balls in the last 40 years sperm counts have decreased by 50 percent leading to a huge fertility issue with one-third of all infertility issues being linked to sperm it's important that young
men understand take taking testosterone could increase their chance of being infertile as well we have a video you can click above about how the chemicals and Plastics and air fresheners and fast food packaging are actually decreasing sperm counts decreasing taint size and in some ways decreasing human penis size as well shrinking balls and leading to decreased fertility other issues with testosterone supplementation could be increased risk of breast cancer there are no direct links right now as it is understudied but the high levels of testosterone may lead to a biochemical pathway that stimulates increased breast tissue
receptors which could lead to increased breast cancer one study of 45 men on testosterone therapy found breast cancer incidence of 11 but it's not significant enough at this time to draw a correlation this specific link is being studied a lot right now as young men taking testosterone is quite a new thing so continue to look up on its effect on breast cancer in the coming years an increase in testosterone will also lead to an increase in sebum causing acne people on testosterone should monitor how bad their acne can get testosterone is supplementation also leads to
obstructive sleep apnea but the biological pathway as to why is not currently known if you already have sleep apnea testosterone supplementation can make it much worse and even create it in people who start the supplementation this can also lead to sleep issues heart issues and insomnia not to mention taking testosterone might make you a nasty snorer testosterone supplementation has also been linked to kidney stones as well as more emotional side effects such as mood swings irritability and impaired judgment if you have low testosterone or suffer from hypogonadism testosterone replacement therapy can be very beneficial to
your life the only way to know this is if you go to a doctor and have your blood tested consistently to understand if you have low levels of testosterone there are serious risks that come with taking testosterone without any relation to your doctor the popularity of testosterone supplementation in young men is continuing to grow It's All Over YouTube it's all over like GQ Magazine so we made a podcast with even more detail about what is going on with this really interesting way that men are playing with their endocrine system so we are going to continue
to do our research leave any questions below if you have them for us we'll make more videos on this topic thank you so much for watching and we will see you soon for a new science video
