Testosterone supplement

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 oestrogen from

the ovaries or testosterone from the

testes although testes do produce

oestrogen 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

scry gene encodes an sry protein which

changes the gonads the sry protein

causes the pre-ovaries to drop into

testes the labia's 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