WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TAKE TESTOSTERONE?

With a new industry booming in 2021, millions of men have recently begun taking testosterone as a pill, nasal spray, or injection. According to a survey, younger men are more likely than ever to take testosterone supplements. So why are so many men taking testosterone? What is it doing to your brain and body? Is it connected to a decline in testosterone infertility seen in men around the world? To answer these questions, we must first 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 a 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 reduced during childhood, but when a person with testes begins to experience puberty between the ages of 9 and 14, the GnRH hormones begin to pulse again and things start to change. The first signs of puberty include the testes growing larger and releasing more testosterone; this increase in testosterone is what causes boys to become more masculine; their voices become deeper; they develop body hair; and they begin to produce sperm after puberty. of course, ongoing sperm production, as well as sex drive The amount of testosterone in your blood is regulated by a feedback loop in your body. If testosterone levels rise too high, the pituitary gland receives a signal to release hormones that lower testosterone levels in your body. Because of this, testosterone levels can vary significantly over the course of a person's life and throughout the day. This is one reason why it can be difficult to define normal testosterone levels. So why are so many men now experimenting with testosterone boosters? When a woman goes through menopause, there is a sharp decrease in the hormone estrogen from their ovaries, causing typical symptoms like hot flashes and 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 bioavailability. Testosterone deficiency syndrome is a common condition in aging men, Since this process is slow and gradual, it often goes unnoticed. Most people will not lose enough testosterone to experience any negative effects, but two to five percent of people with testes over the age of 40 have testosterone levels that are too low, which can cause a TDS called hypogonadism. Symptoms include extreme fatigue. less sexual arousal fewer face and body hair expanding breast size inadequate attention broken bones mood swings and erectile dysfunction You must have your blood checked by a doctor to determine your testosterone levels before you can declare that you have hypogonadism because those symptoms could be caused by anything else. As we mentioned earlier, testosterone levels can vary greatly throughout the day, so you could get a low testosterone reading but not have the symptoms or have hypogonadism. The idea of testosterone replacement therapy was developed more than 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. A doctor must regularly examine your blood to see if you have this illness, although hypogonadism does not account for the high rate of testosterone use among young men today. One research of males entering a health clinic discovered that while only half of the men were even aware of what hypogonadism was, they were not there for this disease. Nevertheless, 43% of the men were interested in testosterone replacement therapy. In the past 20 years, the number of males between the ages of 18 and 45 who use testosterone supplements and get therapy has grown four-fold. Since it has nothing to do with hypogonadism and is a rapidly growing and lucrative industry, it begs the question of why so many young men are tampering with their endocrine systems. A good place to start is in 2000 and 2003, when 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 tyrosine levels. A 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. Anecdotal data from Burrows suggests that men who use testosterone feel younger and more sexual. A study on aging men with hypogonadism indicated that testosterone treatment helped them bench press more and leg press more. When testosterone therapy was started in a castrated mouse, erectile function improved. When testosterone therapy was studied in men with hypogonadism, it was found that it helped with sexual ability, morning erections, and sexual desire. Another survey found young men in the United States believed that testosterone supplements improved sexual function, increased energy, and felt better overall. There is a growing market of vendors willing to sell you this chemical without any testing, so many men are taking it without knowing if they are actually suffering from low levels of testosterone. It makes sense that you might want to attribute your fatigue, depression, and lack of sexual desire to low testosterone without actually really knowing. The problem is that people are now seeking out testosterone replacement therapy without any connection to their doctor. However, this was a very small study, and a subsequent meta-analysis, which is a review of several trials, indicated that it had no effect on cardiovascular disease provided you had no core morbidities before to supplementing. One study explicitly claimed that testosterone therapy can raise your risk of heart disease. 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 11 cases of breast cancer were discovered in one study of 45 men receiving testosterone therapy, but they are not yet significant enough to support a correlation. A rise in testosterone will also result in an increase in the sebum that causes acne, so those taking testosterone should keep an eye on how severe their acne can become. This particular link is currently the subject of extensive research, as young men taking testosterone is still a relatively new phenomenon. If you already have sleep apnea, testosterone supplementation can make it much worse and even cause it in people who start the supplementation, which can also cause sleep issues. However, the biological pathway as to why this happens is not currently known. In addition to heart conditions and insomnia, using testosterone may cause you to snore loudly. In addition to more emotional side effects like mood swings, testosterone supplementation has also been linked to kidney stones. irritation and poor decision-making There are serious risks associated with taking testosterone without consulting your doctor, but the use of testosterone supplements among young men is steadily increasing. 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 to visit a doctor and have your blood tested regularly to understand if you have low levels of testosterone.