The hypothesis is that for males who use a lot of prescription and non-prescription drugs, their testosterone levels plummet. Presumably they can’t get it up. Good thing they have drugs for that. From el gato malo at boriquagato.substack.com:
men’s levels have been dropping for decades. some thoughts on why.
there are a number of worrying changes that have occurred in american hormone levels over time and several have been well studied and documented. one is the serious drop in testosterone levels in men. everyone knows it’s going on, but “why” remains a more open question than one might expect. you’d think this would be being studied exhaustively, but it’s still sort of a fringe topic which has long struck me as odd. some have posited that this implies some sort of conspiracy, but i suspect it’s likely as simple as “there’s just no money in knowing the answer/fixing it” and so no one really spends the time. there may also be some inconvenient truths tied up in here as well. i do not intend this piece to be any sort of exhaustive examination or definitive conclusion. rather, let’s look at what we ought to be looking at and perhaps get a sense of how one might think about thinking about this.
testosterone is a critical hormone for men and women. reducing it reduces muscle mass and increases fat (a spiral as high fat, low muscle also reduces T). it also reduces confidence, sex drive, sex function, and general sense of well being. low T causes irritability, anxiety, depression, poor emotional regulation, fatigue, mental fog, and a veritable laundry list of other bad outcomes. testosterone is good stuff. you do not want to lose it.
but we are. sharply.
this classic STUDY from 2007 started ringing some alarm bells. (red arrows mine)
they cross sectioned men through 3 time slices so for differences, you can see both how each group at a given point in time lost T as a function of age and also how later groups were much lower than those who came before them. a man of 55 in 2002-4 group had lower T than even a 70 year old in the 1987 group.
My stones will get to humming at times almost like I have too much.
It is in the family and what a blessing.
Big Pharmakeia and Frankenfood?
Never!