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Recently I had a number of blood tests done, one of which was testosterone. The normal range in the test is 11.0-40.0nmol/L. My result was 11.4.
At first I felt a bit "disappointed", if that's the word. All sorts of silly things went through my head, such as being inadequate as a man or something like that. You know. A sort of blow to the ego. I also though about it in relation to my going to the gym.
But then I thought to myself, "Hang on. Isn't there a relationship between baldness and high levels of testosterone?"
Now I feel relieved. Even a hairdresser once told me (upon my complaining about my grey hair), "Well, at least you won't go bald."
LukeB
Well, it's in the normal range even though it's low. I've never had mine tested, so I have no idea what it is.
There are potentially great benefits to having *less* of that stuff, aside from maybe being less likely to go bald. Maybe you won't fly off the handle like some guys do. Maybe you don't get as many zits. Maybe you won't have heart disease, or any of the other things that guys get more often than women, and... best of all.. maybe you'll live longer.
If your doctor thinks the low level is causing you to be tired or something, well, he probably knows best; but if it's not causing health problems I'd say just kick back and enjoy being the guy God made you (if you believe in God, if not, then just take joy in being evolved I guess).
I dont think necessarily high testosterone levels will mean you will go bald or even raise your changes, I mean look at people like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Ferrigno and Jay Cutler to name just three.
I'm sure those guys had a searious amount of testosterone circulating in their blood streams. What matters is not how much you have but its conversion to DHT ? Which is more to do with genetics ?
Didn't guys like AS also have lots of Sterroids and
who knows what else to "pump them up?"
Maybe if you took Arnolds steroids away as well as the
other junk he took would the testosterone levels be normal?
Yer exactly but the point i was trying to make is even (artificially) raising their testosterone levels didnt send them bald, so I think genetics and a predisposition to baldness are stronger factors than the testosterone levels in you're body.
Hi LukeB, you are right. The American test has a reference range of 299 to 999. I think that is nanograms per deciliter. Mine tested out at 361. I am 53 years old and my hair is a meter in length. Actually my longest MEASURED shed strand was 114 centimeters in length, and it had a broken tip on it. I saved it in a ziplock bag.
Low testosterone will save you from going bald and likely keep you from getting prostate cancer as well.
The downside is that it is harder to build muscle strength and mass, requiring considerably more effort to make good gains.
Absalom
Testosterone levels are something that we could probably all pay a little more attention to. I've read several articles over the last few years reporting on dropping testosterone levels in males in developed countries. I don't pretend to know all about this, but what I recall is that there are chemicals and dietary issues that are only recently being discovered that, in short, act as estrogen-like agents in the body. For females, it produces earlier and earlier sexual development (so, little girls begin to develop adult sexual characteristics at an average of 11-12 years whereas it used to be 15) and males testosterone development, production and overall levels are suppressed.
Low testosterone can have a number of effects including lethargy, depression, and feminizing characteristics (loss of muscle mass, the inability to develop muscle, developed breast tissue, low sperm count, etc).
Yours is within the norm, but on the lower end. It's normal for testosterone levels to creep down with age, but there are norms for each age group.
If one finds that his levels are low, it might be worth looking around at diet and chemical exposure. One of the most suprising influences that I remember reading about is soy. Soy mimics estrogen in the human body. It may be a great protein substitute for non-meet or dairy eaters, but maybe not for men!
Robert
Hmm, well soy products are recognized to not be powerful enough to induce feminization, even if you ate just that, it probably wouldn't be enough.
There probably are more potent chemicals in the environment, but I doubt soy products are responsible. Phyto-estrogen is a much less-potent estrogen compound than natural estrogen.
I myself had undervirilization of puberty, and remained with a mostly pre-pubescent look to myself. Yet hormone levels were in normal range pre-hormone therapy. And my estrogen levels didn't seem high either.
I think it may be, in my case, more of a genetic variation of some kind. Certain precise genes, or chromosomes, may be less pre-disposed to use testosterone. The androgen receptor gene present on the X chromosome is normally held responsible for it.
Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, which is a condition accepting that gene, makes testosterone less-absorbed than it would otherwise be. From just a bit less, to totally immune (if you were immune you would develop physically exactly as a girl). A little resistance may be so slight it is not detected.
Sara~
Haha, yeah. A few years ago I went on a soy milk kick. I don't like regular milk, and thought it would be good to drink something "milk-like" as a substitute. I quit when I found out about the phytoestrogens. I didn't notice anything, but I figured "why take chances?". I still like my soy sauce though. I figure that's OK because it's not like I'm drinking gallons of it. A small bottle lasts months.
When animal species are domesticated, they become smaller (before we start selectively breeding for size), less aggressive, and start to mature earlier. It almost sounds like we're domesticating ourselves
This is a generalization that I think is false. Just to name a few:
Domestic pigs are regularly in the hundreds of pounds.
Domestic horses sport such giants as Clydesdales and Percherons.
Domestic turkeys weigh in at amounts far exceeding the wild version.
Domestic dogs include such breeds as St. Bernard and Irish Wolfhound, which are larger than any naturally occurring dog.
Less aggressive? Sure, who wants aggressive animals around the house? But then there are such animals as Presa Canarios....
I've never heard of domestic animals maturing earlier. Can you cite examples? On the contrary, I've heard that the multitude of dog breeds are formed by arresting the development at certain stages.
This is a very complicated issue and I think the general principle applies: IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T TRY TO FIX IT. Sex hormones are steroids, and they are made in the ovaries and the testes. Both sexes make both kinds, and there are really more than two, and they are very similar in chemical structure, and under a variety of circumstances can convert one to the other. To complicate all of this the adrenal (on the kidney in Latin) gland mades epinepherine (on the kidney in Greek) and these are kissin cousins of the sex hormones. Unless there is a proven deficit, with specific negative consequnces, he who tampers with natural homeostasis is taking a risk I would not take. It will be interesting to observe the long term medical status of the current Governor of California, among others.
This from Wikipedia:
"From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the chemical family of steroids in general. For discussion of performance-enhancing steroids and their effects, please see Anabolic steroid.
A steroid is a lipid characterized by a carbon skeleton with four fused rings. All steroids are derived from the acetyl CoA biosynthetic pathway. Different steroids vary in the functional groups attached to these rings. Hundreds of distinct steroids have been identified in plants, animals, and fungi. Their most important role in most living systems is as hormones. Steroid hormones produce their physiological effects by binding to steroid hormone receptor proteins. The binding of steroid hormones to their receptors causes changes in gene transcription and cell function.
Steroid skeleton. Carbons 18 and above can be absent.In human physiology and medicine, the most important steroids are cholesterol, the steroid hormones, and their precursors and metabolites. In the bloodstream steroids are bound to carrier proteins.
Cholesterol is an important steroid alcohol, being a common component of animal cell membranes. However, a high level of it can cause various conditions and diseases, such as atherosclerosis. Most other steroids are synthesized from cholesterol. Also, various hormones, including vertebrate sex hormones, are steroids created from cholesterol.
Some of the common categories of steroids include:
Anabolic steroids are a class of steroids that interact with androgen receptors to increase muscle and bone synthesis. There are natural and synthetic anabolic steroids. These are the "steroids" used by athletes to increase performance.
Corticosteroids include glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoids:
Glucocorticoids regulate many aspects of metabolism and immune function, and are often prescribed by doctors to reduce inflammatory conditions like asthma and arthritis.
Mineralocorticoids are corticosteroids that help maintain blood volume and control renal excretion of electrolytes.
Sex steroids are a subset of sex hormones that produce sex differences or support reproduction. They include androgens, estrogens, and progestagens.
Phytosterols - steroids naturally occurring in plants.
The term steroid is often used more restrictively in specific contexts. For instance, steroid in common medical usage by non-endocrinologists usually refers to corticosteroids, nearly always glucocorticoids. In an athletic or body-building context, steroid commonly refers to anabolic steroids.
Sex steroids include estrogen (U.S spelling) or oestrogen (UK spelling), progesterone and androgen. Oestrogen and progesterone are made primarily in the ovary and in the placenta during pregnancy and testosterone in the testis.
External links
Michael W. King's Medical Biochemistry. Steroids and retinoids are both terpenes which are hydrophobic, pass through cell membranes and bind to intracellular receptors. However, retinoic acid is not a steroid because is does not have the defining ring structure. See: Steroids and Related Hydrophobic Molecules.
"Biochemistry" by Jeremy M. Berg, John L. Tymoczko and Lubert Stryer (2002) W. H. Freeman and Co. steroid topics in this
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steroid"
Category: Steroids
Oh that's ok, I wasn't thinking of taking anything to increase my testosterone if that's what you mean. I would like to build muscle to a reasonable degree (not go overboard like some), and if it takes more work then so be it. I'm still happy with how I'm progressing.
LukeB
Luke:
I also am on the low end of the spectrum, but just over the normal minimum. I have three teenagers at home, took weightlifting classes in college (many years ago; anyone here know how to use a slide rule?) and was very active athletically.
Yes, you may have to work a little harder to see the same results. But I have found no real detriment to lower testosterone levels other than a tendency to gain weight which causes my girdle size to increase.
Big George