Another day, another Instagram post from a friend with some claim like “Young men today have lower testosterone than old men from decades prior”.

Every time I see these posts, there’s no study cited and I’m very curious to know if this claim is very valid, somewhat valid, or complete BS.

I’m guessing it’s somewhere in the middle, with an “in certain cases” caveat, like the methodology isn’t great and the results are cherry picked. It seems like these posts are just used to fear-monger amongst men today and drive consumer & social behavior.

Does anyone know of legit studies that point to this trend? What issues, if any, exist in them?


11 comments

  4. I’d like to see a study that compares apples to apples, ie men who are decently physically active (as men from the 40’s-80’s were). That said, there’s more growing evidence every year that the chemicals in our foods are disrupting our endocrine systems, leading to lower testosterone in men and lower fertility in women. There’s even been hypotheses that the growing increase in transgender and non-binary identifying people is the result of chemicals basically screwing up our hormones and normal sexual development.

    Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals and Gender Dysphoria

    [https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/endocrine-disrupting-chemicals-gender-dysphoria-mark-gordon](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/endocrine-disrupting-chemicals-gender-dysphoria-mark-gordon)

    Gender Fluidity and Hormone Disruptors

    [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-human-beast/201911/gender-fluidity-and-hormone-disruptors/amp](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-human-beast/201911/gender-fluidity-and-hormone-disruptors/amp)

    Maternal Exposure to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) and Male Reproductive Function in Young Adulthood: Combined Exposure to Seven PFAS

    [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36197086/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36197086/)

    Startling Discovery: Scientists Find Microplastics in Infant Organs at Birth

    [https://scitechdaily.com/startling-discovery-scientists-find-microplastics-in-infant-organs-at-birth/](https://scitechdaily.com/startling-discovery-scientists-find-microplastics-in-infant-organs-at-birth/)

    Are EDCs Blurring Issues of Gender?

    [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1281309/#sec2](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1281309/#sec2)

    Perfluoroalkyl Chemicals and Male Reproductive Health: Do PFOA and PFOS Increase Risk for Male Infertility?

    [https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/7/3794](https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/7/3794)

    Transsexualism : An Unacknowledged Endpoint of Developmental Endocrine Disruption?

    [https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/transsexualism-an-unacknowledged-endpoint-of-developmental-endocrine-disruption/](https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/transsexualism-an-unacknowledged-endpoint-of-developmental-endocrine-disruption/)

  5. There is actually a lot of validity to it.

    Testosterone levels for males across the board have been dropping about 1% year over year.

    Due to a lot of things but mainly due to microplastics starting around the… 70’s I think?

    It’s been a while since I read up on it but I’m sure if you just go on YouTube and look up “testosterone microplastics” it’ll pop right up.

  7. I’ve also seen these posts multiple times and think about the sample size of these studies decades ago. In addition how accurate was the testing methods decades ago. 
    But since there is a correlation between sedentary lifestyle and lower testosterone levels, i believe average testosterone levels probably has diminished. 

  8. Quick research here:

    A population-level decline in serum testosterone levels in American men
    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17062768/

    Secular decline in male testosterone and sex hormone binding globulin serum levels in Danish population surveys
    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17895324/

    Secular trends in testosterone- findings from a large state-mandate care provider
    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32151259/

    Secular Trends in Serum Testosterone and Luteinizing Hormone Levels Indicate an Ongoing Resetting of Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Gonadal Function in Healthy Men
    https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4838983

    Decline in Serum Testosterone Levels Among Adolescent and Young Adult Men in the USA
    https://www.scholars.northwestern.edu/en/publications/decline-in-serum-testosterone-levels-among-adolescent-and-young-a

  9. Look at young men today. Most of them either look like sissies or over emotional like women. All signs of low T . 

  10. Correlation between increased obesity and metabolic diseases with lowered testosterone would make sense. People who think the cause of lower testosterone is due to cultural and psychological changes are people to be permanently ignored as unserious.

Leave a Reply