Why is Testosterone Dropping in Men?

Testosterone is dropping in men.

It sounds like something that isn’t true, but no, it’s real. Multiple peer-reviewed studies prove this. Each new generation of men have lower testosterone than the generation before them at the same age. Today’s thirty‑year‑olds carry roughly 15‑20 % less circulating T than their fathers did at the same age. No one knows why this is happening.

Well, what changed since 1980? A lot. We can use common sense. The explanations are endless and they're all probably true to some extent:

• Sedentary lifestyles

• Declining exercise

• Rising obesity rates

• Processed food

• Microplastics in our environment

• Industrial seed oils

• Endocrine-disrupting chemicals

• Fluoridation and agricultural pesticides

It isn’t easy to spot which one is the culprit when you dig into the literature. A case in point, the Massachusetts Male Aging Study found that, even after controlling for obesity, smoking and lab-method drift, age-matched men still showed a decline of about 1.2 % per year, roughly 17% per generation.

Even small items like receipts start looking dangerous. BPA on receipts affects your hormones every time you handle them. It absorbs in your skin. BPA exposure lowers T in days by blocking androgen receptors.

@drtaniaelliott

Don’t touch this! ✋🏼 Most receipts use thermal paper containing bisphenols, or BPA, and they are easily absorbed into the bloodstream. ☠... See more

A Different Theory

I was curious about the testosterone drop, so I read a variety of research papers and books on the subject. Testosterone is fascinating because it’s so misunderstood.

@iron.male.tribe

Misunderstandings about testosterone abound, especially regarding its link to aggression. Many believe that elevated testosterone levels d... See more

I came to the conclusion that yes, environmental toxins likely contribute to the drop but even if you eliminated all toxins, testosterone would probably keep lowering in western countries, where we see this drop-off happening.

Why?

Frankly, we've built a world where lower testosterone helps you succeed in life. That is, high testosterone makes you less fit. And your body (and mind) is reacting to this environment accordingly. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about clinically low testosterone that gives you depression, makes you infertile and completely removes your sex drive. That’s another level that I don’t think is useful. Although we’re seeing that too. What I’m talking about is, a moderate reduction from historical levels makes sense in this world we’ve built. You can still function, but you are a little different than previous generations of men.

That’s because testosterone is an intelligent hormone that rises or falls based on the environment you’re in. Gym bros and feminists both get this wrong, it's not some dumb chemical that just makes you aggressive. It's dynamic. It responds to context. It reads the room.

It naturally rises and falls during the day, weeks, months and years. It’s the difference between taking it as TRT vs having it circulate through your body naturally. With TRT it doesn’t respond to the environment. It just sits in your body and slowly leaves.

@iron.male.tribe

When you're about to give a presentation, it spikes. When you play a sport, it rises. When you watch your favorite sports team win, it rises. When you lose, it falls. When your teams loses, it falls. When you're around ovulating women, it increases. When you're in a committed relationship, it drops. When you become a father, it plummets (Men's T drops ~30% within months of becoming fathers). It drops before job interviews in hierarchical companies but rises before presentations to subordinates, it falls when men enter female-dominated spaces (nursing schools, elementary schools) but rises in male-dominated ones.

Basically, your endocrine system constantly asks, Should I cooperate or dominate? Will aggression hurt my reputation? Are there mating opportunities at stake?

Modern life makes those calculations lean toward not ramping up testosterone.

The Modern Environment

Here’s a few more examples on why lower testosterone, but not LOW testosterone, gives you advantages across multiple areas of modern life now:

Testosterone is Risky in the Workplace

The modern workplace rewards traits that moderate testosterone produces, empathy, agreeableness, the ability to read social cues and avoid conflict. You need to smile at the right moments, nod thoughtfully during meetings, and never, ever make anyone feel threatened. Dominance penalties destroy careers.

Knowledge work demands patience and collaboration. You solve problems through consensus, not conquest. The qualities that built empires now build nothing but lawsuits. Look at who gets promoted in the corporate world

But it’s not just white collar employment. Even industries like influencing and media seem to be filled with lower testosterone men. I remember when popular YouTubers took testosterone tests on camera. They scored embarrassingly low, around 200-250 ng/dL. But here's the thing, these men are extraordinarily successful. Rich, famous, watched by millions. Society rewards them handsomely. Their low testosterone might actually be a feature, not a bug, in our current environment.

High Testosterone Could Sabotage Your Dating Life

We know testosterone surges when you approach a woman on the street. Does it surge when you swipe right on Tinder? Probably not.

Men approach fewer women, take fewer risks, avoid the confrontation and competition that once defined courtship

@jasonkpargin

(Poll was hetero men, assume that was implied by the context)

One way to increase testosterone is to have sex. But people aren’t having sex as much anymore. Twenty-four percent of American males aged 22-34 had no sexual partner in 2022-23, up from nine percent a decade earlier.

We're having less sex, approaching fewer women, avoiding the very behaviors that would naturally boost our testosterone levels.

What Women Want Now

The dating market as a whole has changed dramatically. For one thing, it’s driven by women. Traditional roles are rare. Women earn their own money now. They build their own careers. They don't need providers, they want partners. Empathetic, nurturing partners who can discuss feelings without making it weird, who can co-parent and split household duties and remember to buy organic milk.

Economic autonomy changes everything. Financially independent women increasingly value nurturance and emotional availability over pure resource provision.

Testosterone and Parenting

The same pattern repeats in fatherhood. The most successful modern fathers would be unrecognizable to their grandfathers. Dads coach soccer teams and attend dance recitals and know their kids' teachers by name. They change diapers and pack lunches and discuss emotions with the same seriousness their fathers once reserved for quarterly earnings reports. Fathers spend much more time with their children than at any time in history. Dads spend 3-4x as much time with their kids as their dads spent with them.

Test drops when children are born to foster intimacy and monogamy. But it could stay lower throughout the parenting process now.

Your body and mind are responding to this world by lowering your testosterone levels in order to survive and prosper.

In This Newsletter

1) Ways to Increase Testosterone in the Modern World: No, not supplements or lifting weights. Some other ideas for changing your environment to lead to a higher testosterone living.

2) The Dangers of Lower Testosterone: When average testosterone levels decline across a population, everyone doesn't drop by the same amount. The bell curve shifts left, but it doesn't shift evenly.

3) The Rise of TRT: Men over forty have discovered they can inject their way to a second puberty.

Ways to Increase Testosterone in the Modern World

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