What causes the male hormone health risk warning?

We often talk about male hormone health risk warnings. Most of them refer to early warning signals in which serum testosterone levels are lower than the normal range for the same age group, or are accompanied by symptoms such as sweating, fatigue, and loss of sexual desire. In essence, they are the result of interference in the endogenous synthesis regulatory pathway and the long-term superposition of external adverse factors. It is never caused by a single cause.

Last month, I met a 32-year-old Internet operator in the clinic. He stayed up until 2 or 3 o'clock every day to work on projects for three consecutive months, drank iced Coke as water, and had to drink two large drinks with clients a week. The physical examination showed that the serum testosterone was 28% lower than the lower limit of normal for men of the same age. I was still confused when I received the warning notice from the physical examination report, saying that I felt nothing but tired. How could there be a hormonal problem?

In fact, there are quite a few people who have testosterone warning signs in their 20s and 30s. In the past, everyone always thought that this was a "menopausal problem" that only men in their 40s and 50s would encounter. After all, it is an objective law that gonadal function naturally declines with age. However, academic circles now have a clear understanding of "menopausal problems" after the age of 25. There are actually differences in the statement that "testosterone naturally decreases by 1% per year". Many tracking studies show that as long as men have stable body fat, regular work and rest, and maintain regular exercise, their serum testosterone may still be maintained at more than 85% of the youth level by the age of 40, which will not reach the early warning line at all.

Compared with uncontrollable age, more early warnings are actually "used up" little by little by long-term living habits. Like the operation just mentioned, staying up late for a long time will keep cortisol at a high level, which is like pouring cold water on the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis that regulates testosterone secretion. The signals that should be normally output are directly suppressed. Coupled with his abdominal obesity, the aromatase in the fat will secretly convert testosterone into estrogen, and the indicator will naturally drop quickly. I have met a young man who has been working out for three years. In order to compete in amateur bodybuilding competitions, he did extreme low-carb fat loss for more than three months. When his body fat dropped to 7%, his testosterone dropped directly to the level of a menopausal woman. Even his morning erections disappeared. This is also a typical lack of nutritional intake that affects the synthesis pathway.

There are also many people who tend to ignore the influence of emotions and environmental hormones. Middle-aged men, both old and young, are in a state of high-pressure and anxiety for a long time, or they always use plastic lunch boxes with hot water or often eat low-quality desserts containing trans fatty acids, which may interfere with the normal synthesis of testosterone. I have to dispel a rumor here. Nowadays, many people on the Internet say that "androgenetic alopecia means high testosterone." This is not true. Clinically, many patients with androgenetic alopecia have completely normal testosterone levels, but their dihydrotestosterone conversion rate is higher. Some people are losing hair while their testosterone is already lower than normal. It is completely unreliable to use hair loss to judge hormone levels.

In fact, most people don’t need to panic when they receive a hormonal health warning. Unless the gonads themselves have organic lesions, most of them are reversible problems accumulated from bad habits. Adjust your work and rest, control your body fat within a reasonable range, and avoid supplements with unknown ingredients. If you check again in two or three months, most of them can return to the normal range.