Does Low Testosterone Impact Sexual Performance?

Men like to claim their bodies are full of testosterone. Testosterone! Men like to claim their bodies are full of it. In popular culture, it’s taken on a meaning that is inseparable from masculinity and sexuality. Yet the truth is that a lot of men don’t have all the testosterone they need to maintain sexual performance and also for their overall general health. This is because testosterone is associated in the public mind with sexual matters, while it actually has uses that extend beyond the male sexual performance.

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WHAT IS TESTOSTERONE?

Just to bring everyone up to speed, testosterone is the primary male sex hormone and an anabolic steroid. As Wikipedia points out, testosterone “plays a key role in the development of male reproductive tissues such as testes and prostate, as well as promoting secondary sexual characteristics such as increased muscle and bone mass, and the growth of body hair.” But testosterone also has uses in general health and well-being, and in particular in helping to prevent osteoporosis (which is the loss of bone mass, which can lead to fragile bones that break easily.) Men produce testosterone naturally, and production ramps up markedly during puberty (which is why a guy’s penis and scrotum grow and hair starts to develop all over the body during the teen years). But somewhere around age 30, the body starts producing a little less testosterone each year, a decline of somewhere around 1% per year. In addition, there may be other reasons why a man has less testosterone than he should, such as diet, exercise, etc. As a matter of fact, some scientists believe that low testosterone is significantly under-diagnosed and may affect as many as 13 million men, 90% of whom go untreated.

WHAT ARE THE ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH LOW TESTOSTERONE?

#1: SEX DRIVE AND FUNCTION. Sex drive and sex function is one of the issues that most guys worry about the most. When testosterone levels are low, a man has less desire for sex. In some cases, erections may be harder to come by, although actual erectile dysfunction is not typically a side effect of low testosterone by itself.

#2: DEPRESSION. Many men with low testosterone find it affects their mental health, especially in terms of depression. Since lower testosterone occurs as a guy ages, and since many men feel depressed about aging, the lower testosterone may worsen a predisposition to depression.

#3: SLEEP PROBLEMS. Sleep patterns are often disrupted by too little testosterone. This can lead to insomnia, which can take the form of having trouble falling asleep or of waking and being unable to get back to sleep. Some men may already have sleep apnea, which in turn contributes to lower testosterone as well. Sleep apnea is a potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts. If you snore loudly and feel tired even after a full night’s sleep, you might have sleep apnea.

#4: EMOTIONAL ISSUES. Beyond depression, low levels of testosterone are associated with other emotional changes, such as sadness or irritability. It can also dampen enthusiasm and motivation, and can impact self-confidence.

#5: FATIGUE. Low energy levels are often a byproduct of low testosterone. A man tires more easily or has a harder time getting started in the mornings. #6: PHYSICAL CHANGES. Sometimes the change in testosterone levels correlates with physical changes in a man. He may gain weight more easily or lose some of the strength he used to have.

Body hair may decrease and he may develop some fat tissue in the breast area. It also can lead to a weakening of the bones. All of this can contribute to feelings of depression, which low testosterone already can make more likely. If a man worries he may have low testosterone, he needs to speak with his doctor for a diagnosis and to determine if treatments are needed. There is an exciting new product called AndroForte which is a Testosterone Replacement Therapy Cream. It effectively restores blood testosterone concentrations in men with hypogonadism to the normal levels of healthy young males. A 5% Testosterone cream is available for application to the torso (upper-body) or scrotum as indicated. The benefit lies in it’s ability to be rapidly absorbed percutaneously coupled with the indication for scrotal application which may limit unintended passive transfer to partners on contact.