Testosterone: What The Hell's Going On With Men?!?

What the hell is happening with men's testosterone rates? What's actually going on? Because I think, you know, a lot of guys see in the news and they see all these news articles and it's like testosterone rates are dropping and plummeting and maybe they have their T levels tested and it's terrible. And so kind of paint a little bit of a broad picture for us and then we can dig deeper into some of the things that are going on.

So you said what's happening? That is what's happening. What we're seeing is this, this manifestation. So not only bad labs and bad or substandard sperm analyses, but the manifestations, the clinical manifestations are there too, but they just don't expect it. So they're not looking for it. Right. So I guess the bigger question is what is causing this? What is at the root of it? And you know, Connor, I don't know that we know that for sure. It's really hard to know something like that because it's difficult to test. So all we're left with sometimes is to rule things out and look at what's changed, what's different. There are a lot of hormone therapy practitioners out there that would say.

The bulk of this, cause of this should be borne by the fact that.

We'Re fatter and less healthy. And that does track sort of over the last 50 years with the, you know, the advent of much more processed food and fast food. It does, but I still don't think it accounts for all of it. So what's happening? Well, if you look at, look at the evidence in especially the work of Dr. Shauna Swan, she's a PhD epidemiologist, reproductive epidemiologists, which means they study temporal trends over time of disease states or, you know, if you call it this, a disease state, I would. She's done a lot of work with phthalates, that's what she's kind of known for. But all other environmental toxins as well, that they, as they test them, they realize, wow, there's something strong enough here that they gave it a name called the phthalate syndrome. And it was first identified in mice. But it can get in at a key time in the in utero development of the fetus, at a time when there's a differentiation there occurring in the genders and the genitalia are forming. And if phthalates get on there, they're an androgen blocker, they're strong enough receptivity there on that androgen receptor that they'll get pulled there and they can sit there and block it. Well, a male fetus is absolutely dependent on enough testosterone.

To convert to DHT to make sure that that differentiation occurs properly. Otherwise you get malformations, physical malformations of the penis, of other reproductive issues, but also.

Also the brain, because brains start to differentiate between male and female early on. And so we can talk about that, and we should, because it's really interesting. But to stay on track with what's going on with sperm counts, there can be changes in utero that are not reversible. This is what her research suggests. And so that, to me says that's got to be significant.

That has got to be a factor in what we're seeing. I don't know how you can say it isn't, because it proves out. But as I said, it's hard to test because.

Who'S going to do that trial?

Right, right.

Withhold testosterone for somebody and give it to the others. Now it's not ethical. So we're left sometimes as people. People give me that complaint all the time. Well, there's not good research on it. Well, you know what? There's probably about as good a research as we're going to get on it. And so you can't take it past a certain point. So you have to look at animal studies and you have to look at retrospective. When you see this manifest, go backwards and look at what the exposures were, if you can, to identify those in the pregnant moment.

Let's do a couple of things. Can you do and give us a bit of an insight into what the testosterone decrease has looked like? Because I've seen varying, you know, degrees anywhere from, like, oh, there's been a 10% decline to a 50% decline. And so I've kind of heard differing things. So I'd love to hear about that. And then I'd like to actually get into what role does testosterone actually play in a man's development? Because I think that part is also very important. And we can get into the brains after that.

Yes. Okay. So after birth, development after birth, yes. Okay. So, yeah, the data are pretty strong. She. It was. I think it was 2017. She was on. She was the darling of the media. She was on all the major news magazines, New York Times, all the media were featuring this study that she released. And that was the one that showed that there is. And it's best to look at it over a period of time because the longer period of time identifies it more of a trend. And that's what they're looking for in epidemiology. So over 50 years, average of about 1% a year because it has dropped 50%. And it seems to be the later studies that are coming out seem to be that it's continuing and getting a little bit steeper. So this is a concern. It's not resolved. And that's another reason. I mean we just look around at what's not changing, what's getting worse, these toxins and we'll talk about it. Phthalates are just one. There's a lot there.

Maybe we can start at the very beginning and work our way forward. Because you were talking about the differentiation between the male brain and the female brain forming I think in utero. And I've heard a lot that testosterone plays a big development in, in a child's brain and in a child's body. So can you just break down a little bit of the role that testosterone plays based on what we know?

Yeah. So in the developing fetus they've done interesting studies on this where.

Actually the brains are quite different as toddlers. So this is before any real difference in testosterone levels.

Girl babies and boy babies pretty much have the same at that point, but yet they play differently. The boys will go for trucks and the girls will go for playing house at that young level. And they have noticed that there is a change in that natural tendency toward being more feminine, having more feminine leanings.

In these males that have had that interruption in utero. And that window is about a seven, it's about week seven to 12. And we don't know exactly when it is. They know exactly when it is. In mice you have a shorter half life or shorter lifespan rather. But it's just I can't overemphasize to, to pregnant women and of course their partners, the fathers, that this time frame is critical. Boy, if you can just be really careful about exposures, especially to. So where phthalates are is they're in plastics, they're in fragrances, they're in. And when I say plastics that includes like vinyl things that one of the things that are most common in homes these days are these LVP luxury vinyl planks, the flooring. So you're covering all the floor in your house that's off gas ink valleys. It is. So what do you do about it? Well.

You try and build with better materials with say hardwood if you want a plain surface or ceramic tile or something like that. But if you can't and you can't rip everything up in your home, well then you have to filter the air. You have got to filter the air in your home. The air in your home is worse than the air pretty much anywhere. Although. Although the study that. A study I looked at showed that it was actually the worst in your car.

Because you're surrounded by all the. All this plastic and synthetic materials that are. That are off gassing. So I have one in my car too. I have an air filter in there with a carbon filter in it. That's what you've got to have because carbon will.

Remove essentially all endocrine disruptors. Carbon filter the house and the car, including the intakes to your furnace.

Most people will buy the cheapest filter that they can find at Home Depot, right? Because you got to change them every month or so often. But the truth is that if you buy the kind that are, what they'll usually say on them is odor reducing or good for if you have pets. And what that means is there's a carbon filter on there and it adsorbs those molecules like pet dander and things like that, but also volatile organic compounds and things that are like phthalates that are floating around in the air. So that's a whole house filtration system, which I firmly believe in. But also you have to have other air filters in the house. That's. I don't think that's enough.