Posted on 11/02/2006 10:40:54 AM PST by CarrotAndStick
NEW YORK: A new study has found a "substantial" drop in US men's testosterone levels since the 1980s, but the reasons for the decline remain unclear. This trend also does not appear to be related to age.
The average levels of the male hormone dropped by 1% a year, Dr Thomas Travison and colleagues from the New England Research Institutes in Watertown, Massachusetts, found.
This means that, for example, a 65-year-old man in 2002 would have testosterone levels 15% lower than those of a 65-year-old in 1987. This also means that a greater proportion of men in 2002 would have had below-normal testosterone levels than in 1987.
"The entire population is shifting somewhat downward we think," Travison said. "We're counting on other studies to confirm this."
Travison and his team analyzed data from the Massachusetts Male Aging Study, a long-term investigation of aging in about 1,700 Boston-area men. Data from the men were collected for three time intervals: 1987-1989, 1995-1997, and 2002-2004.
While a man's testosterone level will fall steadily as he ages, the researchers observed a speedier decline in average testosterone levels than would have been expected with aging alone.
They hypothesised that the rising prevalence of obesity as well as the sharp decline in cigarette smoking might help explain their findings, given that testosterone levels are lower among overweight people and smoking increases testosterone levels. But these factors accounted for only a small%age of the observed difference.
It's likely that some sort of environmental exposure is responsible for the testosterone decline, Travison said, although he said attempting to explain what this might be based on the current findings would be "pure conjecture."
The researchers used body mass index, the ratio of height to weight, to estimate obesity levels, he noted, but this is not a very accurate way to gauge the real adiposity, or fat content of the body, so it's possible that obesity might be more of a factor than it appears in this analysis.
"I think like most things that are complex, it's likely that there is no one cause," he said.
The rise of PC is the cause...or a symptom?
OMG!!??!! We're turning FRENCH!!!!
It probably has something to do with massive amounts of estrogen being flushed into the water supply by women who are taking hormonal birth control.
Male fish are developing eggs. It's probably affecting our men too.
Figures.
Just like the fish who now have males producing eggs.
Rove's "metrosexual machine," don't ya think?
I have heard lower testosterone in Men are due to little or no exercise, and eating foods contaminated with female growth hormones. Moderate interval exercise and eating grass fed beef could help.
How can this be extrapolated beyond anything but the Boston area? Boston area men participated in the study. Maybe it's just a local phenomenon.
Free your inner Chuck Norris...
GMPA - great minds post alike.
Oh, wait a minute - THAT explains it.
I know why.....
Metrosexualism
Lappuppyism
whippedism
I'm-terrofied-of-my-wife-ism.
My-testicles-are-in-my-wife's-purse-ism.
Agreed. There has also been a large trend towards soy based products which can also interfere with testosterone levels.
We can all thank Archer Daniels Midland.... think Soy.
It is probably because most of us are now behind a desk all day instead working hard labor.
Looks like the liberals are dragging down the national average.
Not this crap again.
Didn't the media try this with sperm counts a decade or two ago?
The commies dumped something into The Hudson River and the Potomac to drop testosterone levels in males.
Isn't it obvious ?
I blame the constant images of Rosie O'Donnel and Hillary Clinton.
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