Testosterone Maxxing Can Be Dangerous, but There Really Is a Crisis of Masculinity Today and It Has a Biological Basis

Commentary

“Testosterone maxxing,” the media says, is a worrying new trend. Young men are being told, in videos and posts they see on social media, that they should increase their testosterone levels by working out, fixing their sleep schedules, eating certain foods—especially animal foods (eggs, milk, and meat)—and taking various supplements, such as zinc and ashwagandha.

More worrisome is the suggestion that young men, in the prime of their physical lives, should risk destroying their natural hormonal function by taking steroids.

Part of the problem lies in persistent myths and outright charlatanry within the fitness industry and professional sport. For decades, since the invention of performance-enhancing drugs, athletes have lied about their use of these drugs.

In the 1980s and 1990s, there was intense scrutiny of bodybuilders and professional wrestlers. Were they doping? Of course they were! The kind of superhuman physiques that became the standard on the bodybuilding stage and in the squared circle were precisely that—superhuman, beyond the natural boundaries set by Mother Nature on muscular development. Even today, despite everything we know or should know, it’s still considered a “revelation” to be told that this or that bodybuilder or wrestler was taking steroids. And even when they do admit steroid use, former athletes and bodybuilders almost always play down the amounts they were taking. Doping has a powerful stigma, and rightly so.

A realistic view would be that professional athletes have an extraordinary natural endowment that’s enhanced by steroids. What’s more, there’s no substitute for dedication and hard work. Simply taking steroids is not enough, on its own, to guarantee a Herculean physique or the ability to play football, fight, snatch 200 kilos overhead, or sprint 100 meters in less than 10 seconds.

But, still, these truths shouldn’t blind us to the dangers of taking steroids, up to and including death, and medical professionals who warn against their increasingly widespread use are right to do so.

Young men today are vulnerable to the beguiling claims of fitness influencers on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, especially influencers who claim to be “natty”—to have achieved their splendid physiques without the aid of steroids—when in fact they are anything but.

There are plenty of telltale signs for those who really know, such as round “capped” shoulders and trapezius muscles—the “yoke”—that wouldn’t be out of place on an ox or other beast of burden. The incentives for making such claims are obvious. If this dude can look like Mr. Olympia without synthetic enhancement, surely he knows some fabulous secret others don’t know. Buy his latest e-book and you’ll find out for the low price of only $50!

No matter how much you perform this special exercise or drink that special protein shake, you still don’t look like your favorite influencer. Then comes the realization that the only way for a mere mortal like you to become a demigod must be to take steroids. And so, many do. It’s a cruel trick indeed.

We need a serious adjustment in expectations of what can be achieved naturally, and how long it takes. Honesty is what’s needed.

Justified warnings about the darker side of seeking physical perfection should not be used, though, to downplay or even hide the fact that there really are problems with testosterone today. Grave problems.

The truth, as I discuss at length in my forthcoming book “The Last Men: Liberalism and the Death of Masculinity,” is that the Western world has seen a catastrophic decline in testosterone levels in recent decades, and it’s seriously affecting the health and happiness of young men. It’s also making it harder to reproduce. The broader reproductive-health decline, of which the testosterone decline is just one part, could make it impossible for mankind to reproduce by natural means within decades.

According to environmental and reproductive health epidemiologist Professor Shanna Swan, sperm counts are declining so precipitously that by 2045 the median sperm count for men could be zero. If that were to happen, half of all men would produce no sperm at all, and the other half would produce so few, they might as well produce none—they wouldn’t get a woman pregnant, no matter how hard they try.

Alarm about testosterone levels was raised by the Massachusetts Male Aging Study, a random population-cohort study conducted in the Boston area between the late 1980s and early 2000s. The study showed a roughly 1 percent year-on-year decrease in testosterone levels among men of all ages. Over a period of less than 20 years, testosterone decreased by a little more than 20 percent. Follow-up investigations in Finland, Israel, and the United States confirmed these results and deepened our alarm, although many still try to pretend none of this is happening.

In simple terms, testosterone is the master male hormone, and as such it’s largely responsible for making men men and not women (although women also require testosterone for good health, just as men require the “female” hormone estrogen). Its effects go far beyond simply increasing muscle mass. Testosterone governs mood, motivation, libido, immune function, and much, much more. Men who have less testosterone—and especially men with low testosterone—are likely to be weaker, less motivated, anxious, sluggish, disinterested in sex, and unhappy.

Understanding the crisis of masculinity, and its root in plummeting testosterone levels, is easiest when we look at what happens to men who have low testosterone. The forum website Reddit contains whole sub-forums dedicated to the negative effects of having low testosterone. They’re full of personal testimonies, often very moving, of the ruinous effects of having low testosterone as a man, and the miraculous transformations that take place when normal levels are restored.

Many end up taking testosterone therapy, but as I repeatedly counsel in my work, most men do not have congenital low testosterone—they don’t have a genetic or medical condition—and can improve their hormonal health simply by doing things like exercising, especially lifting weights, cleaning up their diets, getting sunlight and sleeping properly. Testosterone injections or gels aren’t usually needed.

We can also see the effects of testosterone decline on a population level. In Japan, millions of young men have become hikikomori—extreme social recluses—maybe as many as ten million, by some estimates. Hikikomori retreat to their bedrooms and consume a steady diet of junk food, pornography, anime cartoons, and video games. At least one study has shown, as we’d expect, that having low testosterone predisposes a young man to becoming a social recluse. There are millions more social recluses in other Asian societies such as South Korea.

America, too, has its hikikomori, though we don’t give them that name. It’s reckoned at least six million young American men have simply dropped out of society and the workforce, contenting themselves with an aimless existence.

There is no single cause of testosterone decline. Poor diets, sedentary lifestyles, lack of sleep, constant exposure to blue light from screens and even radiation from electronic devices are all to blame. We’ve also created a toxic environment in which it’s impossible to avoid exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals known as “endocrine disruptors.” These chemicals are literally everywhere. In the deodorant we spray under our arms, in the soap we wash our hands with; in our sofas, bedding, clothing and furnishings; on the electronic devices we use every day; in the food, the water—even the air.

Microplastics have been identified as a growing threat to human health. These tiny, often invisible, pieces of plastic carry toxic chemicals, including endocrine disruptors, deep into our bodies, where they can affect the function of every single organ, from the lungs and liver, to the eyes, brain, and also the reproductive organs. Scientists have found microplastics in the testes, the seminal fluid, even the “meat” of the penis, as well as the placenta, ovaries, and amniotic fluid in which babies gestate for nine months. Studies have also shown that microplastics can also absorb hormones in the blood, including testosterone, making them unavailable for use by the body.

The scale of the problem is unprecedented, and demands unprecedented action. In America, at least, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—my costar in the 2022 Tucker Carlson documentary “The End of Men”—is raising awareness and taking action; although, realistically, it will take decades to “Make America Healthy Again,” since it’s taken the better part of a century to make Americans this sick.

Warning young men about the dangers of “testosterone maxxing,” if it involves taking steroids and performance-enhancing drugs, is a good thing, but such warnings should not be used to disguise the real biological problem facing men today.

Testosterone levels are declining, and we should all be taking notice. Men’s health, happiness, and future—the future of civilization—depend on testosterone.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.