Does stress lower testosterone? here is why [2023 Ultimate Guide]

Does stress lower testosterone?

I know how it feels when you are stressed and things don’t go the right way, and you are feeling low because of that. You might be wondering does stress lower testosterone?

Well, for many decades,

Especially Men’s testosterone levels have declined. Plastics and other crap in the environment are to blame. Plus, poor diet and lack of physical activity.

I think we should be seriously discussing men’s testosterone levels plummeting.

I know people like to joke about this sort of thing. Still, when millions of men suffer from anxiety, depression, fatigue, low libido, and other poor quality of life issues due to low testosterone,

And that makes this question “Does stress lower testosterone” pop into your head

we are in the midst of a different kind of pandemic that affects everyone adversely.

Low birth rates, unhappy relationships, crimes, suicides, etc., all affect society adversely.

And if you want a solution to “this” Does stress lower testosterone“, jump into this article, and don’t worry brahh! I got you 🤝,

I believe in you, and you are strong, and you will get through it, and you will make it 👊

This is a detailed article about does stress lower testosterone,

So first,

We will know some basics about testosterone.

If you want, then you can skip this part of the article and jump onto the question which you want the answer by clicking the question in the table of contents given below

What is testosterone? does stress lower testosterone?

Hormones are substances made in one part of the body and then transported in the bloodstream to affect another part of the body.

In men,

The important hormones are androgen, and the most important of these is testosterone almost all testosterone is made within the testes

And that’s under the control of the pituitary gland, which is a small gland at the bottom of the brain testosterone is the hormone that makes men it’s the hormone that’s important to boys as they go through puberty and it’s responsible for the changes

They are associated with puberty growth, facial hair, deepening of the voice, maturation of the penis and the testes.

In adulthood testosterone is important for general health and well-being in men in terms of their energy levels concentration mood

It’s also important in their sexual function, in particular, their sex drive we know it also helps promote muscle mass and strength and prevents men from developing osteoporosis you

Now the main question is, does stress lower testosterone? let’s find out

The major causes that lower testosterone in the first place and that’s stress, worry, and anxiety.

As a reminder,

Optimal testosterone levels have both physical, psychological, and emotional benefits.

One of the best antidepressants in the world is having higher testosterone levels, and there’s a lot of new evidence showing how testosterone and anxiety interact with each other.

Specifically, they work in opposing ways; interestingly enough, this also affects womens.

Now to simplify everything,

Get right to the point when you have anxiety, your panic attacks are just worrying about a lot of negative changes in your body,

Many having to do with your hormones, various chemicals, and just neurotransmitters like when your stress hormone cortisol goes up your testosterone levels drunk.

And this is because nature thinks you must be dealing with just a lot of problems, and this isn’t the time to procreate and have babies, so it shuts down your testosterone levels.

Your testosterone drops, and your estrogen ratio becomes more dominant; thus, estrogen starts taking over.

This further causes you more anxiety and moodiness and also lowers testosterone.

Now with anxiety and stress, your neurotransmitter dopamine drops it lowers, now which causes a drop in your libido and will also cause an increase in your female hormone prolactin,

Which further drops your testosterone levels, also anxiety and stress cause more adrenal production that lowers another neurotransmitter called serotonin.

Which causes depression and panic attacks, which makes this entire process much worse.

Finally,

Stress and anxiety cause sleep problems, and we all know how important sleep is for testosterone production, growth hormone release, and overall health.

All of these negative changes accelerate Aging,

So what’s the point?

First, you need to manage your state of mind better, your thoughts, and your body. Now you can’t always manage or eliminate stress. Right, that’s just crazy and almost impossible.

However,

You can and must manage how you react to stressful situations. Your mind is extremely powerful and what you focus on expands what you think about more you’ll feel more.

Does stress lower testosterone: Some interesting thing

One of the biggest reasons people have chronic stress, worry, and anxiety is they mistakenly spend the majority of their time focusing on the problem that’s a stressful situation.

What you focus on expands against gets bigger.

So if you’re spending the time always focusing on problems and having this negative dialogue in your head,

Your body’s constantly going to feel stressed and anxious, and all those negative changes in your hormones are happening all day long.

It’s that you need to spend your time on the solution now. I’m not saying pretend nothing bad has happened, right don’t dwell on it it’s not going to fix anything, right most of you will make problems worse than they are.

I’m telling you to see it as it is a temporary setback that is a part of life now.

What’s interesting is that childrens, they freak out over the smallest things the toy breaks, and they think it’s the end of the world,

Right?

They don’t know any better they don’t know that they can fix the toy or get a new one. However, what’s important is that children let things go quickly.

Alright,

They get over while US adults don’t, so as an adult, you have no reason to freak out when somebody bad happens because you know that this too shall pass, and you’ve dealt with problems in the past.

He always got through it right; however, like a child, you need to learn to let it go and move onward and upward.

Again it’s all a state of mind; then do something physical because motion creates emotion, which will improve your hormones.

Get out,

Run or exercise or do a walk or something. Finally, you can take special herbs, vitamins, and minerals during stress and anxiety, which almost immediately rebalance your hormones to optimal levels.

Does stress lower testosterone: How much does stress affect testosterone levels?

As we are talking about how stress affects testosterone, I first want you to make sure that you really have some severe anxiety,

And how do you know that?

Well, I have listed some of the main symptoms of stress, and if you have any 10+ symptoms.

Then you can consider that you are really facing stress and anxiety. But know everyone experience stress differently so you may face some different stress disorder.

Let’s have a look at the given list below:

Symptoms of Stress:

• Avoiding others
• Low self-esteem
• Chest pains
• Rapid heartbeat
• Desire to abuse substances
• Feeling you’re losing control
• Headache
• Always upset stomach
• Dry mouth
• Trouble focusing
• Procrastination
• Forgetfulness
• Constant worrying
• Twitching and fidgeting
• Frequent sickness
• Are easily agitated
• Difficulty relaxing
• Racing thoughts
• Pessimism
• Grinding teeth
• Poor judgment
• Tense muscles
• Low appetite
• Low energy
• Low sex drive
• Shakiness
• Insomnia

Now you know whether you are facing stress or not, so let’s see how much stress affects your testosterone levels, these two things, stress, and low testosterone, look like two different issues.

But Cortisol named hormone, connects them with each other

You can notice this with symptoms like low sex drive, people facing stress often experience high cortisol levels, which leads to low testosterone levels.

Health problems like

Does stress lower testosterone: Hair loss

Testosterone is one of the main causes of hair growth and facial hair

Does stress lower testosterone: Low sex drive

Men experience low sex drive when their testosterone levels decrease.

Does stress lower testosterone: Erectile Dysfunction

Low testosterone makes it hard to hold an erection

Does stress lower testosterone: Reduce bone mass

Low testosterone results in weaker bones and making more prone to bone-related injuries

Does stress lower testosterone: Smaller Testicles

Due to low testosterone, the testicles and scrotum can feel softer and resulting in small testicles

Does stress lower testosterone: Reduced semen production

we all know that testosterone is responsible for semen production, so if your testosterone levels are down, then a man can’t make enough semen to impregnate a woman

Does stress lower testosterone: And many more like:

• Insomnia
• Reduced muscle mass
• Hot flashes
• Mood swings
• Increase in body fat

Does stress lower testosterone: What can cause extremely low testosterone?

• Over usage of alcohol and drugs
• Testicular injury or infection
• Radiation cancer treatments
• Hormone disorders
• Genetic conditions

These are some of the reasons which can cause extremely low testosterone levels

Does sadness decrease testosterone? Does stress lower testosterone?

It depends,

Like if you are sad just for a moment, then it won’t affect your testosterone, but if you are going through a breakup which can be a big reason for long time sadness,

And if it also becomes the reason for your depression then you should be worried about it.

Because sadness can lead you to depression,

And depression can lead you to high stress, and high stress will have an eventual effect on your testosterone level, or we can say, decrease your testosterone level

So yes, sadness can lead to decrease testosterone.

Does low testosterone change your personality?

Low testosterone leads to mood swings, frequent sickness, trouble focusing, feeling like you are losing control,

And avoiding others which indirectly affects your personality, so yes, low testosterone can change your personality

Does stress lower testosterone: How do you know if your testosterone level is high

Here are some signs that your testosterone levels are high:

1. Exessive body hair

if you have high testosterone then you might have excessive hairs on your legs, chest, back, head, and beard the more testosterone your body produces the more think and excessive hair your body will produce

2. Acne growth

If you’re somebody who regularly gets breakouts or blemishes, chances are your testosterone level is higher testosterone is a hormone; it’s an androgen.

Androgens tend to overstimulate oil glands, so the more oil you’re producing, the more likely that you are going to get breakouts blemishes

3. Mood swings

People who have higher testosterone commonly face mood swings. Because the hormone is known to rise aggression and anger

4. Blood pressure irregularities

A higher level of testosterone can result in a spike in blood pressure or low blood pressure

5. Sexual health

You can have trouble in getting or keeping an erection, reduced desire to have sex, and lower sperm count than usual

6. More muscle

Testosterone is responsible for increasing lean muscle

Does stress lower testosterone: What is a healthy testosterone level?

The healthy testosterone level for adults ranges somewhere around 270-1070 nanograms per deciliter. The most optimal and healthy range is between 400-600 nanograms per deciliter.

Your testosterone count can go up and down throughout the day based on many factors; one such example is the correlation between low testosterone and inadequate sleep.

Does stress lower testosterone: Does exercise increase testosterone?

Exercise does increase testosterone levels, but not all exercise will affect your testosterone levels.

Does stress lower testosterone: What foods give you testosterone?

Now first you need to know that if you constantly overeat or change your nutritional plan, it can and probably will disrupt your testosterone levels, so you need to maintain an excellent, consistent nutritional program of healthy protein, fat, and carbs.

1. Fish

Let’s start with the first food type that will increase your testosterone, fish like tuna sardines and salmon grass.

Medical University in Austria found that vitamin D boosts testosterone by up to 92%, and tuna has a lot of it, so do sardines, and salmon now don’t go overboard, but eating fish twice a week will be good enough.

2. Oysters

Now zinc is very very important for men because it helps with sperm health, and oysters have more zinc than any other food out there.

If you don’t have enough zinc in your body, you might experience impotence or struggle a little, you know what I mean, but you can also get zinc from nuts, beans, poultry, red meat, and other shellfish.

3. Pomegranates

There have been many studies on pomegranates to show what a fantastic fruit this really is. It increases not only your testosterone but also your mood and blood pressure,

So it’s perfect for your heart and some of you that experience a lot of stress.

4. Eggs

Eggs,

Now there’s a lot of you guys that like to work out and throw away the egg yolk, but that’s a huge mistake because the egg yolks there are the guys that increase your testosterone levels.

They are packed with vitamin D and have more nutrients than the egg white now, and you might say, ” Well, yeah, ” but if I eat egg yolks, it will increase my cholesterol.

Well,

Newer studies show us just how vital the egg yolk is. According to a study from a University in Connecticut, you can eat 3 eggs without it affecting your cholesterol.

5. Beef

Beef, now I know this is a trigger for many people who don’t like to eat beef but let me give you the facts that beef boost testosterone.

The liver,

For example, is a significant source of vitamin D, and ground meat also increases your zinc, and I’ve already explained how essential zinc is, so let’s move on next.

6. Honey

Honey, yes, believe it or not, honey has a mineral called boron that increases your testosterone.

It also has nitric oxide, which opens up blood vessels, so please, instead of using unhealthy sugar, use honey.

Conclusion

Now as a conclusion to your question “Does stress lower testosterone“

So, here is the thing,

Stress can have an impact on testosterone levels in men. Chronic stress, in particular, has been shown to lead to a decrease in testosterone production.

This is because stress activates the release of the hormone cortisol, which can inhibit the production of testosterone.

In addition,

Stress can also lead to unhealthy behaviours like overeating and insufficient physical activity, which can also contribute to lower testosterone levels.

While it is not always possible to completely eliminate stress, finding healthy ways to manage stress can help maintain normal testosterone levels.

This can include practices like exercise, mindfulness, and time management.

Hope you got every possible info on Does stress lower testosterone?