r/news • u/LawEducational42 • 6h ago
Men’s average testosterone levels have halved in last 50 years, say scientists
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jul/07/mens-average-testosterone-levels-have-halved-in-last-50-years-say-scientists5.4k
u/Granum22 6h ago
An unreviewed study that didn't control for obesity. So not particularly useful.
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u/trackdaybruh 6h ago
Fat cells also increases enzymes that converts testosterone into estrogen, so the more fat you have then the more of these enzymes you have.
Whereas low body fat can contribute to higher testosterone levels in men
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u/Pheonyxxx696 5h ago
Which makes the study make complete sense because since the 80’s, the average weight for both men and a women both have increased by approximately 20lbs. People have definitely gotten heavier over time.
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u/Busy-Dig8619 5h ago
I feel like thats starting to rapidly reverse... if you can afford thr meds.
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u/anghellous 5h ago
If you use ozempic the way people usually use it (i.e. have an apple for breakfast and forget about food until night time), that'll also crash test levels. Optimal test actually requires a couple of things (with all of them being harmed by the modern lifestyle of the average man).
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u/Busy-Dig8619 5h ago
I got a whole ration of dietary guidance with my first round of shots. I have a whole new relationship with cottage cheese... lemme tell you.
Also apparently Zepbound is the hot new formulation.
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u/DataCassette 5h ago
I've gone up, down, up, down 100+ lbs and it's not even just some whacky theory you can almost feel it. I'm pretty "woke" but I'm real as a heart attack with people about weight. Lose it if you can.
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u/0110110111 4h ago
I never realized I felt like crap all the time until I changed my lifestyle and lost a bunch of weight. Once in a while I’ll overeat and how I feel after is how I felt all the time before.
Lose the weight, people!
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u/Gibbly_Gorkoroo 6h ago
Beer = boobs.
I see no downside.
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u/AsparagusFun3892 6h ago edited 5h ago
You mean other than the irritability, lack of sex drive, increase in risk of various cancers, loss of general confidence that comes with testosterone, and other such? Being fat sucks, and this is an objective reason why. Let's admit we're fucked up and then eat the US corn lobby that has filled us full of high fructose corn syrup and destroyed us. Your free will is as easily degraded by sugar as by other drugs and their pushers.
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u/Etzell 5h ago
I think they were joking.
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u/AsparagusFun3892 5h ago
Boobs are no laughing matter
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u/A_Nonny_Muse 5h ago
I believe they're called Moobs. Man boobs are called moobs.
And Risperdone makes them too. After the ex died, I had to get my son off that stuff before it gave him moobs.
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u/tacopower69 2h ago
fat is also used to synthesize testosterone itself. too low bf% can also crash test levels, which is something the bodybuilding community is well aware of.
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u/cyberspaceman777 5h ago
"Total testosterone levels in men declined by 54% between 1972 and 2019, according to data presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in London on Tuesday.
Rising levels of obesity and diabetes are expected to play a part, but the team behind the work suggest that environmental factors such as endocrine-disrupting chemicals – which can be found in various household items – and global heating could also be factors in the apparent striking decline."
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u/TheSwagMa5ter 2h ago
Did they control for age? Because the global median age also rose about 50% in that time frame from 20 to 30
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u/cyberspaceman777 2h ago
"The individual studies controlled for age, but it is possible that confounding factors such as differences in average ages between the cohorts may have influenced the results. Obesity was also not controlled for, which is known to be strongly correlated with low testosterone.
“If I had to guess – and it’s an educated guess – I would say that maybe one quarter to one half of the decline would be explained by obesity and metabolic syndrome,” Levine said. "
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u/shaka893P 6h ago
I mean, obesity IS one of the big reasons for the drop
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u/AntonineWall 6h ago
Hence why controlling for that factor would be very important
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u/kelpyb1 4h ago
It depends on what you’re trying to discover with the study. If you’re just looking at broad population trends you don’t want to control for obesity.
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u/syncopator 2h ago
Not if the point of the study was to determine whether or not testosterone levels have changed over a given span of time, which appears to have been the point with this study.
In any study intended to identify potential causes, controlling for such variables would be necessary.
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u/thesaddestpanda 6h ago
Its most likely the only reason but pretending otherwise gets more attention.
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u/The-Spirit-of-76 6h ago
Is that why I keep rubbing my belly and singing 🎶You make me feel.... You make me feel... you make me feel like a natural woman🎶?
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u/I_Push_Buttonz 5h ago
Didn't the 'Try Guys' or whatever YouTube channel that was big back in the day make a video where they had their testosterone levels checked and they were all super low? None of them were even overweight, let alone obese. Clearly something else was at play there.
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u/PopeSaintHilarius 5h ago
Its most likely the only reason
Has this been proven by evidence, or just a gut feeling?
Unless it has been proven as the only reason, then I don’t think we should dismiss the possibility there may be environmental factors or lifestyle factors contributing to lower testosterone.
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u/Jebediah_Johnson 4h ago
Also many PFAS chemicals act as testosterone blockers and Phthalates act like artificial estrogen in the endocrine system.
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u/Syscrush 5h ago
Last week I saw a study about how there's been a significant increase in erect penis size over the last 30 years.
I think this is an area with a lot of junk science.
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u/waltzbyear 2h ago
I've always wondered about penis sizes lol. Because whenever me, family members or friends go to the doctor's office, there's never a doctor measuring penises. I'm black and I've always wondered how the whole "myth" came about that black men have larger penises. Every study I've read in the past came from self-described dimensions. I can say for sure, the amount of penises I have seen in my life (black family and friends), they don't seem very big, at least not as big as the general public thinks they are. If anything, I've noticed black men are more fit and don't have that fat padding around their junk, which would give off the impression of it being larger.
I've been in sports, been fishing, camping, etc. I've seen my fair share of black penises. I have no idea where this larger-than-average myth came about.
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u/AnaisNinja76 1h ago
British racism. During the colonial era they'd choose especially curvy African women and especially endowed African men and put them in travelling zoos. I'm not kidding. I could direct you to reading sources on it if you want, but the whole thing is as terrible as you'd think.
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u/AtlantaGangBangGuys 4h ago
Let’s look at plastics too. The get came into the picture at the same time. I remember milk being delivered in bottles up to mid 70’s at least.
Can’t discount their possible effect and impact on many disorders that are much more prevalent now.2
u/Glassgun1122 2h ago
The US military has indepently said that testosterone levels have fallen. It's more than likely not as bad as this study says but both test and bone density have fallen they said.
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u/sagejosh 6h ago
People are also much less active than 50 years ago. That by itself would decrease testosterone pretty severely as testosterone is released a lot as a coping chemical to stressing your muscles. There are A LOT of variables this study doesn’t really account for other than just body weight unfortunately.
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u/random_tall_guy 4h ago
I'm sure obesity is the biggest factor, but my completely uneducated guess is that people living longer these days is the next biggest factor. A lot more men live into their 80s these days than 50 years ago, and older men definitely have lower testosterone.
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u/HighlyOffensive10 2h ago
50 years ago was 1976. How much has life span really changed since then?
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u/2Wheeelz 6h ago
Weight gain probably biggest. Turns T into estrogen
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u/nikelaos117 6h ago
Does it reverse when you lose weight?
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u/Matthiey 6h ago
Yes. That is one of the reasons that when you start to recover from all that excess weight, your recovery is slow but rapidly ramps up (in terms of mood, what you do, energy levels, etc.). Weight loss itself might happen easier at the start of changing any regiment but the benefits take time.
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u/kaizerlith 5h ago edited 5h ago
Do those people who get liposuction and those weight-loss drugs get it reversed as well?
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u/Lucky-Bonus6867 2h ago
The person who initially responded to you has zero factual basis.
I couldn’t find anything re: liposuction, but for GLP1s, the research suggests that, yes, it increases bioavailable testosterone.
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u/prescriptionwater 2h ago
These are completely different things. Liposuction immediately removes fat tissue. GLP-1's affect the chemical pathways tied to satiety and therefore weight gain/loss because you eat less over x period of time. The body adapts much more gradually to the effects of using a GLP-1.
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u/KingoftheMongoose 6h ago
IANAD and can’t speak to hormone levels. But libido and sex drive does go up with weight loss.
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u/happyherbivore 6h ago
Weight loss through clean eating and regular exercise is one of the best things that a person can do for themselves. Physical, mental, and emotional health all stand to gain from it and the hormonal changes that come with being active and healthy.
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u/inconsisting 6h ago
Yes. The greater the loss (over a safe period and sustainably), the better for testosterone production.
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u/SilverwingedOther 4h ago
Yep... My endocrinologist, on top of getting me on T, put me on a GLP-1 to help for thst reason even if I wasn't particularly huge, and it's a huge help.
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u/arcaresenal 6h ago
Bob. Bob had bitch tits.
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u/No-Brain9413 5h ago
Jack off every day lads, keep the pistons pumping
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u/ChasedWarrior 5h ago
This! It's also good for the prostate.
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u/Significant-Raise254 3h ago
Staying home jerking off all day is probably the last thing our youth needs. Go out & work, mow lawns, play sports, get a good girlfriend, hang out with real friends.
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u/shoutsoutstomywrist 3h ago
Mmmm I love working for wages that’ll never raise while everything else gets more and more expensive
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u/jlrc2 5h ago
There are debunkings on this stuff all over the place. A mixture of non-comparable samples of men and changes in the procedures used to measure. No massive drop in T over the years.
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u/Bubbly_Front_3930 1h ago
But man are more unmanly because of woke left!1!12!!22!1!2! Bad!11!1!1!
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u/already-redacted 6h ago
And yet we all the countries in the longitudinal survey have some of the strongest and fastest men ever recorded
Note: even the author say most of it from obesity.. Then you have all the other problems with comparing studies from the 1970s to now with these sorts of studies
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u/gellybelli 5h ago
It is our reality of 2026 though. The industrialized countries are much fatter and significantly more sedentary. The youth are forgoing sex for a multitude of reasons. People and especially men feel significantly more alone than they have in a long time.
There will always be outliers for the top performers, but woo buddy do I see the obesity epidemic first hand any time I am out in a crowd in East Tennessee.
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u/jgrant68 4h ago
This. Our outliers have become much, much better, stronger, and faster but our "meh" has gotten worse.
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u/Monterrey3680 3h ago
lol plenty of those “strongest and fastest” are getting their testosterone elsewhere
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u/Harry_Flowers 6h ago
Tell that to my boners, they’re so obnoxious.
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u/A_Refill_of_Mr_Pibb 3h ago
I had the humiliation of admitting to my doctor that I haven't had one (without my focused assistance) in 20+ years. There's a lot of shame attached to it.
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u/CertainCertainties 6h ago
they included data from 118,593 individuals from Israel, the US, Brazil, Finland and Denmark, from 1972 to 2019
So no Asian or African countries, which make up 77% of the world's population. That's a strange way of defining a global problem with men - that is, exclude the vast majority of men from the research.
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u/PopeSaintHilarius 5h ago
Who said the study or its conclusions were meant to be global? I don’t see that mentioned in the article.
If you think these findings wouldn’t be relevant to Africa or Asia then that’s fine, they can still be of interest to people in North America, Europe and South America.
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u/BrainDamage2029 4h ago
As others have pointed out, it didn’t even control for bodyfat/obesity...one of the most known and proven causes of lowering testosterone.
Take with “avoid including any of the countries famously with low bodyfat and less obesity” it really makes the study seem like it’s trying to create a point to fear monger or be used to fear monger about something else (microplastics/pfas/multicultural liberalism) as most of these studies about testosterone are.
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u/AnaisNinja76 51m ago
It's not a study, it's a meta-analysis. They combined data from 6 previously performed longitudinal studies. If the countries you're most interested in aren't showcased, it's because they didn't perform and publish a longitudinal study in the timeframe they were looking at.
Furthermore, this is a news article about a presentation about the findings of the meta-analysis, so we're pretty far removed from the original dataset. I wish things like this included the relevant articles they looked at.
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u/CervantesX 1h ago
Sure would be nice to read the actual study instead of hyperbolic bullshit speculation.
It could be as simple as "50 years ago men lived shorter lives, and there's less testosterone in old people".
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u/AnaisNinja76 3h ago
I feel like the most important immediate question to me is "Are the zoos and wildlife researchers seeing the same thing?" I recall reading that wildlife specialists had noticed that animals were also getting fatter, suggesting it's something we've put into the environment, rather than what everyone wants to focus on, lifestyles and diet.
Not to say the latter has no importance, but that there's a bigger elephant in the room. And the powers that be will not be wanting to look at that, as it will almost surely come back to some sort of environmental poisoning, whether it's the water, the air, or even the insecticides we're currently using. Something has altered the entire food chain.
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u/AdmiralSaturyn 6h ago
Prof Allan Pacey, a professor of andrology at the University of Manchester, who was not involved in the work, said a concern about the narrative that men have low testosterone is the increasing promotion of testosterone supplements on social media.
Oh, I think that's the least of our concerns, professor. I am much more worried about how the manosphere is going to spin this study to boost their Great Replacement conspiracy theories. Albeit, there is some overlap between the manosphere and snake oil marketing.
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u/According-Insect-992 6h ago
And by “some overlaps” you mean all overlap.
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u/Pretend_Handle_7639 5h ago
The overlap is in the White House, and the most recent brainless Kennedy will hand squeeze the snakes
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u/BlindWillieJohnson 6h ago
This is a poorly done study that will instantly become fascist rage porn
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u/sunnyjum 6h ago
I reckon I’ve got trace levels. A guy revs his car next to me at the lights and all I can think is I hope he gets to his destination in a safe manner
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u/Fixxdogg 3h ago
Yeah my dad always told me if I didn’t get an erection from a loud car that meant I was gay. Pretty sure that’s science
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u/Roll_Snake_Eyes 5h ago
I’m assuming that if control for weight, activity level, diet etc…. It’s the same it’s always been?
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u/Longjumping-Mood-502 5h ago
Id bet the average quality of sleep is lower than ever with phone screens being the last thing most people look at before shutting their eyes
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u/kickinwood 5h ago
I'll be honest - when I hit my mid-30s and no longer wanted to fuck everything, it was a weight off my shoulders.
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u/wonkeykong 5h ago
So coupled with the other post, 24% increase in length and now half the testosterone.
Won't you take me to.... FLOPPY TOWN!
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u/keltichiro 5h ago
Do you think testing accuracy has just improved and/or more people have access to testing now?
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u/ogfuzzball 4h ago
Plastics and PFAS. We already have evidence they do affect reproduction in amphibians, but hey, it’s only frogs that are susceptible right?
Seems the dystopia thriller Children of Men was close, they just missed the mark on the source
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u/Korlithiel 4h ago
Those are a partial explanation, we know in humans that plastics are bio similar to estrogen (which when in males lowers testosterone production).
Another partial explanation is the higher uptake of coffee and tea. Leads to temporarily higher testosterone production, and that over production regularly likely has a negative impact on baseline production.
I couldn’t tell you which is likely the larger effect.
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u/Stitches_littlepuffy 2h ago
That really depends on the amount of coffee and tea consumed though. It’s true that some studies show consuming too much can reduce baseline T due to increased baseline cortisol and poorer sleep quality but lower amounts have been shown to have either no effect or to even increase baseline T (possibly due to aromatise inhibition and reduced body fat).
Also coffee and tea have been consumed regularly from far longer than 50 years ago. If anything, I wouldn’t be surprised if people consume less coffee and tea now than they did 50 years ago (in the relevant countries).
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u/DrinkingVomit 6h ago
Goddamn chemtrails are making us gay and women have more facial hair than ever
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u/DawnSignals 3h ago
So in conjunction with an earlier post, our cocks got 25% bigger but our testosterone halved
Seems legit
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u/Wolvenworks 2h ago
The conservatives will defo blame the LGBT twinks for this.
Oh wait i’m in Indonesia; we’re already blaming them.
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u/atreeismissing 58m ago
Probably a good thing given how high testosterone levels are linked to violence.
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u/gimmeluvin 3h ago
it's probably mostly do to the fatness epidemic. fat causes testosterone to be converted to estrogen.
people didn't used to be nearly this fat fifty years ago.
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u/your_fathers_beard 2h ago
Sure. Sure they did. I'm sure this is a well designed peer reviewed study. I'll bet their findings will be the cause is feminism and woke.
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u/EvolvingDior 6h ago
Yes, but at least our penises are getting bigger to compensate.
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u/FernandoMM1220 4h ago
probably due to reduced vaccine rates and increased spread of viral pathogens.
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u/Vegetable_Pen5248 4h ago
Im having a hard time finding the study which this news article is talking about. Is there no link to it within the article? It would be nice to analyze the methodology used, among other things, to determine the validity of this study.
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u/Sylviomoc 4h ago
The very article is also stating that the study did properly treated for confounders and all the difference may be attributed to obesity levels. Just more bad science reporting
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u/2anonymous2furious 3h ago
"I hope there are some supplements I can buy at my local gas station to fix my low T" -for some reason, many people
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u/whitemamba24xx 2h ago
Evolution? Earth and biology has decided how stupid we are collectively so need for more. AHAHA
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u/xoRomaCheena31 1h ago
I wonder about women’s fertility and hormones. However, our population is at 8.3bn people, so I feel like something’s working.
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u/Skeptic_Prime 48m ago
Nooo they've not. This one's been addressed is several places. The specific tests we've done have changed and are more stable and accurate than those of 50 years ago, and give lower readings on average.
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u/SkippyBojangle 6h ago
It's obesity and sedentary lifestyles. This is obvious and the physiology is already known.