The sex hormone testosterone plays important roles in health and disease. We talked to experts and studied recent research findings to dispel some common misconceptions about the hormone that is vital in reproductive activity.
It is believed that testosterone prevents the premature “death” of the egg at an early stage of development. That’s because testosterone in the ovaries may help make follicles more sensitive to the hormone FSH – follicle-stimulating hormone – that helps to mature ovulated eggs. Clever huh?
Only men make testosterone
No. Both men and women do.
Testosterone is an androgen hormone, which means it stimulates the development of male characteristics. Women with small breasts and narrow hips are often called “androgenous”.
The hormone is made in the testes of men and the ovaries of women, and in the adrenal glands, located above the kidneys, in small quantities in both men and women. Normal levels for women are 5 to 7 per cent of those for men.
Total testosterone levels vary throughout the day. They are highest in the morning and lower towards the end of the day. In healthy adult men, levels would be around 240 to 950 nanograms per decilitre, and 8 to 60 ng/dl in women.
Women whose levels are too high may develop facial hair, some balding and acne.
Taking testosterone supplements makes men more virile
No. It may make their muscles pop, but it also makes their testes shrivel – called “testicular atrophy” – which makes them less fertile.
“Taking testosterone is almost male contraception,” says Dr Brian Levine, a director at CCRM New York Fertility Clinic.
High doses of testosterone decrease a man’s sperm count significantly, he explains. This is because the more the brain senses testosterone in the blood, the less it signals for the testes to produce more on their own.
Testosterone promotes fertility in women
Yes – oddly, and in a roundabout way, because it affects egg development, according to
by the University of Rochester Medical Centre in New York.
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Testosterone develops muscle mass in wo
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