In my daily, awesome perusal of the internet, I came across this study in the Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism (a very reputable journal, as far as I can tell from the journals it is cross-referenced with) concerning a Population-Level Decline in Serum Testosterone Levels of American Men. It was the largest, most comprehensive study of it’s kind measuring testosterone levels of men from different generations as they aged over a 17 year period (1987-2004). The results show a population-level decrease in testosterone (that means, for example, men who were born between 1916-1919 were measured to have lower testosterone than men born between 1940-1945 when aged the same number of years, look at this graph) that is consistent with “population-level decline in sperm counts and increasing incidence rates of certain reproductive disorders in men, especially in some Northern European countries.” Maybe Paula Cole was onto something.
The study does show what had already been known: that testosterone decreases linearly with age. However, it is surprising that we can see such a noticeable decrease in testosterone levels for no apparent genetic reason (further proof that relying on hundreds of thousands of years of evolution for mating dynamics is a huge mistake, stop talking about cavemen please, cavemen didn’t have mixed race girls).
Also, while this study was only done in the U.S., it’s large sample size (N=1709) and close matching with trends seen in other parts of the world (at least in developed nations) suggest that something is at work here. Feminism? Corporate culture? McDonalds? Acceptance of homosexuality? Yellow #5?!?!?
If you’re a good scientist, you may wonder why this study was done on older men. It’s because they were trying to measure how testosterone levels decrease with age. They just happened to stumble into this surprising result of decrease in testosterone over generations.
It’s very interesting to me how it is natural to assume that people aged faster back in the day, after all, people are living longer now than they ever have. However, older men maintained (in this study) higher testosterone levels than the next generation at the same age. Your dad had the right to call you ‘son’, son.
The good news is that girls are hotter than they’ve ever been, and the testosterone is being sucked out of society. Sounds like shooting fish in a barrel to me.
I am a scientist, but this is not my field. If you’re interested in a real editorial by someone who knows what they’re talking about, read this.
DC Hero To The Rescue 