The chemical and social castration of the modern male

If you take a few minutes out to use the Google machine to search around, it won't take you long to find arguments and discussions about the current emasculation problem with males in today's society.

Before you...the teal driving minivan, hipster loving, Notebook watching asshole decides to stop reading, this isn't "that" kind of article.

Well, not wholly.  Because the fact is, your predicament may not be entirely your fault.  It may not be entirely your fault that you are emasculated or act like a basic bitch.  

Personally, I think it's hard to deny that there is a decline in masculinity in today's male.  I mean, physiologically speaking, it's not even an argument.  Men today have lower testosterone on average, regardless of age, than they did 20 years.  By a pretty significant margin.  

Two studies done both showed that men these days have significantly less testosterone now.

One study was done in the US, and the other on Danish men.  In both cases it was found that the average male had about 22% less testosterone now than men did, at that SAME AGE back in the 80's.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17895324

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11836290

Even further....

http://www.usdoctor.com/testone.htm

The normal range of testosterone is reported as 350- 1200ng/dl. Studies in the 1940's showed the average testosterone level to be at 700 ng/dl, 300 ng/dl higher than for men today. In the past, a drop in testosterone levels to 250 ng/dl was rarely reported before men were 80 years of age. Yet today, it is not an uncommon value for middle aged men!

Testosterone levels are highest in the early twenties. The decrease in serum levels is now occurring at an even earlier age. Up to 50% of all men at 40 now have testosterone levels below what was considered the normal range of 450 ng/dl.

What is alarming from some of the studies, if you read more in depth, is that there doesn't appear to be a lifestyle factor involved.  The rate of obesity is a bit higher now at most ages than was in the 80's but the percentage of things like smokers, etc isn't overly disproportionate.

So just to be clear here, in case you didn't know, testosterone is the hormone secreted by the male testes, and in women, by the ovaries but to far lesser extent.  It is the primary male sex hormone.

Let that sink in for a bit.  That last sentence.

Testosterone is the primary male sex hormone.  The more testosterone you have, the more masculine you are.  The less you have, the less masculine you behave/act/are.  Essentially.

This isn't a social ideology this is fucking biology.  You know, science?

So it should be clear that males with higher levels of testosterone would or should have different behavior characteristics, and physical characteristics of males with low testosterone.

Again, this is science, so let's approach this from an area that cannot be argued.

Traits of males with higher testosterone levels:

Tend to be bigger risk takers
More muscle mass with leaner physiques
Larger foreheads
More defined and square jaw
Larger noses
More like to engage in competition
Higher sex drive and more sexually adventurous
Deeper voice
Possibly receding hairline
Higher degree of bodyhair

Looks manly

Of course, not all of these things mean you have high test levels.  It could just mean you look like a troglodyte and have low morals.  But still, they tend to be markers for men with higher test levels.  Oh and apparently women are attracted to troglodyte looking males more often as well.


Traits of males with lower testosterone levels:

No interest or low interest in banging it out
Lower degree of lean muscle mass
Fatigue
Depression
Poor body composition (man tits, skinny fat, stick arms)
Erectile dysfunction
More feminine and rounder, "softer" face
Less likely to engage in conflict, more passive nature
More like to get prostate cancer and die while not wanting to have sex and do awesome shit while looking chubby, unathletic, and sexually unappealing.

Not so much

So let's face it, if your test levels are low, you are going to both look different and act different in comparison to a guy with high test levels.

I don't think it helps that men these days already struggle to maintain healthy levels of testosterone and are then told to embrace their feminine qualities and ideals.  Men embracing feminism/femininity is like Christians embracing Satanism.  It makes no sense at all.  If you're a male, embrace your masculinity.  That is, unless you have low test and don't feel very masculine.  Then yes, of course embrace feminism so those of us with high testosterone levels can laugh and make fun of you.  It's quality entertainment for us.

I've caught shit about writing about masculinity before but honestly, I really don't care.  There IS a problem in regards to men being less masculine.  I mean, it wasn't me wearing some tin foil hat, studies have proven men are less masculine now (have less testosterone) than they were 20, 30, 40+ years ago.

Not only that, traits associated with masculinity are now seen as evil, outdated, horrible, horrific, unwanted, and neanderthalesque. That is unless a woman embraces them.  Then she's empowered, self assured, confident, and strong minded.

Men who have those traits are seen as bullies or self centered assholes.

But before I get off on a social tangent about all of this (and I will if I don't stop here), the most discerning aspect about looking through all of this is that there doesn't seem to be any single conclusion as to why men have less testosterone now.  There's quite a bit of conjecture, but nothing concrete as to why it is happening.

I don't think it's just a social bombardment of accepting feminine traits by males.  I mean, you can't fight biology.  A male with high test levels isn't likely to be very open to accepting feminine traits and qualities.  It will go against what his biological wiring is telling him.

So the focus should be on what is causing test levels to drop in the modern male.

Some of the things I found.......

Water:

Estrogen and estrogen-like compounds enter water rivers, steams and reservoirs from many sources and remain there even after passing through water treatment plants. About 80% of 139 U.S. rivers are contaminated with trace estrogen compounds. Naturally occurring estrogen compounds come from livestock urine and feces, and from human excretions which also contain contraceptives and hormone replacement medications.

Yuck. 

Even bottled water is commonly found to contain estrogenic compounds because the plastic bottles we drink from are made with polyethylene terephthalate.  

From a study I found.....

Using an optimized sample preparation strategy, we furthermore present data on the estrogenic activity of bottled water from France, Germany, and Italy: eleven of the 18 analyzed water samples (61.1%) induced a significant estrogenic response

The type of plastic bottle didn't matter.  It's about the process used in plants to make these bottles, and then these compounds leaking into the water as they sit on the shelves or are waiting to be distributed.
So what is the solution here?

Getting a water filtration system for your home.  Stop drinking tap water and bottled water.

Soy: 

If you actually take some time to read labels it shouldn't take you long to figure out that soy is in almost everything.  Soy lecithin especially.

The effects of soy raising estrogen levels are thoroughly documented.

I don't even know where to start in regards to linking all the studies shown that soy is one of the most fucked up things you can ingest.

The problem is, with most studies, there's always a study that tries to contradict the other study.  But there's just too much evidence that shows that soy does in fact raise estrogen levels.  Even if a study says it's "minor", I don't want it.  I don't.  And if you're not taking artificial testosterone or are on HRT, then you should be avoiding it like the fucking plague.

Beer:

I was so happy when I started researching this and kept finding that beer raises estrogen levels.  You can't imagine how happy that made me because I hate beer, and think it's the alcoholic choice for every average "bro".  Not only that, I think it tastes like rocky mountain panther piss.

The choice drink for average bros and women

Beer is made from hops.  In fact, they brag about this all the fucking time on beer commercials.

"Made from the finest hops."

Hops is loaded down with plant estrogens called phytoestrogens.  And it's really packing a punch with the amount of estradiol in it.

Estradiol increases sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG).

SHBG is the hormone that binds to your testosterone, deactivating it and making it useless for building muscle and burning fat.   In essence, SHGB inhibits the functions that testosterone provides for the body.

So if you're a man and want some nice man tits, a big gut, low test levels, want to raise estrogen levels and be more feminine, then by all means drink lots of beer.  

Stress:

Cortisol and testosterone are generally in a battle.  When cortisol gets raised, then testosterone gets lowered, and vice versa.

Stress raises cortisol.  All forms of stress actually.  And I don't think I have to put on my Captain Obvious costume to drop the knowledge bomb of "we live in a rat race, highly stressful society now."

I worked in IT as a computer engineer for 15 years and for the most part, hated all 15 years of it.  Mostly because as a production support guy, I was on call 24/7, had to meet constant deadlines, had asshole clients, asshole bosses, yearly reviews, daily reviews, monthly reviews, new solutions to implement, blah blah blah.  

Yes, it was stressful.  

I worked for a medical software company for two years and it was the worst two years of my 15 years in IT.  There wasn't a week that went by that I didn't work 50 hours that week, and my bosses were idiots and completely incompetent and made work infinitely harder than it needed to be most of the time.  Even worse, they really had no idea what I did and were promoted through the ranks based on their "management ability" which really is just code for "asshole achievement unlocked."  

People there were fired on the regular for things that weren't even their fault.  Eventually, it happened to me as well.  This was managements solution every time we had systems go down and weren't back up at an "acceptable time" by clients.  

Well, computers aren't people.  And sometimes there are bugs, and glitches, and bad code that cause the system to go down, and stay down until a patch or software update can be implemented.  And it can often take a while to diagnose these issues and find out what the real issue is.  

I worked with a lot of smart people and I was really good at my job but long downtimes couldn't always be avoided.  This didn't matter.  Someone was going to go on the chopping block because then the manager could always go back to the client and say "we're sorry for your inconvenience.  But that person has been let go of since then."  

This was their way of, instead of educating the client, saving face by shifting the blame to someone.

I'm getting way off track here, but the point is, if you work in an environment where you are in constant fear of losing your job every single day is going to put your stress meter in the red.  And the fact is, there are lots of people in that position.

Then they leave their job and often go home to a significant other that they are unhappy with, or is unhappy with them.  And they argue and fight, and the stress continues.  

Day in and day out, this is life for a lot of men.  And over time, their cortisol levels remain too high, and their test levels take a dive.  

Marriage:

Unfortunately it's also been proven that getting married and having kids lowers a man's test levels.

Just holding a baby can make a man's test levels drop.  I'm not trolling.

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/2002/09.19/01-testosterone.html

A man's testosterone levels drop significantly when he holds an infant. Even holding a baby doll can decrease levels of the male virility hormone.

As the study shows, this should make sense to you.  Lower test levels give a higher likely hood of a man staying home and helping to tend to the kids.  He's less likely to wander if he has lower test levels which as noted, increase sex drive, risk taking, and many other forms of debauchery.  

The study also noted that the guys that were less likely to go out on a "dudes night" or spend the weekend with friends golfing or hanging out with the boys, and would rather spend more time with the spouse, constantly had lower testosterone levels.

As to be expected, when men get divorced their test levels rocket back up.  I mean, everyone knows that dude or chick that gets divorced, gets back in shape, acts totally different in their new "single life" than they did when married.  It's just biology.  They need to find a new mate so the body "turns itself back on again" in order to help in that process.

Women literally suck the man right out of us.  I'm not going to win any points with that, but again, it's hard to argue with science.  I'm not making shit up here.  

This is also why so many of us know "that guy" that talks about how he loves to spend all his free time with his woman, and won't ever make time for friends anymore.  Once a man's test levels lower, she starts to easily dominate him.  Again, I think most guys either know or knew some friend like this.  If you don't, then you're that guy.  

Now take a married guy with a super stressful job, add in the water they are drinking, and drinking beer every weekend, and that get together where they eat shit loaded down with soy, and what the hell do you think his estrogen levels and testosterone levels are going to look like?

And that's the key here.  I don't think it's any one particular thing.  I think it's myriad of factors that contribute to the steady decline of testosterone in men.  

Conclusion:

There's probably a lot in here that will rub people the wrong way and as usual, I don't care.  I can only look at the facts and what's in front of me and write about it.  You can make all sorts of excuses as to why you don't agree but facts are facts.  Science is science.

Masculinity and the traits that manifest itself from masculine men are usually easily identifiable.

It's not that certain things make men more masculine, it's that men with more testosterone tend to gravitate towards being more masculine because, you know, they have more of the masculine hormone?

So the guy you know that won't leave the house because he has to sit at home with the wife every weekend to wash her poodle and go to Bed, Bath, and Beyond with her, well it's not entirely his fault that he's become so emasculated and that she has his balls in her purse.

It's also unfortunate for women because I do believe that women do prefer more masculine men because they generally represent a better breeding partner.

It all comes back to biology and that can't really be argued.

This doesn't mean that lifting weights makes you manly, because I know a lot of pretty emasculated males that train and lift weights.  I don't think there's anything you can do, per say, to be more manly.  I think that masculinity gets defined for the most part, by how our body is functioning.

And to close on that, having low testosterone levels has a tremendous amount of health problems and complications that come with it.

Diabetes

Heart disease

Prostate cancer

Higher rates of obesity
Metabolic syndrome

All of these are bad, in case you didn't know.

Fact is, get your testosterone levels checked.  Regardless of your age.  Because throughout your life you will need a baseline to see how quickly they are declining and if you need to get on hormone replacement therapy.  It's not just about being more manly, it's about living a life of higher quality and better health.



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