There are more than 50 types of chemical messengers in the human body called hormones, and they play a role in practically every aspect of your health, both physical and mental. A great example of this is testosterone, which can influence you, either directly or indirectly, from head to toe.
As specialists in men’s health, Dr. Moisés Irizarry-Román and the team at No Mercy Sports Medicine want to share one important fact when it comes to testosterone deficiency, or low T — no two men share the exact same symptoms.
To give you an idea, we’re using this month’s blog to review some surprising and not-so-surprising signs of low T, which affects between 10% and 40% of men worldwide.
Testosterone is a reproductive hormone, so its influence over this area of your health is a big one.
For example, for men who have low T, the first side effects you might notice are those related to your sexual health, such as erectile dysfunction (ED) and loss of libido. It also follows that lower-than-normal testosterone levels can lead to male infertility, which affects about 10% to 15% of males in the United States.
We can categorize a decline in sexual and reproductive function as unsurprising side effects of low T.
Moving away from reproductive functions, testosterone is the hormone that’s responsible for your more male characteristics. As a result, you might develop these symptoms when you have low T:
It’s important to note that testosterone also impacts your mental health and general well-being. With low T, men often report:
Many men tell us that they just don’t feel like themselves and that something just isn’t right, and this can often be tied to low T. As well, men often report a sort of fog in which they’re finding it more difficult to concentrate and focus.
This link between low T and your mental and cognitive health might be direct or as a byproduct of some of the symptoms we've already discussed. For example, ED related to low T can certainly lead to irritability and lack of focus, and loss of muscle mass can lead to less exercise, which can lead to depression.
The good news is that if Dr. Irizarry-Román finds that your symptoms are related to low T, he can work toward getting you back to your old self by rebalancing your testerone through hormone replacement therapy.
A number of different testosterone replacement therapies are available, and he can determine which one will work best for your health and lifestyle.
To figure out what’s behind the changes in your health and whether low T is to blame, we invite you to contact No Mercy Sports Medicine in Miami, Florida, by calling 305-614-6757. You can also send a message online to request an appointment.
