More testosterone won't make a better soldier or a tougher man | Hacker News Reader

More testosterone won't make a better soldier or a tougher man

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What are the risks of testosterone therapy for normal aging? Testosterone therapy has various risks, including:

Worsening sleep apnea — a potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts. Causing acne or other skin reactions. Stimulating noncancerous growth of the prostate (benign prostatic hyperplasia) and growth of existing prostate cancer. Enlarging breasts. Limiting sperm production or causing testicles to shrink. Stimulating too much red blood cell production, which contributes to the increased risk of forming a blood clot. A clot could break loose, travel through your bloodstream and lodge in your lungs, blocking blood flow (pulmonary embolism). Also, some research shows that testosterone therapy can increase your risk of heart disease. More research is needed. Dear leader knows best!

For physiological level replacement, not a lot. But also, you don't get a whole lot of additional benefit for going over the lower end of the reference range, and people usually don't fall below that.

Isnt the issue that it happens quite a lot more since test levels on average dropped a ton? (in part due to various lifestyle choices which should be focused on first but arguably also due to various polutants)

I strongly suspect that most of the issues correlated with low testosterone are co-symptoms rather than caused by it. From my research, it doesn't seem like going much above the lower end of the T range carries much additional benefit, other than muscle mass, and testosterone replacement in people with merely low testosterone doesn't do as much good as people think it does.

> For instance, testosterone therapy often carries risks. Supplementing the hormone signals the body to shut down production of its own supply, which can shrink the testicles and suppress sperm. Some researchers have even studied testosterone for its contraceptive effects.

> Moreover, because testosterone revs up oil glands and hair follicles – and partly converts them to estrogen – it can also bring about acne, balding and even some breast tissue growth.

You gotta love ironic consequences.

It turns out that all you need to do to become stronger and more "manly" is to exercise, sleep well, and maintain a nutritious diet.

Men who try to shortcut all that by taking extra T may find themselves enhancing the very physical traits that they're seeking to avoid.

And you need the right genes to bulk up like Arnold back in the day

> all you need to do to become stronger and more "manly" is to exercise, sleep well, and maintain a nutritious diet.

One also needs to be handy, humble, kind to and protective of the weak, trustworthy and able to keep your word, and not a coward, moral or otherwise. You know, have character.

I have “TDS” specifically because these all are lacking, so lacking it is as if by deliberate abdication, among those leading the new masculinity cult in America.

Any time a strongman chooses some inherent immutable characteristic to justify their superiority, its usually because they are inherently inferior in almost every other way including politically and morally.

They have no other way to justify their power, so they pick something that is an inherent body characteristic instead. It's literally no different than saying "well i have a bigger dick than you, so shut up". It's the same.... f'ing... thing...

And the net result of all of this will be a weaker nation that descends into fascism and oligarchy.

Everyone advertises their assets and hides their liabilities, it's just normal.

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