Last updated on September 3, 2020
Question:
Does masturbation affect (decrease) the testosterone levels in the body? Does it affect the production of testosterone? What is testosterone good for? If testosterone is good, how can I increase testosterone production naturally?
Answer:
Testosterone is a hormone that is produced by your testicles. This is the primary androgen (male hormones) that causes your body to take on and maintain male characteristics. The equivalent female hormone is called estrogen. All those things that you associate with the male body, such as facial and body hair, wide shoulders, more muscle mass, deeper voice, and square jaw all are governed by the presence of testosterone in your body.
Testosterone levels fluctuate wildly during adolescence and eventually settles to a stable level. But even then testosterone levels in an adult male vary during the day as much as 15% to 40%. Most studies find little to no difference in testosterone levels in relation to sexual arousal, orgasm, and ejaculation. In other words, masturbation doesn’t change your testosterone levels.
What should be noted is that your body has a complex set of checks and balances to regulate hormones like testosterone. If you try to artificially raise testosterone, your natural production of testosterone will drop off to keep the body’s normal levels. In other words, the body knows that while testosterone is necessary for the functioning of the male body, too much testosterone is bad for the body. One of the dangers of using steroids is that it can have the unwanted side-effect of shutting down your body’s natural testosterone production.
Testosterone is one of those things that you don’t have to do anything about. Your body is designed to regulate your testosterone on its own. There are some males who have problems with the regulation mechanism, but these men should see an endocrinologist (a doctor specializing in hormones) in order to find out what is wrong and what needs to be done to get the hormones back into a normal range.