Do committed relationships lower men’s testosterone levels?

Do committed relationships lower men's testosterone levels?

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In general, testosterone goes lower or higher depending on the stage of life.

For example, if you are on the prowl for the ladies, and you are younger, your testosterone will be higher.

Then, if you settle down and you have children, your testosterone falls as a father.

But should things change in your relationship, your testosterone rises again.

So this study set out to find out the root function of testosterone.

They wanted to know how does low testosterone affect a man and his actions.

Researchers wanted to see what happens to testosterone during masturbation and partner sex.

And they wanted to study what happens to testosterone based on relationship quality.

The researchers determined that they expected to find that high testosterone would lead to certain things.

They expected it to lead to more sex and masturbation.

And they expected to find that higher testosterone would lead to lower relationship quality.

Do committed relationships lower men’s testosterone levels?

They set out to find out if these theories were true or not with intellectual honesty.

I want you to understand something about a lot of the existing research’s conclusions.

A lot of research has concluded that higher testosterone levels in men lead to men who are messing around more often.

The research found these men cheating on their partner.

And they were experiencing a lower quality of a committed relationship than men with lower testosterone levels.

I don’t think this is true, but I think this is the common theory.

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What strikes me is that the theory has not been tested in more mature adults.

As the researchers say:

Many adverse health conditions are highly dependent on an individual’s behavioral patterns—

which are shaped in the context of the intimate partnership.

A couple’s eating habits and physical activity are jointly shaped.

The point is that for a young man, there are few responsibilities and there may be no partner in the picture.

So behavior and testosterone levels tend to be different than for a man who’s older and has been married or had a girlfriend for a long time.

The approach in this study was to ask questions relating to masturbation, sexual frequency, and relationship satisfaction.

And then the researchers conducted salivary testosterone tests.

These tests are fairly accurate, although a lot depends on the time of the test.

The results can vary between morning and evening.

Researchers interviewed people up to 85 years old and even beyond over several years.

It’s a pretty good study.

And the results were quite stunning!

The first major finding was that men with high testosterone at a younger age continued to have high testosterone when they aged.

And the levels stayed high REGARDLESS of their relationship status or satisfaction!

If you have testosterone in the 800 or 1000 range when you are younger, you will maintain higher T as you age.

That’s good news for men with high testosterone.

But the other result was quite surprising…

The biggest effect of high testosterone tended to be lower relationship satisfaction in general for men.

Men who were in a committed relationship often found their testosterone levels declined steadily — as did their drive.

In effect, high testosterone levels tend to create relationship dissatisfaction in older men.

There is an antidote for this, and that is what the researchers call nurturant sex.

Nurturant sex is sex that is designed for comfort and pleasure as much as hot sex is designed for heat.

Nurturant sex creates high oxytocin levels and high relationship satisfaction.

However, I have an observation that this study doesn’t cover.

In my experience, men who have a lot of intercourse with frequent orgasms tend to experience high testosterone levels.

And they also tend to have great relationship satisfaction.

We’ll have to await a new study for that.

But high oxytocin levels AND high testosterone is the best of all worlds.

 

 


Matt Cook is editor-in-chief of Daily Medical Discoveries. Matt has been a full time health researcher for 26 years. ABC News interviewed Matt on sexual health issues not long ago. Matt is widely quoted on over 1,000,000 websites. He has over 300,000 daily newsletter readers. Daily Medical Discoveries finds hidden, buried or ignored medical studies through the lens of 100 years of proven science. Matt heads up the editorial team of scientists and health researchers. Each discovery is based upon primary studies from peer reviewed science sources following the Daily Medical Discoveries 7 Step Process to ensure accuracy.
Social Modulation or Hormonal Causation? Linkages of Testosterone with Sexual Activity and Relationship Quality in a Nationally Representative Longitudinal Sample of Older Adults 
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-016-0815-2 
 

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