Does Testosterone Affect Personality?
Written by Ben Bunting: BA, PGCert. (Sport & Exercise Nutrition) // British Army Physical Training Instructor // S&C Coach.
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Testosterone is a hormone that fuels sex drive and muscle mass for men and increases the production of estrogen in women.
It's produced in the testicles for men and ovaries for women, along with other organs like the adrenal glands.
Testosterone has also been linked to a variety of psychological traits, such as aggression and sexual behaviour.
Its effects are most noticeable during social interactions with others, and can have a significant effect on the way we act and feel in these relationships.
Physical Changes
The hormone testosterone fuels sex drive and muscle mass, but it also regulates mood and bone strength. If your testosterone levels get low you may notice some changes to your mood, physique and energy.
Testosterone is produced by the testes in men and the ovaries in women. It helps men grow sex characteristics such as body and facial hair, a deep voice, stronger muscles, and penis growth during puberty.
As you age, your body naturally decreases testosterone. This is called “testosterone deficiency syndrome”, "andropause", or “low-T.”
It can be caused by a number of factors, including health conditions like diabetes or a thyroid disorder. Some medications also cause low testosterone.
In addition, certain genetic diseases, such as Klinefelter syndrome and hemochromatosis, can affect your testosterone production. These diseases can also cause prostate cancer to grow.
Because of these risks, testosterone replacement therapy should only be used if there’s a medical reason for it, such as an inoperable prostate tumor. A man with prostate cancer should be monitored closely while taking testosterone.
Another reason to only use testosterone if your healthcare provider recommends it is that it can lead to serious side effects and complications, such as erectile dysfunction or decreased sperm production. It can also damage the liver and cause a range of other symptoms.
For most men, a slow drop in testosterone is normal. This is referred to as “andropause.”
However, for some men, this can lead to physical changes, such as loss of muscle mass and depression. It can also raise your risk of heart disease and clotting problems.
Some changes will happen immediately if you stop or slow down testosterone therapy, but others will develop over time. You’ll need to be patient and trust your body to adjust to this change.
Emotional Changes
Testosterone is a hormone that helps your body regulate many functions. It’s responsible for the creation of red blood cells and keeping your hormones in balance. It also helps you control your mood and sex drive.
As a steroid, testosterone affects your brain and body in ways that aren’t entirely understood.
Some studies have shown that testosterone increases the activity of certain regions of your brain that are important for emotion processing, such as the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC).
In fact, it is possible that this increased activity in these areas may play an important role in your ability to manage your emotions.
It is also thought that testosterone helps your brain process negative feelings, such as anger and sadness. This can be a positive or negative thing depending on the situation.
This can also impact your ability to manage stress. This is because testosterone changes your body’s reaction to stress.
It can decrease your stress levels by helping you focus on other things and by increasing the levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin in your brain.
Another way that testosterone affects your body’s response to emotion is by changing the levels of other hormones in your body.
This can lead to a number of mood swings, as testosterone changes how your brain processes and responds to certain emotions.
If you have been diagnosed with a mental health condition, it is important to talk with your doctor before you start using testosterone. This can help you understand how your new hormone therapy will change the way that you feel and interact with others.
While most people on gender affirming hormone therapy have no problems with their mood, there are a few who will experience shifts in their emotions. These changes can be very exciting for some people, especially in the first year of treatment.
The most common emotional changes are decreased sex drive, increased fatigue, and depression. These can be difficult to manage, but they are also common and can be addressed with proper medical care.
If you are experiencing these symptoms, talk to your doctor about testosterone therapy as well as possible ways to help with other aspects of your emotional wellness.
Social Changes
Several species of bird and animal exhibit elevated testosterone levels in response to aggressive contests and social interactions. This reflects an adaptive response to perceived threats of social status.
However, despite this evolutionary-based framework for testosterone-behavior relationships, human studies to date have not demonstrated whether or how the gonadal steroid hormone affects personaility.
Currently, the most prominent theory about testosterone and personaility is that it promotes indiscriminate aggression in response to provocation (the so-called status theory).
However, this has not been proven; rather, it has been suggested that testosterone increases both aggressive and nonaggressive behaviors that enhance status.
Researcher's tested this hypothesis in human males injected with testosterone or placebo in a double-blind, randomized design.
They used a modified version of the Ultimatum Game to measure reactive aggression and nonaggressive status-enhancing behaviors.
When participants were injected with testosterone, they punished proposers more often who made unfair offers than those administered placebo. Alternatively, they also rewarded the proposer more often when the offer amount was large.
This difference is not statistically significant, but it does provide some evidence that testosterone increases reactive aggression in social contexts where status is at risk from perceived provocation.
This result may be explained by a shift in participant motivations to respond to the offers of other players. In particular, it may be linked to an increased sense of entitlement that can be triggered by testosterone's effect on competitive behavior.
The increase in generous offers from testosterone-treated participants also supports the status theory that testosterone can promote behaviors that enhance social status, including nonaggressive behaviors that may be more appropriate for maintaining social dominance.
Moreover, the larger rewards for generosity were not due to an enhanced hedonic value of the offers but were related to participants' belief that they had been administered testosterone, with a negative interaction between treatment beliefs and offer amount on reward magnitude.
These results support the idea that testosterone may promote both aggressive and nonaggressive behaviors that are relevant for maintaining and enhancing status in different situations.
This is an important distinction from the conventional view that testosterone only promotes indiscriminate aggression and that it is necessary to test this theory by directly manipulating testosterone levels in humans.
Mental Changes
Testosterone is a neuroactive steroid that changes how your central nervous system functions.
This can have an impact on your mood, and in some cases, testosterone treatment has been shown to boost the production of serotonin, a hormone that can help increase happiness and reduce depression.
One of the most obvious mental changes that low testosterone causes is mood swings. It can make you feel happy one minute and sad the next. This can lead to a lack of concentration and other emotional problems.
Another emotional change that testosterone can cause is anger. Research shows that men with low testosterone are more likely to be aggressive than those with normal levels.
This is because low testosterone can cause a loss of self-confidence and decrease motivation to do things that you enjoy, which makes it harder to control your emotions.
If you have mood changes that are causing you problems, it may be time to get your hormones checked. This is especially true if you have other symptoms that are connected to low testosterone, such as decreased sexual drive or decreased libido.
Some of the most common mental health issues that people experience when they have low testosterone are depression and anxiety. These issues can be very disruptive to your daily life, and testosterone treatment has been shown to alleviate them.
There is also a connection between low testosterone and chronic stress. This is because stress can trigger an imbalance in your testosterone level, making you feel angry or depressed.
These feelings are temporary, and they can be managed by changing your lifestyle and managing your stress. This can be done by cutting out certain foods or activities, and learning to take more time for relaxation and meditation.
Taking testosterone is also beneficial to your mental health, as it can encourage positive thinking and help you focus on the positive things in life. This can also lead to increased self-esteem and confidence, which can improve your ability to handle difficult situations.
It is important to remember that these emotional changes are normal for most people as they transition. They can also lead to new discoveries about yourself and how you want to live your life.
Conclusion
Testosterone is the major androgenic hormones in men. It helps the body grow a large scrotum, develop a full head of hair, and build muscle and strength. But it can also affect our moods and emotions.
Does Testosterone Affect Personaility?
The most obvious testosterone effect is its ability to promote aggressive, impatient, type A behavior. But testosterone is also important for fertility, weight and mental health.
Having the right amount of testosterone can make you feel rewarded when you look at other people’s faces. It can trigger a part of your brain called the mesolimbic pathway, which is linked to the neurotransmitter dopamine and feelings of euphoria.
In a recent study, researchers discovered that low-testosterone, submissive individuals are more likely to act in socially desirable ways. The study suggests that this may have an evolutionary advantage.
Evolutionary psychologist Mark Van Vugt, PhD, at the University of Kent in England, says that this is a novel finding.
He explains that we have always assumed that because status gives so many benefits, everyone strives for it to the same extent. But now we know that some people don’t have to.
This is not to say that testosterone doesn’t promote aggression, but that it does so in a different way.
While it can encourage impulsive, reactive aggression following provocation, it can also reduce cooperation.
It also seems to have effects on intuitive decision-making in some situations. And, while it can encourage social dominance behaviors, it can also promote antisocial status-seeking behaviours such as envy and hostility.
