Can Testosterone Really do That?

Normal testosterone levels for men: 300 to 1000 ng/dl

Normal testosterone levels for women: 30 to 95 ng/dl

From the Archives of “This American Life” Radio Show:

Testosterone Gives a Man a Mind to Think With

When you have no testosterone, you have no desire. And when you have no desire, you don’t have any content in your mind. You don’t think about anything. __ Testosterone: This American Life

Due to medical reasons, the man quoted above suddenly lost the ability to make testosterone. What happened to his mind when he lost testosterone? Nothing good.



… I was not behaving at all. I was, when I was awake, literally sitting in bed and staring at the wall with neither interest nor disinterest for three, four hours at a time. If you’d had a camera in the room, you would have thought I was comatose. … People who are deprived of testosterone don’t become Spock-like and incredibly rational. They become nonsensical because they’re unable to distinguish between what is and isn’t interesting, and what is worth noting and what isn’t.

What Happens When Testosterone is Boosted Through the Roof?

Next we look at the experience of someone who was born female, but chose to transform herself into a “he,” using massive doses of testosterone. How did “his” experience of life transform? How did “his” mind change?

The most overwhelming feeling is the incredible increase in libido and change in the way that I perceived women and the way I thought about sex. … I remember walking up Fifth Avenue, and there was a woman walking in front of me. And she was wearing this little skirt and this little top. And I was looking at her ass. And I kept saying to myself, don’t look at it. Don’t look at it. And I kept looking at it. And I walked past her. And this voice in my head kept saying, turn around to look at her breasts. Turn around. Turn around. Turn around. And my feminist, female background kept saying, don’t you dare, you pig. Don’t turn around. And I fought myself for a whole block, and then I turned around and checked her out. __ Testosterone: This American Life archives

Beyond the predictable boost to libido, “he” also became interested in different things:

Something that happened after I started taking testosterone, I became interested in science. I was never interested in science before… I found myself understanding physics in a way I never had before.

Here is an interesting anecdote along these lines from Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds:

It’s funny, I was talking to a friend a while back who was very interested in math and science pre-puberty, but lost nearly all interest afterward, and she said, “when the estrogen came in, the science went out.” __ Source

Giving a woman testosterone can boost her ability to navigate, but it can also interfere with her language skills. The very structure of the brain is altered by changes in blood testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone. These changes in brain structure have very important effects in the real world, on a societal scale. Female students may find their maths abilities changing with their monthly menstrual cycles, as levels of estrogen and progesterone vary naturally.



Special Note: Testosterone Boosts Risk-Taking and Physical Courage

Men earn most of the Nobel prizes in physics and chemistry, almost all Fields medals in mathematics, and occupy the elite levels of most professions that involve top-level spatial and mathematical skills. Men pioneer the conceptual underpinnings of the science and technology that make advanced societies possible.

One of the shortest books you may find is “Great Female Explorers and Adventurers.” Most people know about Shackleton, Amundsen, Sir Richard Burton, Columbus, Magellan, Lindbergh, Humboldt, Marco Polo, Zheng He, Bering, Leif Ericson, Lewis and Clark, and several others. Almost all of the great explorers seem to have been men. But the physical courage that derives from testosterone does not just discover new worlds and break new conceptual ground. It also spurs men to take the risks that are necessary to run the modern world.

Rough, Dirty, and Often Dangerous Jobs Keep Your Boat Afloat

Advanced technological civilisations require a lot of construction and maintenance. Men have the strength and spatial/mechanical skills to get such vital work done. Most women have neither the physical strength required, nor the interest in doing such jobs. As is often said, “Women pick out wallpaper patterns. Men run the universe.” 😉 Just kidding.

These rough and dirty jobs are crucial for running critical infrastructures of advanced high technology societies. Given the influence of testosterone on strength, visual/mechanical skills, and physical courage, it makes sense for men to dominate these rough and vital occupations. But strangely, men also tend to dominate in music, art, literature — even fashion design!

A thorough reading of Charles Murray’s Human Accomplishment reveals that this disproportionate participation by males at the elite levels of discovery and mastery is not a new phenomenon. Not surprisingly, the huge difference in blood testosterone levels between average men (roughly 300 to 1000 ng/dl) and average women (30 to 95 ng/dl) is not a new phenomenon either.

With differences in testosterone levels so large between men and women, it would be very surprising not to find huge differences in male and female bodies and brains. And yet modern politically correct societies in Europe and the Anglosphere go about pretending that men and women should be the same! The contemporary “war against boys” that results from this basic mistake continues to cause untold hardship for individuals and large-scale damage to society at large.

Can testosterone really do all that? Not by itself, no. But when combined with good parenting, good genes, and plenty of healthy outlets for natural male enthusiasm, it can do all that and more.

Note: Before you decide to supplement your own testosterone levels, make sure that you actually need the boost.

Sources:

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/220/transcript

https://alfinnextlevel.wordpress.com/2015/12/08/testosterone-king-of-hormones/

http://althouse.blogspot.ca/2017/04/elizabeth-warren-writes-that-she.html

Click to access urovni-testosterona-chto-vliyaet-na-testosteron.pdf

One Likely Reason Why So Many US Men Voted for Trump

http://www.everydayhealth.com/low-testosterone/how-low-testosterone-can-erode-self-confidence.aspx

Moths to the flame: Testosterone drives men to seek the women most in demand. The train wrecks that often result are mostly predictable.

More:

Science has never been so accessible to ordinary people. There is still a lot of low hanging fruit, if we use our resources to back our best people for the job regardless of sex or race. (Abolish affirmative discrimination)

With the right inventions, more of the planet’s land, oceans, and atmosphere become livable.