What are the early warning indicators of male hormone health risks?

During my daily work on men’s health management, I discovered that the easiest and most informative early warning signs of hormonal risks are actually hidden in daily conditions. There is no need to wait for abnormalities in the physical examination report to be discovered later. I met a 32-year-old Internet content operator in the past two years. He could still run 5 kilometers three times a week. After working on projects for more than half a year, he obviously ate about the same as before. His waistline increased from 82cm to 94cm, and he only lost 2% in two months. I weighed 5 pounds, I still felt tired all the time, couldn't sleep in bed, and the good-tempered person in the past would often get into fights with my colleagues. When I checked my sex hormones, I found that my total testosterone had dropped to the lowest limit of the normal reference value for adult men, which is lower than many healthy men aged 50 years old.

Many people's understanding of male hormones is still at the level of "regulating sexual function". In fact, it is one of the master switches of body metabolism, emotion, hair, and muscle mass. When problems occur, the first thing to call the police is often not the reproductive system. For example, your beard used to be shaved every day, but now you don’t have much stubble when shaving every two days, or your pubic and armpit hair is significantly sparser than before, or you even feel that the breasts on your chest are swollen and slightly bulging when you take a shower. Don’t take it seriously. This is mostly a sign of an imbalance in the ratio of androgens and estrogen. I also met a male user who had been working out for 3 years and could bench press 100kg. He suddenly found a small piece of soft tissue protruding around his nipples, which could not be removed no matter how much fat was applied. After checking, he found out that the cause was high estradiol, and the testosterone to estradiol ratio fell below the safe value, which is often referred to as "feminization" in the fitness circle. Fortunately, he discovered it early, adjusted the supplement plan and a regular schedule, and recovered in 3 months. If it took a long time, he could only have surgery to remove the hyperplastic breast tissue.

If you have experienced these somatosensory changes, don’t just focus on the total testosterone value when checking your sex hormones. Nowadays, many general physical examinations only test for total testosterone, but in fact, free testosterone is the effective part that can be truly utilized by the body. Especially for men over 40 years old, total testosterone may still be stuck in the normal range, but free testosterone is no longer enough for the body. It is best to proactively ask for free testosterone and sex hormone binding globulin. The combination of these two indicators can only be accurate.

However, there are currently different voices in the academic community. One school of thought believes that the decline of testosterone at a rate of 1%-2% per year after the age of 30 is a normal manifestation of aging. As long as it does not seriously affect your life, there is no need to deliberately intervene.； Another group of clinicians believes that if body fat is difficult to reduce, long-term fatigue, and emotional abnormalities have already occurred, early adjustment can not only improve the quality of life, but also reduce the subsequent risk of osteoporosis, dyslipidemia, and diabetes. Whether to intervene or not depends on a comprehensive judgment based on the individual's actual feelings and indicators. Don't just buy testosterone supplements and eat them randomly.

It’s easy to understand. Male hormones are like car engine oil. When it is first lacking, you will only feel that the speed is slow and the oil is wasted. By the time the fault light actually comes on, the engine has already shown irreversible wear and tear. These daily small signals are the early warnings sent by hormones to you. Don’t wait until the indicator is glaringly red before you worry.