New research overturns the long-held belief that testosterone levels control sexual desire, finding that while the hormone plays an important role in reproductive success, elevated levels are essentially associated with ‘courtship’, especially in single men. It turns out that they seem to be connected.
An international research team led by the University of California, Santa Barbara has discovered that rather than fluctuating testosterone levels increasing or decreasing a man’s sex drive, they have discovered a more subtle way of stimulating men’s search for a mate. . Once partnered, the impact is less.
In this study, 41 men between the ages of 18 and 26 in various relationship statuses (27 single, 14 passionately with a partner) were recruited for a 31-day trial, with daily saliva analysis and sex Self-reported responses to questions regarding emotional thoughts and desires were conducted. The same goes for the effort you put into dating and “courtship.” The researchers used continuous time (CT) modeling to analyze the saliva samples to better chart changes in libido and testosterone levels due to the nature of how the hormone is produced.
“In addition to testing same-day associations between testosterone and desire, the density of our data collection allowed us to test lagged associations between the two variables,” the research team said. is writing. “Steroid hormones may act in part through their effects on gene transcription, producing a delayed effect. Conversely, hormone production may be influenced by events or actions that occurred several days earlier. ”
When we separated the data for single and partnered men, some interesting nuances emerged. Testosterone levels were higher on days when single men interacted with potential partners, suggesting they put more effort into finding a mate. Extensive research on birds has shown that during heat, competition between males can increase testosterone levels, requiring more effort to successfully mate. A similar pattern has been observed in primates, where competition is associated with a surge in testosterone in males under threat of losing a mate.
The researchers noted that “testosterone and cortisol concentrations were significantly higher in single and partnered men.” “Exploratory analyzes show that fluctuations in testosterone within normal ranges positively predict day-to-day changes in single men’s efforts to attract a mate, especially when considering social interactions with potential mates. We now have evidence that it is possible.
“Future studies could test to replicate that pattern and aim to elucidate the causal pathways by which the association between testosterone and courtship effort may arise,” the researchers added.
There are certainly limitations to this study – single men are generally more likely to interact with potential mates than men with partners, and saliva testing has many variables. –However, this contradicts the widespread belief that testosterone levels have a direct effect on sexual desire. In this study, all participants had hormone levels within the normal range, which is consistent with previous research showing that only very low testosterone appears to affect desire.
“These findings support previous research suggesting that only a baseline level of testosterone is required for male sexual desire, beyond which changes in testosterone do not reliably affect sexual desire. ‘, the researchers pointed out. “Surprisingly, few previous studies have provided data on the within-subject relationship between men’s natural testosterone production and sexual desire.
So what does this mean? Well, the main thing is that more research is needed. Although men have historically been overrepresented in scientific research, hormonal fluctuations and sexual desire have been more comprehensively studied and, by extension, understood for the opposite sex. Although much of the previous data attempting to link testosterone levels and sexual desire has been inconclusive, there is a widespread belief that there is a causal relationship.
“This study provides direct, naturalistic evidence that daily fluctuations in male sexual desire are not significantly associated with daily fluctuations in testosterone concentrations,” the researchers wrote. “In other words, men who have higher than normal testosterone levels on any given day do not have higher than normal sexual desire on that day.”
This study warrants further research into the effectiveness of testosterone-targeted supplements and other treatments for low libido.
The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Source: University of California, Santa Barbara, via Scimex
