“Men with low testosterone find that their emotional reserves are lower,” he says. “They have a shorter fuse. In popular culture, people link male anger with high testosterone, but as a rule we see it more in men with low testosterone -- most commonly when levels are dropping. That's when men get cranky.”
Because testosterone helps regulate your mood, “you can fall in one direction where your testosterone is too low, so you're irritable and cranky,” Dahl says. “You can also fall in the other direction, where your testosterone is too high and you're irritable and cranky.”
You might think a decrease in testosterone would also reduce anger, but men with Low T often report increased and difficult-to-manage feelings of frustration and irritability.
The hormone also plays a role in your state of mind, including how well your brain works. That's why low testosterone has been linked with symptoms such as mood swings, increased stress, and depression.
Some studies suggest that testosterone changes emotions by influencing a part of the brain called the mesolimbic pathway. This is the part of the brain linked with the feel-good neurotransmitter dopamine. Higher levels of dopamine and a stimulated mesolimbic pathway are linked with feelings of being rewarded.
Untreated testosterone deficiency will greatly increase your risk for developing heart disease, osteoporosis, and other age-related diseases.
For example, a study from Harvard Medical School in 2003 found that even among men who started out with normal testosterone results noted loss of fat, increased muscle mass, better mood, and less anxiety when receiving testosterone therapy.
Physical effects of anger
The adrenal glands flood the body with stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol.
Testosterone activates the subcortical areas of the brain to produce aggression, while cortisol and serotonin act antagonistically with testosterone to reduce its effects.
Gerald Lincoln, the late award-winning endocrinologist, theorized that “Irritable Male Syndrome” (a.k.a. “andropause”) was the result of the gradual loss of the testosterone hormone in aging men. According to Dr. Lincoln, men with low testosterone tended to be impatient, sarcastic, and argumentative.
Low testosterone levels can mimic symptoms of depression and cause anxiety over time if left untreated. A urologist explains how these conditions relate to one another.
Treating normal aging with testosterone therapy is not advisable. If you don't have a medical condition that's contributing to your decline in testosterone levels, your doctor might suggest natural ways to boost testosterone, such as losing weight and increasing muscle mass through resistance exercise.
When used this way, without proper medical supervision, testosterone has been linked to unwanted side effects such as mood swings and aggressive “roid rage.”
Low testosterone can significantly lower your sex drive and virility. Low testosterone can also cause emotional instability, mood swings, and sleep problems, and reduce your overall vitality. Symptoms of low testosterone include: Erectile dysfunction.
Most men feel improvement in symptoms within four to six weeks of taking testosterone replacement therapy, although changes like increases in muscle mass may take from three to six months.
A simple blood test can confirm your testosterone level. The bottom of a man's normal total testosterone range is about 300 ng/dL, and the upper limit is about 800ng/dL, depending on the lab. In general, levels below 300 ng/dL combined with symptoms are indicators of testosterone deficiency.
Testosterone activates the subcortical areas of the brain to produce aggression, while cortisol and serotonin act antagonistically with testosterone to reduce its effects.
Testosterone therapy for men is a safe way to improve your cognition and mental clarity. Studies have shown that testosterone supplementation clearly improves spatial cognitive abilities in men with low testosterone levels.
A man's ability to produce testosterone starts to decline at about 40 years of age, and levels continue to drop 1 – 3% a year thereafter. It is important to note that just because the levels are dropping after 40 doesn't necessarily mean that all men are candidates for therapy.