What are male hormone health risk warnings?

Male hormone health risk warning is actually a series of perceptible signals sent by the body before the secretion of core male hormones such as testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone is disrupted, which is used to help us avoid possible subsequent reproductive, metabolic, and emotional health problems in advance.

Many people regard these warning signs as normal manifestations of "being tired recently" or "getting old", and often ignore them. They wait until obvious discomfort occurs before going for a check-up, which will already take several times the time to adjust. I have met Xiao Zhang, a 32-year-old fitness enthusiast. He has been systematically training for three years and his muscle mass has been steadily increasing. In the second half of last year, not only did his training status drop drastically, he had to wait for three days to recover after training, but he couldn't help but quarrel with his colleagues and family. He lay in bed and couldn't fall asleep for half an hour. At first, he thought it was due to high work pressure. When he went for a hormone test, he found that his serum testosterone was 32% lower than his level two years ago, which is already at the lower limit of the normal reference range.

At present, the industry's judgment standards for early warning are not completely unified. The traditional view of endocrinology is that serum test values ​​must be used as the standard. As long as the testosterone level falls within the normal reference range for adult men (9.9-27.8nmol/L), even if there is slight discomfort, only adjustments to work and rest are needed, and no additional intervention is required. However, many reproductive and functional medicine doctors who have been exposed to more subclinical cases in young adults will pay more attention to somatosensory changes. After all, everyone's basal hormone levels vary greatly. For people who are originally stable at around 25nmol/L all year round, even if they fall to 10nmol/L and are still stuck in the reference range, their physical condition will have declined significantly. At this time, it is actually time to intervene.

It's quite interesting to say that when I was doing sports and health coaching before, I met a guy who competed in amateur bodybuilding competitions. He only ate 1,500 calories a day for 2 months in order to lose body fat. His body fat did drop to 8%, but he couldn't even squat a 140kg barbell that he could easily squat before. It was hard to lift 100 kilograms, and I always quarreled with my girlfriend over trivial matters. At first I thought it was anxiety before the competition, but when I checked my testosterone had dropped to 9.8nmol/L, almost falling below the reference value, I quickly adjusted my diet and added high-quality fat for half a month before I recovered.

In fact, these early warning signals are like the yellow lights on the car dashboard. When they first come on, you don't think it will affect your driving and you don't bother to bother with them. But when the red lights turn on and the car breaks down, it will cost money and time to repair. Don’t think that only a decline in sexual function is a hormonal problem. For example, you haven’t eaten more in the past six months, and your abdominal circumference has increased by three to four centimeters, and you can’t reduce it no matter how you do it. Or you are not 40 years old, and your beard has grown half as slowly as before. You don’t have a sense of presence every time you shave, and you can’t even get excited about playing golf or games that you were addicted to before. These small details that are easy to be ignored are actually signals sent by your body.

Of course, there is no need to be too anxious. Occasionally, if your condition is bad for a week or two, it is most likely just because you have not rested well. If you have a similar situation for two or three months in a row, you can have a blood test to check for six hormones. It is better to adjust a small problem early than to turn it into a big trouble.