Most of those ‘testosterone’ products are marketing and/or don’t really contain them in significant levels. It’s like homeopathy where you put 1 teaspoon of paracetamol in a whole vat full of water, and then claim it’ll cure your headache.
It’s simply not concentrated enough to affect your body and thus often doesn’t really get regulated (even though it still is quackery).
Personally, I’m skeptical about protein powders for the same reason - I prefer to eat healthier and to exercise instead.
That said, testosterone (at more detectable levels) prevents osteoporosis and can be used as sport doping (due to speeding up metabolism, energy output, and affecting the cardiovascular system), as well as medication against breast cancer.
Male pattern baldness also is more likely to occur if you take dihydrotestosterone (DHT, formed from testosterone). Better is to take finasteride, though that may induce gynecomastia.
For sport doping, though, there are other means, such as anabolic steroids (which are structurally similar to testosterone though aren’t necessarily the same), and stimulants such as caffeine, modafinil, and so on. Extracting one’s own blood and then injecting it later (when the body has made new blood cells already) is also done, as well hyperbaric chambers and gene doping.
Doping is well-controlled for at sports’ competitions; testosterone access is unlikely to be an issue in this regard. We know what normal testosterone levels are - those decrease gradually with age, from:
21 nmol/L total (with 0.4 free T nmol/L) at the age of 25-34,
to 13 nmol/L total and 0.2 free T nmol/L) at the age of 85-100
Trans men may or may not wish for testosterone, but those that do, generally use that hormone to transition, not to dope (otherwise, they’d risk losing access to it, which would negatively affect their health). Transmasc people who are on T generally showcase similar rates of testosterone/estrogen as that of cismasc people.
Banning or heavily restricting access to testosterone, therefore wouldn’t be meaningful - so why is it then done?
Protein powders are meant to be for people that do enough exercise to need it. More sedate people saw all the fit/ripped people eating them and got it I to their heads it was the protein powder doing it, not the exercise… (And the manufacturers started leaning into it)
Whey protein is awesome and there’s a large body of peer reviewed research supporting it. It’s just as good as eating a bunch of chicken or pork but faster and easier. It is just another tool in the box for hitting your macronutrient goals.
However, it won’t do anything without exercise and it’s not a substitute for eating a proper diet.
Not exactly. It’s a relatively weak antiandrogen, which mainly reduces DHT production.
If someone wishes to feminise their body, then at sufficent levels, it’s primarily estradiol (a form of estrogen) that feminises, but if the method of medication isn’t strong enough for monotherapy*, then you may also need antiandrogens, though more potent.
Most of those ‘testosterone’ products are marketing and/or don’t really contain them in significant levels. It’s like homeopathy where you put 1 teaspoon of paracetamol in a whole vat full of water, and then claim it’ll cure your headache.
It’s simply not concentrated enough to affect your body and thus often doesn’t really get regulated (even though it still is quackery).
Personally, I’m skeptical about protein powders for the same reason - I prefer to eat healthier and to exercise instead.
That said, testosterone (at more detectable levels) prevents osteoporosis and can be used as sport doping (due to speeding up metabolism, energy output, and affecting the cardiovascular system), as well as medication against breast cancer.
Male pattern baldness also is more likely to occur if you take dihydrotestosterone (DHT, formed from testosterone). Better is to take finasteride, though that may induce gynecomastia.
For sport doping, though, there are other means, such as anabolic steroids (which are structurally similar to testosterone though aren’t necessarily the same), and stimulants such as caffeine, modafinil, and so on. Extracting one’s own blood and then injecting it later (when the body has made new blood cells already) is also done, as well hyperbaric chambers and gene doping.
Doping is well-controlled for at sports’ competitions; testosterone access is unlikely to be an issue in this regard. We know what normal testosterone levels are - those decrease gradually with age, from:
source here
Trans men may or may not wish for testosterone, but those that do, generally use that hormone to transition, not to dope (otherwise, they’d risk losing access to it, which would negatively affect their health). Transmasc people who are on T generally showcase similar rates of testosterone/estrogen as that of cismasc people.
Banning or heavily restricting access to testosterone, therefore wouldn’t be meaningful - so why is it then done?
Protein powders are meant to be for people that do enough exercise to need it. More sedate people saw all the fit/ripped people eating them and got it I to their heads it was the protein powder doing it, not the exercise… (And the manufacturers started leaning into it)
Whey protein is awesome and there’s a large body of peer reviewed research supporting it. It’s just as good as eating a bunch of chicken or pork but faster and easier. It is just another tool in the box for hitting your macronutrient goals.
However, it won’t do anything without exercise and it’s not a substitute for eating a proper diet.
If finasteride blocks T and induces gynecomastia, is it just e?
Not exactly. It’s a relatively weak antiandrogen, which mainly reduces DHT production.
If someone wishes to feminise their body, then at sufficent levels, it’s primarily estradiol (a form of estrogen) that feminises, but if the method of medication isn’t strong enough for monotherapy*, then you may also need antiandrogens, though more potent.
*Using only one medication to achieve an effect.