Men’s average testosterone levels have halved over the past 50 years

The Guardian -  Total testosterone levels in men declined by 54% between 1972 and 2019, according to data presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in London on Tuesday. Rising levels of obesity and diabetes are expected to play a part, but the team behind the work suggest that environmental factors such as endocrine-disrupting chemicals – which can be found in various household items – and global heating could also be factors in the apparent striking decline.

“I think that we have a major crisis in male reproductive health and it’s currently not given enough attention,” said Prof Hagai Levine, of the Hebrew University-Hadassah Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine in Israel.

“We saw an over 50% decline in total testosterone over this time period,” he said. “It reflects a more than 1% decline each year, so this is not a fluke, this is not a statistical error. It’s very strong trend.”