In men, testosterone is synonymous with masculinity and libido. A cliché? Actually yes, or at least in part. New research published on Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences has in fact investigated the relationship between physiological fluctuations (i.e. changes not considered pathological) of testosterone in the male organism, sexual desire and propensity for courtship, without finding any connection, other than high libido.
The research, carried out by an international team of psychologists, involved 41 men, mostly heterosexual and of whom a third were in a stable relationship, who were followed for a period of one month with daily saliva checks to verify the testosterone levels, and with psychological questionnaires designed to assess their sexual desire, romantic opportunities had and, if the possibility arose, the effort put into courting a potential partner.
How testosterone changes sex
The analyzes revealed, first of all, that testosterone levels were higher on average in single participants compared to those in a stable romantic relationship. The increase in testosterone, however, revealed no connection with the increase in sexual fantasies and sexual desire in everyday life.
“In other words – we read in the conclusions of the study – a man who experiences higher than normal concentrations of testosterone on a given day does not exhibit an increase in libido on the same day. We also found no indication that a man with higher testosterone levels on average over the course of the study had an equally high sexual desire, which is in fact a result in line with that of other studies carried out previously.”
There is, however, one area in which testosterone appears to influence male behavior: romance. Higher levels of this hormone, in fact, showed an association with greater commitment to courtship, particularly (but not only) among single participants. This aspect will need to be studied more thoroughly, because the small number of people who participated in the research does not allow definitive results to be obtained. On the libido front, however, researchers feel more confident: if you are looking for a remedy for decreased desire, it is almost certainly not testosterone that you should look at. With all due respect to the myth of the Latin man, hot, “testosterone” and fiery.