What the Testosterone Boom Is Doing to the Men You Love

Nearly 12 million testosterone prescriptions were written in 2025, and many recipients likely do not have medical testosterone deficiency. Testosterone supplementation shuts down the body’s own production, and online clinics can provide treatment with minimal screening. Women are increasingly noticing changes in mood, temper, and sexual appetite in partners using testosterone gels or pellets. Some men seeking fertility help may have no sperm, a predictable consequence of retail testosterone use. Men with true deficiency should receive treatment, but men with normal labs who want optimization need different approaches. Intentional daily habits—time outside, real food, morning light, and real sleep—can raise testosterone at any age.

"Nearly 12 million testosterone prescriptions were written in 2025. Most of those men do not medically need it. Supplementing testosterone shuts down your body's own production. Online clinics are not telling men this. Seventeen intentional minutes outside, real food, morning light, and real sleep raise testosterone at any age. Women are paying attention because mood, temper and sexual appetite all can change in the men they love."

"What's new since 2014 is who is paying the price. Women are paying attention because the men in their lives are on gels or pellets that change their moods, tempers, and sexual appetites. Partners are noticing the mood swings and relationship problems. Men who wish they were not the problem in a couple trying to have a baby are showing up at fertility clinics. Sometimes they have no sperm. This is a side effect that is predictable and an accident of retail medicine."

"Today this conversation is louder because clinics can ship testosterone to almost any man willing to fill out a five minute form and the Times just reported that there were almost 12,000,000 prescriptions for testosterone last year. That's up 25 times since the year 2000. Men who are ages 35 to 44 are the biggest recipients. But the American Urological Association says that about a third of men who are prescribed testosterone are not deficient. I think it's probably much more than that."

"First, there is a real difference between men with actual testosterone deficiency and men without. Men who are genuinely low in testosterone need the prescriptions they're getting. No questions asked. Men who want to optimize and whose labs are normal, and are tired of feeling tired, need a different solution."

Read at Psychology Today