You very likely, almost certainly don't have low T

Don't listen to those right-wing MAHA influencers.

A neighbor told me that her 12-year-old boy gets TikTok ads for protein powder and deodorant without chemicals that suppress testosterone levels—and I was stunned. Damn that’s early.

I’m sure that watching hours of Limp Bizkit and Britney Spears on MTV in middle school shaped my ideas about being a man. But at least there wasn’t a screen in my pocket that could inject my brain with content from paid influencers peddling dubious products whenever I was bored 24/7.

The deodorant reminded me that I’ve been wanting to better understand testosterone. I sometimes wonder about my levels since hitting the big 4-0. When I struggle to “perform” in bed—which still happens—and the shame cranks up in my brain, a voice inside me asks: “Do I have low T? Is Tucker Carlson right that lower testosterone levels are causing the downfall of civilization?”

My gut instinct is to roll my eyes when right-wing politicians, billionaires, and MAHA influencers talk it up as some magical masculinity elixir. They so obviously want men to vote for fascism and buy their products. Anything to trick us into not seeing rich men like Carlson or capitalism itself as our enemy.

But trans men also talk about—and often take—testosterone too. It’s crucial for gender-affirming care. To build a bit more muscle, get a lower voice, grow a mustache. It may not be a cure-all for men’s struggles. Or turn the U.S. military into the “High-T Department of War,” in the words of cartoonishly manly man Pete Hegseth, Trump’s secretary of war. But it does something.

What that something is is… fuzzy.

Urologists are wary of Hegseth’s new plan to require soldiers over the age of 30 to get tested yearly. Those with low levels—which is rare—might benefit from testosterone replacement therapy (or “T”) to raise their libido, strengthen their bones, and build muscle to normal levels.

But most cisgender men don’t need it. Unless our job is to perform as a wrestler or bodybuilder. Keyword: perform. Because taking T doesn’t necessarily make your muscles stronger, just maybe bigger. Hormones fluctuate in the body constantly anyway, adapting us to life’s changing requirements, like parenting. And there are side effects to taking T, including infertility.

The crux of what I’ve read the past few days is that testosterone is definitely not a magical masculinity elixir. Injecting T won’t make you more competitive, confident, or willing to take risks. It might make you experience emotions differently, but probably not less.

Mostly, it will make you focus more on status. In a hierarchical, violent organization like the military, you might find yourself being more competitive and aggressive. Because that’s what’s rewarded. But in a different context, say an escape room where cooperation is needed, testosterone would help you get along better to win over your fellow trapped comrades.

In other words, behavior and context drive testosterone levels more than the other way around. And how we behave is deeply shaped by the bigger context—the society—that we’re socialized in.

There’s a study that I read about years ago and then forgot about but then found again this week. Both men and women were asked to act out being a boss firing an employee. They were told to do it once with stereotypically “masculine” traits (showing dominance, not smiling), and then again with stereotypically “feminine” traits (lifting their voice at the end of sentences, avoiding eye contact). The men didn’t experience much of a rise in testosterone. But the women experienced a boost in both cases.

The takeaway: Simply being in a dominant position causes the body to produce more testosterone. Meaning part of why men have more testosterone is because we tend (not always but tend) to have more economic and political power in this patriarchal capitalist society. How influential is that part compared to biology? No one really knows.

But none of this nuance benefits Hegseth’s (and Carlson’s and Trump’s) ultimate project, to defend and expand very particular so-called “Western” values. Hierarchy. Control. Massive inequality. Men above women. White people above everyone else.

And getting men (and 12-year-old boys) to believe that we’re naturally dominant and aggressive, ignoring that many warriors were women throughout human history or that parenting fills men’s bodies with similar hormones as it does women, is crucial to that project.

Try this:

I’m trying a new thing, giving you one practical step to take at the end of every newsletter. Subscribe to a few newsletters from trans people to expand your perspective on masculinity and gender, like Birds Before the Storm and The Art of Gender.

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments (or email me: jeremy@mohler.coach)!

With warmth & solidarity,
Jeremy