I tried when I was 26 and 27 and never noticed anything...now with the andropause coming up soon, you reckon it will make a difference?
In your wallet yes, in your body no. The only way to know if your T is taking a dive is via blood work. Two, you should have a full hormone profile done young so you have a baseline to compare it to. I know what my T levels were in my 20s, 30, and now (crap!) 40s. My article "It's in your blood" covers most of what you need to know in terms of testing. Treatment is another issue....
It's In Your Blood
by Will Brink
A down and dirty primer and intro to understanding the value of regular blood work with some strategies and pointers for optimizing hormones and other things that negatively or positively impact your health and ability to add lean body mass and minimize bodyfat levels
One topic that seems to be a never-ending source of confusion is blood, or more precisely, understanding blood work and which tests to get and why. It never fails to amaze me that the vast majority of bodybuilders and other athletes have no issue spending literally thousands of dollars on supplements (some of which have virtually no science behind them to justify their use) and gym memberships each year, but won't spend a penny on blood tests to see what's really going on with their hormones and other indicators of health (e.g., cholesterol, liver function, etc.).
This is odd considering the fact that it's those very hormones that are ultimately responsible for whether or not your hard work in the gym is a waste of time (read busting your ass and getting no place fast) or productive. Let me be as clear as possible here: if your blood chemistry is off, meaning your hormone levels are sub par, you can eat all the supplements you want, follow any fancy new routine you want, and eat all you want, and you will be spinning your wheels with little to no results!
Depending on how out of whack your hormones are, you will get less then optimal results from your hard work or virtually no results at all. Conversely, the person with naturally optimal levels of hormones, or the person that has optimized their hormone levels via external assistance (more on that later) is going to make the progress they expect from their training, nutrition, and supplement use.
Now, explaining everything there is to know about blood work, hormones, etc., is far beyond the scope of this article. What I hope to do is give people a primer, using my own recent blood tests as examples, so people understand the importance of regular blood work and will follow up by learning more about the topic via additional readings, talking to a doctor, surfing the net, and so on.
Most bodybuilders know about the major anabolic and catabolic hormones, such as testosterone, Insulin-like growth factor-1, GH, cortisol, etc. There are however other tests that give an overall picture that should be considered (e.g., estradiol, thyroid hormones, etc.) and not all hormones can be tested for easily by a single blood draw, such as GH, which does not last long enough in the blood and is released in a pulsatile fashion, making it difficult to test for unless you are hooked up for multiple blood draws throughout the day.
http://www.brinkzone.com/articledetails.php?acatid=3&aid=17
