RonPaul,
First and foremost, I feel for your loss. It must be hard to have to part with your testicle, but rest assured that it does happen very frequently to many people and they live normal lives after the fact.
On to your question, with regards to testosterone, while you will produce less overall testosterone than before, having one testicle that is "healthy" will suffice and will allow for your body to produce enough testosterone to have a healthy sexual drive as well as to be able to perform normally as a male.
It's important to understand how your body produces testosterone in order to see how the lack of one testicle won't hinder your body's ability to reach/sustain homeostasis..
- Testosterone production begins in the brain, first originating at the cerebral cortex..
After your cortex receives stimulation (Sexual Arousal, Aggression, emotional suspense), it then sends a message to the Hypothalamus Gland.
The Hypothalamus then begins to stimulate production of testosterone.
The way that is stimulates production of testosterone is by sending messages in the form of gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) to the Pituitary gland which, in turn, produces various other hormones.
The pituitary gland then starts to produce two hormones, follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) (Known as the gonadotropins).
Luteinizing hormone is the most important player, for our purposes, because it travels to the testicles and stimulates cells called Leydig cells to start converting, at the cellular level, cholesterol to usable testosterone.
After this conversion occurs at the leydig cells, then free testosterone is sent into the bloodstream where it meets and becomes binded to SHBG, that hormone will regulate how much free testosterone is available to enter vital tissues, but that is irrelevant to the point of your question.
Ultimately, so as long your LH hormone reaches your "
1" testicle, then your one healthy testicle will be able to compensate and produce enough testosterone for your body's needs.
Overall testosterone count will have a decrease, even though it will be minor. Yet, you will be able to perform sexually, have enough energy to function physically otherwise, but don't think you will become Jay Cutler, unless you start to pump yourself with Test by way of a needle..
Hope this helps,
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