What does male hormone health guidance include?

If it is male hormone health guidance implemented in clinical and health management scenarios, the core is around the dynamic balance of core androgens such as testosterone, and a service that connects the entire link of indicator monitoring, individualized adjustment, risk prevention and control, and physical and mental correlation adjustment. It is really not as simple as "prescribing some testicle-stimulating drugs" as many people think.

I just hired a 32-year-old Internet back-end programmer last month. After staying up late for three years, I have been feeling heavy all over recently, my muscles have been losing rapidly after half a year of training, and I have no interest in anything. I searched for tips and bought several internet celebrity testicle-stimulating supplements. After taking them for two months, my face broke out and my hair fell more aggressively. When I came to consult, I found out that he had not even tested his basic hormone levels and was completely taking supplements blindly.

Let’s talk about the most basic monitoring guidance first. There is still a little controversy in the academic circles on this topic: Some people believe that regular sex hormone testing of 6 items per year for men over 30 years old is enough to troubleshoot problems. Some andrology clinical researchers also suggest that free testosterone, sex hormone binding globulin, and morning and evening testosterone difference must be additionally tested. After all, people with normal total testosterone but insufficient free testosterone account for more than 20% of people with symptoms of hypoandrogenism. It is easy to miss the diagnosis just by looking at the total indicators. We now generally select monitoring items based on individual symptoms. We will not just prescribe a bunch of tests, nor will we stick to unified standards.

After figuring out the baseline, the subsequent lifestyle guidance will not step into pitfalls. It’s not just a general call to “exercise more and stay up less late”. For example, it will first calculate your body fat percentage threshold for you, especially for men with excessive visceral fat. The aromatase in fat will secretly convert testosterone into estrogen. Many friends with big bellies always feel that they are “deficient”. In fact, if you first reduce body fat to less than 22%, most people’s androgen levels can increase by 15% to 20%, which is much more effective than taking supplements. Sleep guidance does not require you to sleep for 8 hours. The core is to maintain deep sleep from 1 to 3 a.m. There was a fitness enthusiast who slept for 8 hours a day but slept from 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. After practicing for almost a year, his muscles could not grow, so he adjusted it to fall asleep before 12 o'clock. After two months, his testosterone level increased by 3nmol/L. The effect was much more obvious than that of his protein powder. When it comes to supplements, the controversy is even greater: the current conclusion of evidence-based medicine is that unless hypotestosteroneemia is diagnosed, the effect of ordinary healthy people taking common testicle-stimulating supplements such as tribulus saponin is not much different from that of placebo, but it may disrupt their own hormone secretion rhythm. ； However, some sports medicine researchers believe that short-term use of low-dose related supplements by people who train intensively can indeed relieve post-exercise fatigue. We generally make both conclusions clear and allow users to choose based on their own circumstances. We will not push hard or kill them all at once.

In addition to adjusting the status of young adults, guidance for men over 40 will also focus on early warning of disease risks. The incidence of late-onset hypogonadism in men over 45 years old is about 20%. Many people attribute hot flashes, irritability, and lack of concentration to "middle-aged stress". In fact, most of them are caused by hormonal fluctuations. This part of the guidance will be tied to prostate health monitoring. Many people are worried that testosterone supplementation will induce prostate cancer. In fact, the current clinical consensus is that as long as PSA indicators are monitored regularly, standardized supplementation will not increase the risk of the disease. Of course, there are also more conservative views that people with a family history of prostate cancer should try to avoid exogenous testosterone supplementation. We will explain these different risks and options in advance, so that users will not make confused decisions.

What many people tend to overlook is that hormonal guidance also involves the adjustment of emotions and intimate relationships. There is a clear negative correlation between androgen levels and the incidence of anxiety and depression. There was a 40-year-old client who had a tense relationship with his lover for almost a year. He always lost his temper for no reason and could not control himself. After checking, he found that his testosterone was only half of the normal lower limit. After three months of adjustment, not only did his mood stabilize, but the relationship between the two people also eased a lot. Before, he always thought that his "personality had deteriorated."

To put it bluntly, there is no unified template for good hormone health guidance. It is dynamically adjusted according to each person's age, living habits, and underlying diseases. After all, hormones are the "messengers" of the body. What we adjust is never a cold value, but the entire person's living condition.