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Today’s stress-inducing lifestyle has many men suffering a blow to their mental health and well-being. Older men may be particularly vulnerable because age can come with its very own burden of health challenges, including hormonal imbalances like testosterone deficiency — which has been associated with countless other conditions. But can low testosterone really cause anxiety or impact your mental health otherwise?
Hormone imbalances can be triggered by many things, including age, lifestyle, and stress. Certain medical conditions can also add to the hormone rollercoaster and trigger fluctuations in your levels.
This, in turn, can cause you to feel fatigued, experience mood swings, and lead to weight changes. Testosterone deficiency is an example of inadequate hormone levels in your bloodstream and is gaining prevalence. But testosterone affects many aspects of your health, so how are low testosterone and anxiety interconnected? Let’s find out.
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety falls under the umbrella of mental disorders and constitutes the feeling of fear, nervousness, and dread. Sometimes, individuals can’t even pinpoint the exact cause of their anxiety, yet simply feel uneasy. Hormone fluctuations, such as low testosterone can impact anxiety.
While it’s normal to experience situation-dependent anxiety every now and then, anxiety disorders lead your fear to derail and usually occur in a repetitive fashion. Feelings of worry and overwhelm are frequent and their intensity is more profound.
According to the Anxiety & Depression Association of America, about 3.1% of the U.S. population have anxiety (generalized anxiety disorder) with less than half receiving treatment for it.
There are four main triggers of anxiety, including your genetic makeup and potential brain changes, particularly changes in your amygdala, which is responsible for managing fears. Outside factors like chronic stress and traumatic experiences can further play a significant role in developing anxiety.
But anxiety can also be caused by chemical imbalances, such as that of hormones. This means that low testosterone can easily contribute to anxiety disorders if levels have plummeted beyond a certain threshold.
Can Low Testosterone Cause Anxiety?
It’s simply not true that the effects of low testosterone are limited to reproductive and sexual ones — like a low sex drive, difficulties getting or maintaining an erection, and a decreased sperm count. In fact, testosterone is extremely multifaceted and changes in its level can cause wide-ranging ripples. So, can low testosterone cause anxiety too?
Testosterone, the male sex hormone, is understood to impact your mood in addition to interfering with numerous processes in your body. Imbalances can, therefore, cause irritability or feelings of sadness, and play into both your mental and emotional well-being.
Multiple studies looking into testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) found that it helped individuals maintain their mood as withdrawal led to depressive symptoms and feelings of anger.
An interesting trial conducted on rodents found that low testosterone was strongly associated with anxiety. While a team of researchers identified emotional outliers with either high or no anxiety, they consistently found low expression of TACR3 (a receptor protein) in the hippocampus of anxious rodents versus high expressions in fearless ones.
Low TACR3 expression was found in rodents that had testosterone deficiency, which correlated with higher levels of anxiety. So yes, low testosterone can cause anxiety.
Another study that investigated young males with low testosterone, found that after receiving testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) for six months, the occurrence of psychological symptoms, including anxiety, decreased — suggesting that low testosterone can cause anxiety and that TRT can alleviate it.
Anxiety symptoms are diverse but can constitute heart palpitations, trembling, difficulties sleeping, and feeling irritable. The World Health Organization (WHO) further lists restlessness, nausea, and abdominal cramps as symptoms of anxiety.
Can Low Testosterone Cause Depression Too?
Hormonal fluctuations are wide-reaching so it comes as no surprise that low testosterone and anxiety are not the only such pairing. Testosterone deficiency can profoundly impact your mental health, therefore, much of recent research has focused on the extent of hormonal imbalances, which leads us to the next question: can low testosterone cause depression too?
See, if low testosterone can cause anxiety, then it’s not far-fetched to assume that it plays into depressive disorders too. The thing is, that anxiety can, in fact, be a symptom of clinical depression or your depression can be the result of an underlying anxiety disorder.
Because anxiety and depression tend to go hand-in-hand, researchers looked further into a connection between low testosterone and depression as well. Both depression and anxiety are actually the most frequently encountered psychopathological symptoms that are observed in men with low T.
Interestingly, both depression and low testosterone become more prevalent as you grow older, making age a significant variable for both.
A review that looked into multiple studies on the topic found that the majority of trials were able to link low testosterone to depressive symptoms. It also suggested that TRT could improve symptoms of depression in men with low T and could even be added as a supplemental therapy for men who are already taking antidepressants (SSRIs).
TRT and Anxiety
Because research found that testosterone replacement therapy can alleviate depressive symptoms, TRT can be given to individuals with anxiety and low testosterone.
A large-scale study that included an impressive 5,565,649 men between ages 40 and 65, concluded that TRT was prescribed at a higher rate for men with anxiety and depression than for men who had not been diagnosed with either condition.
TRT and anxiety are thus interconnected as physicians pivot to TRT as a clinical means to relieve depressive symptoms and anxiety in hypogonadal men.
Take Care of Your Mental Health
If you have low testosterone but also experience frequent episodes of anxiety, it may be time to consult your doctor. You may have even noticed changes in your mood or have been more irritable lately. Because low testosterone can cause both anxiety and depression, your physician may suggest you start TRT.
Having low T can trigger feelings of dread and sadness. It’s time you feel like yourself again — and TRT may be the answer for you.
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