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Testosterone is a fundamental hormone that carries out a range of tasks in countless parts of your body. When your testosterone levels are out of balance, it can affect your mental health, your emotions, and your cognitive and physical performance. Testosterone can also affect your energy levels.
But energy is crucial for you so you can go about your daily activities and perform work-related functions. Low testosterone that triggers low energy levels can further impact your personal life by preventing you from pursuing hobbies, committing to household chores, and spending quality time with your family.
Since you’re more likely to become testosterone deficient as you grow older, so does the risk of your batteries running low and you feeling drained. While the relationship may be complex, testosterone and energy levels are intertwined and can significantly impact your health and life.
Does Testosterone Give You Energy?
You could say testosterone is something like an energy booster, which simultaneously promotes many aspects of your health. Various functions in your body are adversely affected by low testosterone and the consequential low energy levels resulting from it.
It’s estimated that 10% to 40% of men suffer from testosterone deficiency (TD) globally — a condition that could potentially impact their energy levels and thus limit their life quality. An impressive 28.7% of men in the U.S. who are currently taking prescription testosterone, indicated that their primary reason for taking testosterone was a lack of energy.
We have compiled a list of conditions that have been linked to low testosterone and low energy levels. Here’s how testosterone and energy are intertwined:
(1) Depression
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) roughly 280 million people worldwide live with depression. The National Institute of Mental Health describes depression as a common but nonetheless serious mood disorder.
Depression can cause an array of symptoms, including fatigue, moodiness, irritability, and a sense of worthlessness. It has been associated with low energy, feeling drained, and feeling burnt out.
Some research suggests that testosterone may be a biomarker for depression, which means that abnormal testosterone levels can, in fact, cause you to develop depressive symptoms.
Interestingly, both depression — which includes low energy symptoms — and low testosterone become more prevalent as we age.
Some studies have even looked into testosterone supplementation and found that taking testosterone can improve depressive symptoms, suggesting that testosterone is a critical hormone supporting both mood and energy.
(2) Sexual Functions
Your sexual performance, libido, and erectile function may decline as you age — alongside your testosterone levels. In fact, low libido and erectile dysfunction are some of the most prominent symptoms of testosterone deficiency but TD can also cause delayed ejaculation and reduced overall erections.
What does all of this have to do with your energy levels though?
If you’re feeling deprived of energy, you’re likely feeling your sexual desire fade away as well. It also becomes more challenging to perform sexually and maintain an erection when you’re feeling drained, fatigued, and exhausted.
(3) Metabolism & Muscle Mass
Low testosterone has been long linked to obesity and being overweight, which is one of the reasons it’s so common among individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. But excess fat has also been associated with the amount of hormones you produce (including testosterone), which directly affects your energy levels.
One of the roles of the male hormone includes the production of lean muscle mass, however, if your testosterone levels decline, you may notice the loss of muscle mass and consequently, an increase in fat. But in addition to promoting weight gain, the loss of muscle mass can also slow down your metabolism.
Testosterone therapy has been found to help muscle loss but more research is necessary to solidify preliminary evidence.
Now, what does a loss in muscle mass and a slowed down metabolism mean for your energy levels?
Let’s define metabolism here for the sake of clarity — it’s a chemical process that you undergo in which the food you consume is transformed into energy. Some people naturally have a faster or slower metabolism, but the upkeep of a slow metabolism will require much fewer calories and a lower food intake.
A slower metabolism — one which can be produced by the loss of muscle mass and an increase of fat — will lead to individuals having a harder time converting food into energy. This means that obesity triggered by low testosterone levels, can effectively lower the amount of energy you produce.
The relationship between low testosterone and low energy levels is complex and not a direct cause-effect relationship. Rather, testosterone and energy are components in a multifactor cycle where many parts work together and interact.
(4) Cognitive Function
A decline in cognitive function naturally occurs as we grow older — coinciding with a natural decline in testosterone. Research indicates that low testosterone levels correlate with poorer cognitive performance, which has also been linked to low energy.
When you feel exhausted and tired, you’re more likely to notice your attention span shorten and it may become more difficult to concentrate. Your ability to learn and retain information may also be reduced as your memory is impacted by the lack of energy.
But our hormones are tightly knit into our body’s everyday functions so that low testosterone levels can lead you to feel fatigued and low on energy — which can negatively affect your brain and ultimately your cognitive performance.
(5) Sleep
Sleep deprivation doesn’t just make you feel drained and grouchy the next morning. Both your testosterone and energy levels may suffer as a result of unhealthy sleeping patterns.
A study found that men with lower testosterone levels also developed lower sleep efficiency, woke up more frequently during the night, and as a result reduced the amount of slow-wave sleep they were able to get.
These findings indicate a cycle of continuous exchange where low T levels can reduce sleep quality and vice versa, sleep deprivation can worsen testosterone levels.
Research also suggests that a lack of sleep leads to valuable energy being wasted — which means instead of having your body store energy, sleep deprivation can use up a third more energy instead.
What Can You Do to Boost Your Testosterone and Energy?
To avoid unpleasant symptoms, have your doctor monitor your testosterone levels routinely and support your energy levels by eating a healthy diet, exercising, and going to bed early so your body can get adequate rest.
This is particularly important if you’re older as low testosterone and reduced energy levels are more prevalent in elderly individuals.
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