Does Marijuana Decrease Testosterone? A Male Infertility Professional Explains

Making an attempt to unwind on the finish of an extended day? Or possibly you need a bit motivation boost throughout your exercise, or some assist getting within the temper on date evening? For all of those, analysis means that a bit weed might help — and that it’s safe, particularly in comparison with different mood-altering substances. However secure doesn’t imply “with none destructive well being results.” Some medical professionals are involved in regards to the potential impact of marijuana on males’s testosterone and reproductive well being. However what meaning in your weed behavior is sophisticated — and relies on your relationship to hashish, your well being, and your objectives.

First issues first: What does analysis say in regards to the connection between marijuana and testosterone? Proper now, the proof is murky. A lot of it’s dated, or was performed in animals, or relies on members’ account of their marijuana use. Briefly, there’s little or no tightly managed science on the market, says Alexander Pastuszak, M.D., Ph.D., a urologist specializing in male infertility on the College of Utah Well being. “We’re working with fairly restricted information,” he says.

Among the first research that regarded into the affiliation appeared to exhibit a transparent destructive impact of marijuana on testosterone. In the 1970s, researchers in contrast 20 common marijuana people who smoke to males who had by no means smoked. On common, testosterone ranges within the people who smoke had been greater than 30% decrease than the non-smokers — however had been nonetheless inside a traditional vary.

Current analysis is extra ambiguous. In a 2017 research printed within the journal Andrology, scientists adopted greater than 1,500 younger males and located no distinction in common testosterone between males who smoked marijuana ceaselessly and those that didn’t smoke in any respect. Nevertheless, hashish really appeared to spike testosterone ranges in males who had just lately smoked, despite the fact that it didn’t have a long-term impact.

Nonetheless, the info now we have is sufficient to elevate concern for medical doctors learning males’s hormonal well being and fertility. “They actually counsel that there could also be a destructive impact,” Pastuszak says. Notably convincing to him was a 2022 research on macaques by which scientists fed the primates edible THC, which allowed them to standardize what the research topics had been taking and keep away from unreliable self-report information. The research, printed within the journal Fertility and Sterility, discovered a small lower in testosterone ranges and a greater than 50% lower in testicular measurement — an indication that one thing was off within the stoner primates, hormonally.

Some analysis additionally signifies a hyperlink between weed and different components of the male reproductive system, together with testicle measurement, sperm well being, and different hormone ranges, a few of which play a direct function in testosterone manufacturing, Pastuszak says. Nevertheless, much like the analysis on hashish and testosterone, the proof right here is wishy-washy. “Proper now, the dialog amongst clinicians is we’re probably not positive, however there are positively some research” discovering a destructive impact on testosterone and fertility, Pastuszak says.

So, given all this uncertainty, must you be smoking much less weed? Pastuszak says possibly, if you happen to’re having signs of low testosterone — which embody fatigue, muscle weak point, low libido, and extra — or try to conceive.

Though the analysis now we have on the connection between hashish and testosterone is much from conclusive, reducing down on hashish isn’t going to harm you — and there’s simply sufficient proof to counsel it would assist. In fact, it’s not straightforward, and even mandatory, to chop out hashish chilly turkey. “Each affected person has their very own perspective. Some might be like ‘no downside.’ Some might be like ‘oh, heck no,’” Pastuszak says.

In case you’re a part of the “no downside” crowd, quitting hashish can be Pastuszak’s suggestion. But when weed is a vital a part of your high quality of life, take into consideration switching to edibles somewhat than smoking weed — as a result of when it comes to testosterone and hormonal well being, “there’s a destructive influence of smoking something,” he provides. “If you wish to optimize your well being, you most likely wish to reduce down.”