Can you estimate how many sex partners a man has had just by looking at his testosterone levels?
.
Testosterone (T) has been argued to modulate mating and parenting behavior in many species, including humans. The role of T for these behaviors has been framed as the challenge hypothesis. Following this hypothesis, T should be positively associated with the number of opposite sex partners a male has. Indeed research in humans has shown that T is positively related to the number of opposite sex partners a young man has had. Here we test, in both men and women, whether this relationship extends to the lifetime number of sex partners. We also explored whether or not T was associated with current marital status, partnership status and whether or not the participant remarried. Using a large sample of elderly men and women (each sample n > 700), we show that T is positively and sizably associated with the number of opposite sex partners in men. When controlling for potential confounding variables such as educational attainment, age, BMI, ethnicity, specific use of a medication and time of sampling this effect remained. For women, the relationship between T and number of opposite sex partners was positive but did not prove to be robust. In both men and women there was no evidence for an association between T and current marital status and partnership status (being in a relationship or not). However, remarriage was positively associated with T, but only in males. Results are discussed with reference to the literature on T and sex partners, remarriage and more broadly the challenge hypothesis.
Source: “Testosterone levels and their associations with lifetime number of opposite sex partners and remarriage in a large sample of American elderly men and women” from Hormones and Behavior
For a deeper look at that much maligned hormone, I recommend Robert Sapolsky’s The Trouble With Testosterone: And Other Essays On The Biology Of The Human Predicament.
You can also subscribe via Twitter, email, or RSS. Check out the site’s most popular posts of all time.
Related posts:
When does romantic involvement NOT reduce a man’s testosterone level?
Can testosterone levels predict who the leader of a group will be?
Stanford’s Robert Sapolsky lectures on the science behind human sexuality (Video)
What does your grip say about you?
Guys, want to take something so you won’t lose your memory when you get old? How about anabolic steroids?
Do guns make men more aggressive?
Is there already a safe, effective, reversible male hormonal contraceptive available?
