It is the male hormone par excellence, it determines the development of sexual characteristics but it also acts on muscles, bones and good health in general, especially on metabolic diseases.
t is the male hormone that determines the development of sexual characteristics. But testosterone also has other important functions and, to a small extent, it is also produced in women.
What is testosterone
Testosterone is a steroid hormone (i.e. lipid in nature) of the androgen group, produced in man in greater quantities by the testicles, and in particular, by the Leydig cells present inside them, and in the woman by the ovaries, where the production of testosterone it is an intermediate step for estrogen secretion. In both sexes, a smaller part of testosterone is also released from the adrenal glands.
The so-called androgenic hormones are implicated in the definition of primary male characters (testicle development, sperm maturation and so on) and secondary (timbre of the voice, beard, hair distribution, musculature).
What is testosterone used for and what are its values?
This fundamental hormone has two important functions: paracrine and endocrine. Testosterone secreted by the testicles acts endocrine to stimulate peripheral events (such as the increase in muscle mass), and tamoxifen citrate tablets en venta in a paracrine way to stimulate spermatogenesis in the adjacent seminiferous tubules.
The paracrine function is, in fact, the type of cell secretion for which the substance that is secreted remains in the interstitial space between one cell and the other, instead of ending up in the blood thus reaching the organs. The cells, in this case, are the tubules that accompany the development of spermatozoa. The testosterone in the blood instead, carried by particular proteins, acts on the organs that have testosterone receptors.
Testosterone: the role in sex
In the prenatal phase (seventh-twelfth week) testosterone determines the sex of the unborn child, regulating the development of the external genitalia. The hormone remains almost silent until the prepubertal and then pubertal age, in which it knows a greater production and is responsible in the boy for the distribution of the hair, the growth of the beard, the growth of the sebaceous glands, that of the penis, of the lowering of the tone of the voice, muscle growth, bone and the reduction of hypodermic fat.
In adulthood, testosterone slowly decreases with age. Testosterone levels play an important role in sexuality, regulate sexual desire (a deficit of which is often associated with testosterone dysfunction), erection and sexual satisfaction. It contributes to ensuring fertility and influences the quality and quantity of the sperm produced since it works on the seminal pathways and on the prostate.
Testosterone also acts on the skeletal muscle system, and on good health in general, intended above all as protection from metabolic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes mellitus and, according to recent studies, also on depression. Testosterone production is also linked to the sleep-wake rhythm: the testosterone level is higher in the morning and drops during the day to reach its minimum value during the night.
The daily production of testosterone in humans, reaching the age of 30, tends to decrease annually by 1%. In adult men, after 18 years, the average production ranges from 240 to 950 ng/dl. In women, the value is between 8 and 60 ng/dl (Mayo Clinic Laboratories data).
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