Contrary to popular belief, having higher levels of testosterone doesn't necessarily make men have a higher libido.
Day-to-day changes in testosterone levels were discovered to have no real link to changes in sexual desire in men, according to a new paper in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Interestingly, the researchers found that there was a positive relationship between testosterone levels and the degree of effort men put into wooing their significant other, especially when trying to wrangle potential partners.
"Our findings add original evidence regarding day-to-day associations between testosterone and desire, and suggest that testosterone above minimum threshold concentrations does not increase sexual desire," the researchers wrote in the paper.
"We propose that the evolved functions of testosterone in human males are more closely associated with courtship efforts than with sexual desire."
Testosterone is a hormone primarily produced in the testicles for men and in smaller amounts in the ovaries for women. On average, men have testosterone levels 10 to 20 times higher than women.
During puberty, testosterone stimulates the development of male secondary sexual characteristics, such as facial and body hair growth, deepening of the voice, and increased muscle and bone mass. In females, it contributes to bone density and muscle strength.
This higher level in men has often been touted as a reason for potential differences in libido between men and women.
The researchers describe in the paper how they collected daily saliva samples from 41 adult men aged 18 to 26 for 31 days, using which they measured testosterone levels in their systems daily.
They also asked the men to answer a daily online survey regarding their sexual desire, including questions such as: "How much sexual desire did you experience?" "How much effort did you put into attracting a possible romantic and/or sexual partner yesterday?" and "How much did you have sexual fantasies?"
They then determined that there was no correlation between testosterone levels and the degree of sexual desire felt by the men.
"A man experiencing higher-than-usual testosterone concentrations on a given day does not typically exhibit higher-than-usual sexual desire on that same day," the researchers wrote.
However, it appears that testosterone does influence sex in other ways, such as by increasing the effort put in by the men in courtship.
"Though testosterone does not appear to positively regulate fluctuations in sexual desire, it may instead motivate mating effort through other means, such as by promoting courtship effort," they said.
"Testosterone fluctuations in the normal range may positively predict day-to-day changes in men's mate attraction efforts among single men, especially given social interactions with potential mates."
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References
Catena, T., Crewther, B. T., Eisenbruch, A. B., Grillot, R. L., Maestripieri, D., & Roney, J. R. (2024). Day-to-day associations between testosterone, sexual desire and courtship efforts in young men. Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, 291(2035). https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.1508
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