Can Low Testosterone Cause Anxiety?

Do you ever feel anxious, and can’t seem to pinpoint why? 

Most people assume it’s their job, personal life, or some other stress-inducing event. 

But consider this. Your anxiety might be tapping you on the shoulder to alert you about an unlikely suspect: your testosterone levels. 

Seems bizarre, right? Could the same hormone that fuels your workouts also be controlling your anxiety levels behind the scenes?

Most people associate testosterone with strength and other primarily physical male characteristics. What might surprise you, however, is the intimate connection testosterone has with mental clarity, mood, and perception.

Testosterone is much more than just a driver of strength and muscle mass. Improper testosterone levels can cause both men and women to feel elevated levels of anxiety.

What Are Hormones?

For those of us who are not psychiatrists—which is probably most of us—let’s get the basics down first.

The Body’s Signaling System

Hormones can be thought of as the body’s primary signaling system, helping to coordinate various bodily functions. They’re chemical messengers that travel in our bloodstream to tissues or organs, orchestrating growth, metabolism, mood regulation, and much more. 

Just envision them as the maestros in the grand symphony that is our body, ensuring that each section, or organ, plays in harmony with the others.

More Is Not Always Merrier

It’s important not to think of hormones as magic pills that can fix all of your problems, with more hormones resulting in greater well-being. Rather, the body needs to constantly strike a harmonious hormone balance. When normal levels are disrupted, it can lead to the development of many different health issues—including anxiety.

It’s Complicated

We could go on and on here—but at that point you might as well just buy a psychiatry textbook.

In general, understanding the role of hormones forces us to adopt a whole-body perspective on many health issues. The hormonal system is complicated, and testosterone levels are just one piece of the puzzle.

Speaking of that…

What Exactly Is Testosterone?

For most people testosterone is the “man” hormone. It’s what gives men bigger muscles, dominant personalities, and sometimes impetuous—or, ahem, occasionally stupid—behavior. But what exactly does it do? 

At a basic level, testosterone:

• Aids in muscle and bone development, contributing to overall strength and vitality;
• Plays a significant role in the production of red blood cells, which are essential for carrying oxygen throughout the body;
• Is crucial for maintaining a healthy libido and supporting sexual function;
• Contributes to the distribution of fat in the body, helping to maintain a balanced body composition;
• Is involved in brain and mood regulation and can influence feelings of well-being and confidence.

Testosterone levels, as well as levels of all the other hormones in the body, can be affected by many different factors—these include diet, rest, social health, and other seemingly ordinary activities.

As we’ll see in a minute, maintaining healthy testosterone levels is essential for keeping anxiety at bay.

What Is Anxiety?

Anxiety is an extremely problematic condition for many of us because of the difficulty in pinpointing its cause. Two very different people often feel anxiety for totally different reasons. 

In order to get some better insight into its causes, it will help to dive a little deeper into the nature of anxiety itself.

Anxiety Affects Everyone Differently

Anxiety is often characterized as excessive and persistent worry. It’s known to be triggered by tons of different factors, including genetic predispositions, personal life experiences, and environmental stressors.

One of the reasons anxiety affects everyone uniquely is because it’s neither solely biological nor solely experiential—it’s both. 

There’s an intricate interaction between our biological makeup and our life experiences, and this interaction is what so often determines how we feel on a day-to-day basis. As such, what triggers one person’s anxiety may not affect another person, and vice versa.

Anxiety Is Useful—Sometimes

Why do we have anxiety in the first place? Is it a defect, or is there a reason for it?

When it’s in the right context, anxiety can be thought of as a signal from your body that something is wrong. This could be something external—in which case anxiety functions much like fear—or even something internal and health-related.

The point is that anxiety is a natural phenomenon. The body produces this albeit unpleasant feeling for a reason—but because the body is so complicated, very minor imbalances can often elevate your anxiety way out of proportion.

In the same way that a high fever is a byproduct of your body fighting off an infection, debilitating anxiety can also be a byproduct of something that’s gone wrong in the body.

While it may not always be the case, low testosterone could be the culprit. 

Anxiety and Testosterone: A Vicious Cycle

Okay, enough build-up—let’s get right into it.

Low Testosterone Causes Anxiety

A decline in testosterone levels can have a profound effect on the way our brains function. At a high level, testosterone assists in the regulation of key chemicals in the brain responsible for mood—these include heavy hitters like serotonin and dopamine. 

When testosterone levels drop, these chemicals can become imbalanced. Because serotonin and dopamine are critically important, this imbalance can lead to mood swings, fatigue, and yes—anxiety.

Low testosterone can also lead to a cascade of other undesirable effects on brain function. It can disrupt the balance of neurotransmitters, stress hormones, and other general brain chemicals, which are all vital in maintaining our mental well-being. 

Just like with serotonin and dopamine, this imbalance can cause feelings of unease, worry, and fear, which are quite literally the hallmarks of anxiety. 

Understanding these links are essential, since addressing low testosterone could be the one pathway you missed in trying to pinpoint the cause of your anxiety and overall mental unease.

Anxiety Causes Low Testosterone

Here’s one of the most insidious aspects of low testosterone and anxiety: it goes both ways. Each condition can exacerbate the other. 

This is because, when we experience stress, our bodies respond by releasing the stress hormone cortisol. Sure, cortisol is beneficial in short bursts—but chronic stress can lead to overproduction of cortisol in the body, which in turn interferes with the natural production of hormones. The result? Lowered levels of testosterone.

So it’s a vicious cycle: low testosterone leads to anxiety, and that anxiety causes testosterone levels to drop even further. 

What Can You Do?

If this all sounds depressing, then take heart. If you’re just willing to move forward in the presence of your anxiety and take control of your life, there are many ways you can defeat this cycle of low testosterone and anxiety.

Don’t Use Band-Aids

While Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) and supplementation can indeed be beneficial when there’s a documented deficiency, these approaches should not be viewed as standalone solutions. 

Consider them like Band-Aids. Just as a Band-Aid can temporarily cover and protect a wound, TRT and supplementation can temporarily increase your testosterone, alleviating symptoms like anxiety.

However, if you never address the root cause and just inject yourself with testosterone instead of implementing a balanced lifestyle, the underlying issue will remain unresolved.

Address the Root Cause

Here’s what you can do to help bring your testosterone count back up naturally:

• Eat a natural, nutrient-dense diet;
• Engage in regular physical activity;
• Make sure you get adequate sleep every night;
• Implement stress management measures like time blocking and planning;
• Get off of TikTok and have some real social interactions;
• Get some early morning and evening sunlight exposure for vitamin D.

While it is important to get your testosterone levels checked periodically and to supplement with TRT if necessary, it’s much more important to live your life in a manner which encourages healthy testosterone production. 

A lifestyle with purpose, self-care, and human connection is much more likely to lead to balanced hormonal health than one of disconnection and laziness. Remember, the goal is to create a sustainable, healthy lifestyle—not to rely on temporary fixes.

Does Low Testosterone Cause Anxiety In Women?

It’s a known fact that anxiety functions differently between men and women, with generalized anxiety disproportionately affecting women. Since women of all ages obviously have less testosterone than men, it’s likely—and has even been shown in studies—that this hormonal difference is a factor. It’s by no means fully confirmed, but it’s plausible that higher testosterone levels in men could act as a protective shield against anxiety. 

However, it’s critical to remember that men and women are fundamentally different, genetically and biologically. For example, low levels of estrogen, the stereotypical “female” hormone, can also lead to anxiety. So it should be clear that bumping up female testosterone to the levels found in most men would not be a good route to take in treating anxiety in women.

There’s still a lot we don’t know—but understanding this relationship between testosterone and anxiety in women could potentially open up new avenues for anxiety research and treatments.

Low Testosterone and Anxiety: Recap

Low levels of testosterone have been pretty definitively linked to increased levels of anxiety in both men and women.

This is not to say that testosterone is always the only culprit—anxiety can be caused by many different factors, and low testosterone is usually only one piece of the puzzle.

The best way to increase your testosterone is to live a healthy lifestyle. This includes eating a nutritious diet, socializing, exercising, and getting regular sunlight.

It turns out testosterone isn’t just the male “caveman” hormone—it’s a crucial piece of living a mentally healthy life.

FAQs

Does testosterone make you calm?

Proper testosterone levels in both men and women have been shown to reduce anxiety and increase feelings of calm and contentment. This is primarily due to testosterone’s role in regulating serotonin and dopamine, which both reduce anxiety and contribute to feelings of well-being.

What happens if your testosterone is too low?

Low testosterone negatively affects sex drive, muscle growth, mood, and anxiety. On the other hand, high testosterone can result in aggression and moodiness. The most important thing is to maintain a healthy balance of testosterone—neither too high nor too low.

Will testosterone help with anxiety?

Testosterone has been shown to help reduce anxiety in both men and women. That said, it’s not a matter of “the more the merrier.” High testosterone won’t help reduce anxiety—proper levels of testosterone will.

Which hormone is responsible for anxiety?

There’s no particular hormone that causes anxiety. Rather, anxiety is caused by external or internal events that cause stress—such as OCD or uncertainty about the future. Once the body is stressed, it produces the hormone cortisol, which is often called the “stress hormone.” Cortisol is what usually tips the balance, turning stress into bona fide anxiety.