What accounts for many older men becoming increasingly angry and irritable, when their T level plummets?

unencumbered (imported) wrote: Wed Jul 04, 2012 8:33 am What accounts for many older men becoming increasingly angry and irritable, when their T level plummets?

Suspect a combination of factors. Aging often comes w/ chronic pain, increasing social isolation, loss of independence, and finally dementia. Any of those could make one irritable and angry.

Transward

My T level is consistently well below 200 but that must be high enough, I like where I'm at in life now. They were obviously lower when I was on Lupron for a year and a half because I was an irritable, ornery son of a bitch. On the other hand, when I was younger and well before the radiation for prostate cancer I'm sure my T level was much higher. I had a destructive terrible temper and was always ready to tear in to everyone and everything. I'm sure glad those days are over and so is my family. So my experience is higher T could be bad but too low a T level comes with its own problems. I can't say my bad temper was a direct result of higher (normal?) T. It could very be that I was just a big asshole.

The interview is with Professor Steve Jones, Emeritus Professor of Human Genetics at the University College London and an award-winning science writer. He is keenly interested in understanding diversity, the role of natural selection and the nature of genetic differences between species. His research has led him to study the ecological genetics of snails, fruit flies and humans, however with information on the genetics of human populations expanding, his interests have moved more towards human genetics.

Professor Jones has taken an active role in the media, presenting scientific work as well as talking about science more generally. He has written a number of popular books on genetics and evolution, including The language of the genes, Y: the descent of men, and Darwin's island.

He won the Rhone-Poulenc book prize and the Yorkshire Post first book prize in 1994; and the BP Natural World Book Prize in 1999. He was awarded the Royal Society Faraday Medal for public understanding of science in 1997 and the Institute of Biology Charter medal in 2003.

More recently he won the 2009 Zoological Society of London/Thomson Reuters Award for Communicating Zoology, for his book – Coral: A Pessimist in Paradise, and in 2011, was elected President of the UK Association for Science Education.

Another brief video sharing some of Prof. Jones' views on testosterone is an excerpt from the talk he gave in 2011 as the annual David Rivett Memorial Lecture of the CSIRO in Australia:

Testosterone and Crime: What Can Genes Tell Us About Behavior?

knightbird111 (imported) wrote: Wed Jul 04, 2012 6:14 am http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

O0AOUNN051Q

CSIRO, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, is Australia's national science agency and one of the largest and most diverse research agencies in the world.

unencumbered (imported) wrote: Wed Jul 04, 2012 8:33 am What accounts for many older men becoming increasingly angry and irritable, when their T level plummets?

People are often confused by this -- the aggression/anger caused by testosterone is "pure" meaning it just feels good to fight, compete, etc; whereas the irritability of a castrated person (many of my TS friends are frankly very bitchy) is more of a peevishness. In other words, testosterone aggression feels good whereas testosterone-deficient irritability comes from feeling bad.

SplitDik (imported) wrote: Thu Jul 05, 2012 9:37 am testosterone-deficient irritability comes from feeling bad.

Before I began HRT after my surgery, my daughter, who is currently home from college, noted several times that I was in a foul mood. She hasn't mentioned it anymore since my T level has now increased somewhat as a result of the HRT.

Also note that he says specifically that, while this clearly affected the extremes, the eunuch and the hypermale, he was not sure how fluctuations within the middle, the normal range would affect you.

Transward

SplitDik (imported) wrote: Thu Jul 05, 2012 9:37 am People are often confused by this -- the aggression/anger caused by testosterone is "pure" meaning it just feels good to fight, compete, etc; whereas the irritability of a castrated person (many of my TS friends are frankly very bitchy) is more of a peevishness. In other words, testosterone aggression feels good whereas testosterone-deficient irritability comes from feeling bad.

DING DING DING!

We have a winner... at least for describing where I go off the rails. When I'm up on testosterone, not much bothers me, but I am more prone to be argumentative or confrontational. It feels good.

My anger does not feel good. It comes from depression.

Thankfully, I don't have the dramatic swings anymore. Things have leveled off for me. When I do start feeling depressed for no reason, it helps to know what is happening to my body. When I can recognize I'm low on T, I can correct my thinking and my reactions.