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February 24, 2024

When I’m confronted with a statement having start and end dates, I wonder, “How and why were these dates chosen?” This is an excellent question when it comes to testosterone and athletic performance. Time frames matter.

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We’ve often heard data with date parameters, e.g., “Investment X has outperformed Investment Y by 2:1 over the last decade.” Often, Investment X has underperformed Investment Y by a lot over the last two decades, which goes unmentioned for obvious reasons.

Knowing that, it’s worth looking at testosterone and sports. (Disclaimer: None of the following concerns my conclusions regarding the trans conversation. I keep those to myself.)

Fact: “Boys tend to begin and end puberty sometime between age 10 and 18.”

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Most readily available information has to do with testosterone and puberty. I understand that prominent visible differences manifest during puberty, e.g., muscle mass and facial hair. (This assumes that the development of the penis and testes noted at birth is not considered a prominent, visible difference, which many today do not consider to be characteristic of one sex only.)

Focusing solely on visible changes beyond what’s in a person’s underwear makes it easy to concentrate on puberty as the only important time for determining whether testosterone affects athletic performance. However, is this target too narrow?

Image: A big boy baby by freepik.

Testosterone makes its appearance before birth, i.e., in utero. It is during this period that testosterone’s influences are basically invisible (except, e.g., through ultrasound imaging, where genital development can be seen). Yet, they’re still potentially quite significant in relation to sport.

Assuming a +/- in the data (the linked article, which includes the charts reproduced below, did not include standard deviations), testosterone levels in utero are as high or higher than they are during puberty:

In the male fetus, testosterone secretion (measured by RIA) peaks in the first trimester of pregnancy between the 11th and 14th gestational week. Fetal testosterone also influences sexually dimorphic brain development. (Links to citations removed.)

If you go to the linked article and look at Figure 1, you can see clearly how testosterone rises during fetal development in male babies. Also, note in the same image that the child will have a second peak in testosterone between one and six months. Some investigators call this a “minipuberty.”