A group of 54 men with abnormally low testosterone reported feeling more irritable and angry before their hormone levels were brought to normal. At the University of California, Los Angeles, researchers led by Dr. Christina Wang asked them to rate their mood and well-being before and for two months after treatment. Once their testesterone reached normal levels, the men felt friendlier.
In a study at the Seattle Veterans Affairs Medical Center, researchers artificially reduced the testosterone levels of 48 healthy young men. When the hormone was diminished in this reversible procedure, “there was a trend toward increased irritability and aggression,” says Dr. William J. Bremner. “I think guys just feel bad when testosterone is low,” he suggests. “They feel frustrated by troubles with sexual functioning. That translates into irritability and aggression on the questionnaire.”
Adolescents are always un-predictable-and a group with medically delayed puberty was no exception. At Penn State University, researchers led by pediatrician Dr. Howard Kulin gave each youngster varying doses of sex hormones. For successive three-month periods, each boy got either testosterone or a placebo, and each gift got estrogen or a placebo. Both genders reported more aggressive feelings when they received their respective sex hormones-but the urges were stronger and occurred on lower hormone doses in the girls. Because estrogen had such a marked effect on them, the researchers theorize that testosterone may also be converted to estrogen in the male brain, which has many estrogen receptors.
So far, most of the new findings are more speculation than firm science. But it’s a little surprising to realize we don’t know as much about testosterone as we thought. After all, the hormone was identified 60 years ago–back when Gloria Steinem was still too young to pronounce its name.
AN INTERNATIONAL TEAM OF SCIENTISTS reported last week it had isolated a genetic mutation that may be a marker for people who will develop cancers of the lung, breast, stomach and pancreas. The defect also causes a rare and fatal childhood disease called AT (ataxia telangiectasia), which affects neurological and immune function. About 2 million Americans carry one copy of this mutated gene, which in its normal version seems to help regulate cell division. The scientists, who reported their discovery in the journal Science, hope it will also provide clues to the fundamental processes by which normal cells are born, die- and become malignant.
