TIME EUROPE
APRIL 24, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 16
VIEWPOINT
Are You Man Enough?
Testosterone can make a difference in bed and at the gym. And soon you'll be able to get it as a gel. But it's a risky substance. And is it really what makes men men?
By RICHARD LACAYO
Whatever else you may think about testosterone, you can tell it's a hot topic. Every time you mention that you happen to be writing about it, the first thing people ask is "Can you get me some?" (Everybody, even the women.) Maybe that's not so surprising. If there is such a thing as a bodily substance more fabled than blood, it's testosterone, the hormone that we understand and misunderstand as the essence of manhood. Testosterone has been offered as the symbolic (and sometimes literal) explanation for all the glories and infamies of men, for why they start street fights and civil wars, for why they channel surf, explore, prevail, sleep around, drive too fast, plunder, bellow, joust, plot corporate takeovers and paint their bare torsos blue during the Final Four. Hey, what's not to like?
Until now, it was easy to talk about testosterone but hard to do much about it. About 4 million men in the U.S. whose bodies don't produce enough take a doctor-prescribed synthetic version, mostly by self-injection, every one to three weeks. But the shots cannot begin to mimic the body's own minute-by-minute micromanagement of testosterone levels. So they can produce a roller coaster of emotional and physical effects, from a burst of energy, snappishness and libido in the first days to fatigue and depression later. The main alternative, a testosterone patch, works best when applied daily to the scrotum, an inconvenient spot, to put it mildly. Some doctors recommend that you warm that little spot with a blow dryer, which may or may not be fun.
All of that will change later this year when an easy to apply testosterone ointment, AndroGel, becomes generally available for the first
time by prescription. The company that developed it, Illinois-based Unimed Pharmaceuticals, promises that because AndroGel is administered once or more a day, it will produce a more even plateau of testosterone, avoiding the ups and downs of the shots. Though the body's own production of this hormone trails off gradually in men after the age of 30 or so, not many men now seek testosterone-replacement therapy (not that they necessarily need to) or even get their T levels tested. But replace the needles and patches with a gel, something you just rub into the skin like coconut oil during spring break at Daytona Beach, and suddenly the whole idea seems plausible.
Testosterone, after all, can boost muscle mass and sexual drive. (It can also cause liver damage and accelerate prostate cancer, but more on that later.) That makes it central to two of this culture's rising preoccupations: perfecting the male body and sustaining the male libido, even when the rest of the male has gone into retirement. So will testosterone become the next estrogen, a hormone that causes men to bang down their doctor's doors, demanding to be turned into Mr. T? Do not underestimate the appeal of any substance promising to restore the voluptuous powers of youth to the scuffed and dented flesh of middle age. If you happen to be a man, the very idea is bound to appeal to your inner hood ornament, to that image of yourself as all wind-sheared edges and sunlit chrome. And besides, there's the name: testosterone! Who can say no to something that sounds like an Italian dessert named after a Greek god?
But testosterone is at issue in larger debates about behavioral differences between men and women and which differences are biologically determined. A few Sundays ago, the New York Times Magazine ran a long piece by Andrew Sullivan, 36, the former editor of the New Republic, in which he reported his own experience with testosterone therapy. In two years he has gained 9 kg of muscle. And in the days right after his once-every-two-weeks shot, he reports feeling lustier, more energetic, more confident and more quarrelsome — more potent, in all senses of the word.
Looking over the scientific research on testosterone, Sullivan speculated on the extent to which such traits as aggression, competitiveness and risk taking, things we still think of as male behavior, are linked to the fact that men's bodies produce far more testosterone than women's bodies. His answer — a lot — was offered more as an intuition than a conclusion, but it produced a spate of fang baring among some higher primates in the media and scientific world, since it implies that gender differences owe more to biology than many people would like to believe. Three researchers wrote the Times to complain that Sullivan had overstated their thinking. In the online magazine Slate, columnist Judith Shulevitz attacked Sullivan for favoring nature over environment in a debate in which nobody knows yet which is which. In the days that followed, Sullivan fired back at Shulevitz in Slate, she attacked again, and other writers joined in. If testosterone use becomes a true cultural phenomenon, expect the conversations about its role in gender differences to become even more, well, aggressive.
So just what does testosterone actually do for you? And to you? And how does it figure among the physical and environmental pressures that account for head-banging aggression, or even just the trading pit on Wall Street? One reason testosterone enjoys a near mythical status is that myth is what takes over when conclusive data are scarce. Though testosterone was first isolated in 1935, hormone-replacement therapy is one of the few areas of medicine where research on men lags behind that on women.
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April 24, 2000
COVER STORY
The Incredible Bulk
Testosterone, which can increase libido and help build muscles, will be available soon in easy-to-use gel form. But it can cause liver damage and prostate cancer. Why are people willing to risk their health for it?
Never Too Buff
A new book reveals a troubling obsession: how male self-worth is increasingly tied to body image
Viewpoint
Joel Stein worries about his testosterone
EUROPE
Blowing the Whistle on the Past
A former Czech political dissident hunts down communist-era secret police collaborators
Neither Here Nor There
Serbs who deserted the war in Kosovo are finding no welcome in the West
History Wins, Irving Loses
Controversial historian David Irving loses his libel suit and is branded a pro-Nazi falsifier of history
Viewpoint
Rich Westerners make poor advocates for their friends in the Third World
Viewpoint
Law enforcers must learn to move faster to snare global lawbreakers
MIDDLE EAST
Withdrawal Symptoms
Syria vacillates as Israel seeks world support for a plan to pull its troops out of southern Lebanon
Jews on Trial
An Iranian spy case undermines an ancient minority and a modern President
THE ARTS
The Rem Movement
Architecture is changing. The proof? Its biggest prize, the Pritzker, goes to a thinker rather than a pure designer
Performed with True Passion
The English National Opera brings Bach to vivid dramatic life
The End of Innocence
Ishiguro's new novel, When We Were Orphans, probes the wounds of vanished childhood
DEPARTMENTS
Techwatch
World Watch
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