Wendy Zukerman

Okay.

So generally speaking, the testosterone levels didn't change throughout the entire experiment.

The researchers wrote baseline testosterone were, quote, similar before and after abstinence.

And in fact, the only time they saw a little bit of a bump in testosterone levels was after the fellas had their big wank on day 21.

Oh.

Right.

Which is odd because this is somehow being used as evidence that not fapping bumps up testosterone levels.

But to get the little boost of testosterone, you ultimately needed to wank.

So what is interesting is that other studies have shown this kind of thing too, that after you orgasm, and this is for both men and women, you do get a little bump of testosterone.

Okay.

It doesn't last very long.

It's just a little bump.

But it's something that we've seen in experiment after experiment.

And in fact, the only study that I could find that suggested something a little bit fappulous, if you're not into fapping, is this small study from China that reported that after men didn't ejaculate for a week, testosterone levels went up and then went down on day eight.

But the thing is that paper's been retracted.

So it's interesting this idea persists, and I think one thing that really annoyed Justin while he was doing that sort of doom-scrolling...

on this topic is that some of the benefits that people said flowed from this apparent bump in testosterone didn't make any sense to him.

So, for example, people said that their skin looked better and their hair was thicker.

And from other research, we know that when you get a boost in testosterone, say you've just gone through male puberty.

And when there's some research to suggest that when men go on testosterone replacement therapy, for some folks, they actually start losing their hair.