The Cortisol-Testosterone Trade-off Nobody Explains
When the body perceives sustained threat, a deadline that never ends, financial pressure, fractured sleep, it prioritises cortisol production above almost everything else. Cortisol and testosterone are both synthesised from the same precursor: cholesterol. Under chronic stress, the body effectively redirects that raw material toward cortisol because survival takes precedence over reproduction. The result is a measurable drop in testosterone that has nothing to do with age.
