In my practice, I have certainly seen guys that have low numbers and the symptoms of low energy, depressed mood, low libido etc. I have seen some pretty impressive results on testosterone replacement as well. However, a lot of times, these depressed numbers are a symptom of another problem. Pharma has tried to convince us that this is a process of aging and to some extent it is, but the more common causes I see are obesity or physical/psychological stress. Obesity is not the issue for most of the group reading this, but the latter sure is. Overtraining will drop your T like a rock. I’ve seen plenty of overtrained 25-year-old athletes with an 80-year-old’s testosterone. Because of this, it’s easy for an athlete to “qualify” for testosterone. Think about it, the Masters athlete who is trying to balance training and a stressful job and family feels fatigued, grouchy, poor recovery, and low—that’s all of us at some point in the season.

This, of course, is not because of low T, the low T is usually a result of life. Testosterone will often help with these symptoms, but that’s analogous to taking cholesterol meds and continuing to eat cheeseburgers. Thanks to the inundation of testosterone ads to patients and doctors, male endurance athletes are prime targets to fall prey to the thought that they need to be on testosterone, and sadly, doctors who are pressed for time and only look at lab numbers can often get a low number on any masters athlete coming off a hard block of training.

Testosterone is a banned substance because it works 100% of the time. Any use gives that athlete an advantage over a similar athlete who doesn’t use it. As a fellow racer, it’s easy to look at your performance and think, “Man, I feel like something is off,” and if your doctor says your T is low, then you can easily go down that rabbit hole. Most guys aren’t consciously thinking about developing a sophisticated doping plan to win the Cat 4 series, rather, they want to simply race well and feel good.