It will shock many guys to learn that researchers have uncovered the fact that sex is actually an excellent way to boost testosterone.
For example, one 1992 study examined four couples on days that they did and didn't have sexual activity.
As you can probably guess, they found that testosterone levels increased on nights after sexual activity and did not on nights where there was no intercourse.
The authors noted that their study showed that it was likely sex that increased testosterone and not the other way around.
This was verified in a study of senior men that found that more sex corresponded to higher testosterone (although there is a potential chicken-and-egg issue here).
Regardless, studies show that just the anticipation of sex in animals will increase testosterone levels.
In 2004 researchers did a study on the effects of Cialis and Viagra and observed that "lack of sexual activity due to erectile dysfunction (ED) decreases testosterone (T) levels through a central effect on the hypothalamic-pituitary axis.
" However, what was particularly interesting in this study was that males were given either Viagra or Cialis, yet the Cialis group had significantly higher testosterone levels than the Viagra group.
Of course, both of these drugs are PDE5 inhibitors and, therefore, boost nitric oxide, allowing more blood to flow into the penis.
However, Cialis has a significantly longer half life and that is the key to understanding the difference in testosterone.
The rule of thumb is that Cialis is effective for about 36 hours for most guys and Viagra for one evening and the researchers noted that sexual intercourse frequency was significantly higher in the Cialis group because of it.
That, in turn, meant that the higher testosterone levels of the Cialis cohort was likely because they had more confidence and better erections and, therefore, more sex than the Viagra group.
The researchers concluded that "as it is unlikely that the two drugs have a different direct effect on the pituitary-testis axis, this effect is probably due to the higher frequency of full sexual intercourse.
" So the bottom line is that multiple lines of evidence point to the fact that sex actually increases testosterone through mechanisms that are not thoroughly understood and should be considered one of the engines of increasing one's androgens naturally.