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Contribution of dihydrotestosterone to male sexual behaviour
C S Mantzoros1, E I Georgiadis, D Trichopoulos
1401 Military Hospital, Athens, Greece.
Objective:
To document the relative importance of endogenous sex steroids in modulating the frequency of orgasms, the dominant aspect of sexual behaviour in healthy eugonadal men.
Design:
Measurement of adrenal and testicular sex steroids in a sample of army recruits and study of their relation to frequency of orgasms ascertained by questionnaire after potential confounding variables were controlled for.
Setting:
Military campus and military hospital laboratories in Athens, Greece.
Subjects:
92 consecutively enrolled healthy male recruits aged 18-22 years.
Main Outcome Measures:
Weekly number of orgasms. Serum concentrations of testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate, dihydrotestosterone, oestradiol, oestrone, delta-4-androstenedione, and sex hormone binding globulin.
Results:
Serum dihydrotestosterone concentration was the only independent hormonal predictor of the frequency of orgasms; an increase in concentration of 1.36 nmol/l (about 2 SD) corresponded to an average increase of one orgasm a week.
Conclusions:
Differences in concentrations of circulating dihydrotestosterone within the normal range may represent a major predictor of sexual activity in healthy young men.