If you’re here, it’s probably because you’re feeling tired more often than usual. And, like always, chances are you may suspect it has something to do with stress caused by things like work or family duties.
But what you might notice differently now is that you’re feeling even more tired than before, or your fatigue seems to linger longer than usual and it’s harder than ever to overcome. When fatigue lingers like this, it’s often a sign that something deeper is going on. There is a way to overcome this malaise, and, no, it has nothing to do with increasing your caffeine intake or increasing your willpower. It could be linked to low testosterone.
Testosterone plays a central role in how energized, focused, and driven you feel each day. When levels drop, the effects often show up first as constant fatigue, low motivation, and a short fuse.
Causes of Low Testosterone
Low testosterone doesn’t only affect men who are unhealthy, inactive, or aging rapidly. Lots of men experiencing symptoms are trying to do everything right. So, what is a major cause of low testosterone? One is chronic stress. When stress is ongoing, the body produces more cortisol, and elevated cortisol doesn’t just wear you down, it interferes with testosterone production. Over time, the body prioritizes survival over performance, and hormone levels shift.
Sleep also plays a major role. Testosterone is primarily produced during deep sleep. Even modest, consistent sleep disruption can significantly impact testosterone levels without you realizing it.
The modern lifestyle doesn’t help. Long periods of sitting, reduced physical recovery, excess body fat, and blood sugar instability all influence hormonal balance. Environmental factors, including endocrine-disrupting chemicals found in plastics and personal care products, add another layer most men never consider.
Age plays a factor too. Testosterone doesn’t suddenly drop off a cliff at a certain birthday. It often declines gradually, starting earlier than expected, especially when combined with stress, poor sleep, or metabolic strain.
The key takeaway is that low testosterone isn’t a personal failure or a sign of weakness. It’s often the result of compounding, everyday factors and many of them are outside your immediate control.
Checking Testosterone Levels
When you start addressing what’s underneath them, the entire conversation changes.
Getting your testosterone checked isn’t a commitment to treatment. it’s objective data that helps explain what your body has been trying to tell you. A proper evaluation goes beyond a single number on a lab report. It looks at total and free testosterone, how your symptoms align with your levels, and whether other factors like sleep, stress, or metabolic health are contributing to how you feel.
Sometimes, just this step brings things into focus for men. For some, levels come back normal, and attention can shift to other areas. For others, the results finally explain why “doing all the right things” hasn’t worked.
If you’ve been tired for longer than you can remember, the simplest step isn’t another supplement, another coffee, or another attempt to push through.
The Next Steps
At Thunderbird Men’s Health, we start with a comprehensive testosterone level check and a one-on-one consultation to understand what’s really going on. From there, we determine whether treatment is appropriate—and if so, which approach is right for you.
Click the button below to schedule an appointment today with our medical staff.
This article has been reviewed by Dr. Jordan Glenn.