# Low testosterone is uncommon in men under 60

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/low-testosterone-is-uncommon-in-men-under-60/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Morgan McSweeney](https://realalpha.app/people/morgan-mcsweeney/) · Morgan McSweeney is a pharmaceutical scientist and medfluencer. · Translates medical evidence for the public and advises organizations, including the WHO and White House science office.
- Host: [Neil deGrasse Tyson](https://realalpha.app/people/neil-degrasse-tyson/)
- Host: [Chuck Nice](https://realalpha.app/people/chuck-nice/) · Comic
- Host: Gary O'Reilly · Comic
- Show: StarTalk
- Episode: [The Science of Looksmaxxing, with Doc Noc](https://realalpha.app/v/ESvls8ZUg58/), Oct 24, 2026
- Moment: 37:42 to 40:48 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/low-testosterone-is-uncommon-in-men-under-60/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/ESvls8ZUg58/?t=2262

## Quote

> “The percent of people under 60 who actually have low testosterone is **on the order of 1**”
> — [Morgan McSweeney](https://realalpha.app/people/morgan-mcsweeney/) at [38:35](https://realalpha.app/v/ESvls8ZUg58/?t=2315) · StarTalk

## Takeaways

1. He estimates prevalence at 1% under 60, 3% in the 60s, and 5% in the 70s.
2. Only one in seven of 51,000 symptomatic men aged 65 and older had low T.
3. Replacement into the normal range may help some sexual symptoms, mood, and bone density.

## About this segment

Morgan McSweeney estimates low testosterone affects about 1% of men under 60, rising with age. In a pool of 51,000 men aged 65 and older who reported symptoms, only one in seven had low testosterone.

From “The Science of Looksmaxxing, with Doc Noc”, Oct 24, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/ESvls8ZUg58/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[37:54](https://realalpha.app/v/ESvls8ZUg58/?t=2274) Okay. Anyway, that's enough of the jokes from me. Okay, lead in pencil. Is it that situation where you do naturally have diminishing testosterone over the years, or just is everybody different? Everybody is different, certainly. It's also a highly predatory market and it's not just for older men, right? You see people 20, 30 years old on social media talking about being on testosterone, which- Yeah, but are they being led towards that by an influencer of sorts?

[38:19](https://realalpha.app/v/ESvls8ZUg58/?t=2299) Yeah, there's this optimization culture, right? Where even people who, you know, if you asked a clinician, you know, do they need to have more testosterone? And they would give you the answer of no. There's these hormone clinics who are trying to convince you that, oh, your testosterone may be in the normal range, but maybe it should be a little bit higher in the normal range, which is very not backed by evidence.

[38:41](https://realalpha.app/v/ESvls8ZUg58/?t=2321) The percent of people under 60- I like that, very not backed by evidence. The percent of people under 60 who actually have low testosterone is on the order of 1%. In their 60s, it's like 3%. In their 70s, I think it's about 5%. When they tried to recruit people for the big clinical studies, they pooled 51,000 people, 65 plus men, who thought they had symptoms of low testosterone. If they tell you that enough on an ad, then you'll believe it.

[39:09](https://realalpha.app/v/ESvls8ZUg58/?t=2349) That's just it, isn't it? If you hear it enough times, it must be true. But you have to understand that those ads are positioned in the same way like the Zodiac is. They give you very general traits that we all share. Do you feel tired sometimes? Do you feel tired sometimes? We all share these traits, and then they say, you must have low T. Hey, does your chest go up and down when you breathe? Yeah.

[39:33](https://realalpha.app/v/ESvls8ZUg58/?t=2373) Yeah. I mean, 51,000 people who thought they had symptoms of low testosterone, six in seven of them did not. Only one in seven did. And so if you expand that out to the general population, it does happen. For people who do have low levels, replacement into the normal range. range can improve some things, particularly sexual symptoms, desire, libido, erection quality. Maybe some improvements in mood. There's a couple ingredients there. Nitric oxide and, surprisingly, cardiovascular health is super important. But if you do have truly low testosterone, replacing back into the normal range can help some sexual symptoms.

[40:13](https://realalpha.app/v/ESvls8ZUg58/?t=2413) Maybe it can help mood a little bit. It can help bone density. A lot of the stuff, though, that you hear or that you would like you're not going to hulk up from replacing into the normal range if you think about like bodybuilder testosterone steroid cycling that's going well beyond the replacement dose right which is a totally different ballgame with much greater risks and we've seen some of those risks with the roy raids yeah etc so my issue about the aging wasn't