# testosterone shared by all males?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testosterone-shared-by-all-males/148016>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 11, 2003, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testosterone-shared-by-all-males/148016 "2003-01-11T21:31:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testosterone-shared-by-all-males/148016/1 "2003-01-11T21:31:42Z")

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Is the chemical _testosterone_ common to all mammalian males? Avian and reptilian males? Amphibian males?

I realize women have it too but in much smaller concentrations.

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**Author:** ![DAVEW0071](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e19b73/32.png) [@DAVEW0071](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DAVEW0071)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testosterone-shared-by-all-males/148016/2 "2003-01-11T22:18:07Z")

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It would appear so.

> **[The Record - The Source - Washington University in St. Louis](https://source.wustl.edu/record/)**
>
> Est. reading time: 1 minute

This site doesn’t discuss whether cocks have testosterone, but the overall discussion seems to indicate a common knowledge that they do.

[http://www.uni.edu/walsh/SEXDEV.html](http://www.uni.edu/walsh/SEXDEV.html)

About halfway down the page, under the heading “Another of Mother Nature’s Jokes”, the first paragraph mentions testosterone in (apparently fetal) rats. It also notes elsewhere that “part of medial preoptic hypothalamus shows testosterone-related size differences.” This is Greek to me, of course, but indicates a presence of testosterone in rat brains.

[http://www.fcsc.usgs.gov/basis/Ecotoxicology\_Program/4945/4945.html](http://www.fcsc.usgs.gov/basis/Ecotoxicology_Program/4945/4945.html)

“discusses development and validation of procedures for measuring estradiol, testosterone, dihydrotestosterone and progesterone and early sex identification in select amphibian plasma and tissue.” Conclusion? If they’re trying to measure it, it must be there.

Another site I found indicates that testosterone is responsible for the development of the testes and sperm. Therefore, it may be relatively safe to conclude that any male animal that produces spermatozoa should be producing testosterone.

I’m not a doctor or any kind of an expert regarding body chemistry, but from the results of my brief online search, it would appear that testosterone is fairly common in the animal kingdom.

If anyone knows different, please set me right.

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**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testosterone-shared-by-all-males/148016/3 "2003-01-11T22:19:46Z")

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No.

I have my own supply, and I don’t share it with ANYONE.
