Reinberg et al. (38) studied 260 men undergoing vasectomy in France (median age 32 years) and found annual peaks for testosterone and LH in autumn, and an annual peak for FSH in summer.
Zirkin and Tenover (2012) reviewed the relationship between aging and declining testosterone levels.
Seasonal changes in serum gonadotropins and testosterone levels are observed in men between 35 and 57 years of age, while no such seasonal effect is evident in men younger than 35 or older than 57 years.
Inclusion criteria for the study required male patients to be older than 18 years and to have testosterone, luteinizing hormone (LH), and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) measured in the same venous blood sample taken in the morning after an overnight fast.
Total serum testosterone levels are directly related to luteinizing hormone (LH) (R = 0.147, p < 0.001), but not to follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) (R = -0.006, p = 0.482).
Nicolau et al. (1985) investigated circadian and circannual variations of FSH, LH, testosterone, DHEA-S, and 17-hydroxy progesterone in elderly men and women.
In the third group of patients studied, seasonal differences for both testosterone and luteinizing hormone (LH) were confirmed (p = 0.004 and p = 0.002, respectively), with the highest testosterone levels detected in summer (p = 0.002) and the highest LH levels in spring and autumn (p = 0.004 and p = 0.006, respectively).
Industrialization has increasingly shielded humans from daylight duration through indoor work and from environmental temperature through heating and air conditioning, potentially leading to a 'de-seasonalization' of human reproduction and testosterone fluctuation.
Sawhney et al. (39) studied 9 healthy men in Antarctica and found bi-annual peaks for testosterone in summer and autumn, with no seasonality detected for LH or FSH.
In the study population, 10,905 patients (90.6%) had testosterone serum levels within the laboratory reference range (2.2–8.7 ng/dL), while 311 patients (2.6%) had levels lower than the range and 817 patients (6.8%) had levels higher than the range.
The laboratory reference ranges used in the study were 2.2–8.7 ng/dL for testosterone, 1–9 IU/L for LH, 1–12 IU/L for FSH, and 3–13 ng/mL for PRL.
Research published in Chronobiol Int (1990) examined age and seasonal variation in serum testosterone concentration among men.
Patients with gonadotropin-releasing hormone deficiency exhibit pulsatile patterns of melatonin secretion, which are affected by testosterone treatment, according to a 1997 study by Luboshitzky et al.
The circannual fluctuations of testosterone and luteinizing hormone (LH) in males are possibly regulated by different mechanisms, with central regulation for LH and environmental regulation for testosterone.
To evaluate the role of age on sexual hormone variations, the researchers divided the entire cohort into quartiles based on age distribution and evaluated testosterone, LH, and FSH distribution among seasons within each quartile.
Of the 10 studies that detected testosterone fluctuations throughout the year, most highlighted an annual pattern, while only 3 detected a bi-annual pattern.
Perry et al. (37) studied 65 African-American males in the United States (age range 70–102 years) and found an annual peak for testosterone in winter.
In the fourth group of patients studied, no seasonal differences were detected for either testosterone (p = 0.155) or luteinizing hormone (LH) (p = 0.080).
The autocorrelation function applied to testosterone distribution identified two significant peaks (peak 1: 0.178, standard error 0.009, coefficient 380.13, Box-Ljung test, p < 0.001; peak 2: 0.045, standard error 0.009, coefficient 490.64, Box-Ljung test, p < 0.001), suggesting a seasonal component in an annual period.
The study 'Seasonal Changes of Serum Gonadotropins and Testosterone in...' analyzed testosterone, luteinizing hormone (LH), and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) measurements collected between January 2010 and January 2019 using Chemiluminescent Microparticle Immunoassay, excluding subjects with factors interfering with the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis.
Prolactin (PRL) serum levels in adult human males do not correlate with testosterone (Rho: 0.002, p = 0.804), luteinizing hormone (Rho: 0.005, p = 0.665), or follicle-stimulating hormone (Rho: 0.006, p = 0.734).
The testosterone zenith in males is reached at least 3 months after the luteinizing hormone (LH) peak, which may be a late consequence of the vernal LH peak.
The auto-ARIMA test selected the ARIMA (2,0,9) model as the best applicable model for evaluating seasonal testosterone patterns, with a mean of 4.59, standard error of 0.50, estimated sigma2 of 2.78, log likelihood of -18.78, Akaike's information criterion (AIC) of 41.55, and Bayesian information criterion (BIC) of 42.16.
The Wilcoxon Signed Rank test confirmed the seasonal distribution of testosterone (p = 0.001).
Adult human males exhibit a clear seasonal fluctuation of both luteinizing hormone (LH) and testosterone, though the annual fluctuation of these two hormones is not synchronous.
Testosterone serum levels in males reach their annual zenith during the summer, when environmental temperatures are higher and daylight duration is longest.
To evaluate the role of the environment on sexual hormones, the researchers performed bivariate correlations between testosterone, LH, and FSH and environmental factors including maximum, minimum, and mean temperatures, humidity, and daylight duration using Rho's Spearman correlation.
Dabbs et al. (30) studied 4,462 military veterans in the United States (age range 32–44 years) and found an annual peak for testosterone in autumn.
The study on seasonal changes of serum gonadotropins and testosterone in males concluded that there are biannual or circannual fluctuations of serum luteinizing hormone (LH) and testosterone, which suggests a seasonal influence on the pituitary-gonadal axis in humans.
The researchers compared the mean values of testosterone, LH, and FSH among seasons using the Kruskal-Wallis test, followed by post hoc analyses using the Tukey test.
In a study of adult human males, serum testosterone levels did not show a statistically significant seasonal variation (p = 0.288), with mean levels of 5.11 ng/dL in winter, 5.14 ng/dL in spring, 5.13 ng/dL in summer, and 5.08 ng/dL in autumn.
Testosterone levels showed a significant increasing trend from 2010 to 2018 in the study cohort, which may be explained by increasing environmental temperatures recorded during that period.
The Tromso study (Svartberg et al., 2003) investigated the seasonal variation of testosterone and waist-to-hip ratio in men.
Patients with primary and secondary hypogonadism exhibit seasonal variations in plasma gonadotropin, prolactin, and testosterone levels, suggesting an independent testicular role in these variations, according to Bellastella et al. (2013).
Maes et al. (33) studied 13 healthy men in Belgium (mean age 38.7 ± 13.4 years) and detected no seasonality for testosterone.
Testosterone serum levels were significantly different among seasons (p = 0.013), with higher levels observed in summer compared to autumn (p = 0.008).
The annual change in testosterone in adult human males shows wider variability in annual values compared to luteinizing hormone (LH), with testosterone levels fluctuating both below and above laboratory reference ranges, while luteinizing hormone fluctuations remain irrespective of the reference range.
The researchers used Pearson tests for normally distributed parameters and Spearman tests for non-normally distributed parameters to perform correlations among data in the study of serum gonadotropins and testosterone.
Meriggiola et al. (1996) examined annual patterns of luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, testosterone, and inhibin in normal men.
Testosterone seasonality remains statistically significant when considering only data within the laboratory reference range, although a significant zenith was not detected by mean differences among seasons (p = 0.288), suggesting that significant seasonal variability is more evident when including values outside the laboratory reference range.
Abbaticchio et al. (27) studied 248 infertile men in Italy (mean age 28.9 ± 7.5 years) and detected no seasonality for testosterone, LH, or FSH.
Gonadotropins, testosterone, and prolactin are the most investigated hormones for detecting the potential persistence of hormone seasonality in humans.
In the second group of patients studied, serum luteinizing hormone (LH) levels differed significantly among seasons (p < 0.001), with the highest levels occurring in spring and autumn (p < 0.001 and p = 0.005, respectively), though an annual peak for testosterone was not confirmed (p = 0.060).
Patient age is inversely related to serum testosterone levels (R = -0.148, p < 0.001) and directly related to luteinizing hormone (LH) (R = 0.185, p < 0.001) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) (R = 0.281, p < 0.001).
Perry et al. (2000) studied the relationship of testosterone and leptin in older African-American men to age, strength, function, and season.
Svartberg et al. (41) studied 1,548 healthy men in Norway (older than 25 years) and found bi-annual peaks for testosterone in winter and autumn.
The study detected a direct linear correlation between human testosterone levels and environmental temperatures, suggesting that low environmental temperatures may be less favorable for testicular steroidogenesis.
The researchers evaluated the distribution of testosterone, luteinizing hormone (LH), and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) based on the date of examination using autocorrelation analyses.
Bellastella et al. (28) studied 106 pre-pubertal males in Italy (age range 6–10 years) and found an annual peak for testosterone in summer and an annual peak for LH in winter, with no seasonality detected for FSH.
Martikainen et al. (34) studied 22 young men in Finland and detected no seasonality for testosterone, LH, or FSH.
Lee et al. (32) studied 3,369 men in Europe (age range 40–79 years) as part of the European Male Aging Study and detected no seasonality for testosterone.
Testosterone, LH, and FSH levels in the study cohort were not normally distributed (p < 0.001).
Nicolau et al. (36) studied 63 healthy men in Romania (mean age 77.0 ± 8.0 years) and found annual peaks for testosterone and LH, but no seasonality for FSH.
The ARIMA (2,0,9) model results for testosterone were confirmed when considering only the last year of observation, yielding an estimated sigma2 of 2.82 and a log likelihood of -17.02.
Studies evaluating testosterone fluctuations in males are not homogeneously distributed globally, with only a few latitudes having been studied.
Dai et al. (31) studied 243 men in the United States (age range 35–73 years) as part of the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial and detected no seasonality for testosterone.
The ARIMA (1,1,1) model, which accounts for a stochastic trending component (d = 1), confirmed the seasonality of testosterone with a mean of 1.84, standard error of 0.10, estimated sigma2 of 1.84, log likelihood of 38.4, AIC of 61.39, and BIC of 75.18.
Most industrialized populations studied continue to exhibit an annual pattern of testosterone fluctuation despite modern lifestyle changes.
Hyperthermia-induced endoplasmic reticulum stress suppresses testosterone production by a Leydig tumor cell line in mice, according to a 2016 study published in Life Sciences.
Testosterone seasonal fluctuation in males is likely influenced primarily by environmental factors rather than internal pituitary-testicular rhythmicity.
Meriggiola et al. (35) studied 16 healthy men in Italy and found annual peaks for testosterone, LH, and FSH in summer.
The study 'Seasonal Changes of Serum Gonadotropins and Testosterone in Men Revealed by a Large Data Set of Real-World Observations Over Nine Years' was published in Frontiers in Endocrinology on January 10, 2020.
Hormonal seasonality in males is lost after 57 years of age, coinciding with a progressive decline in testosterone levels that likely limits yearly hormonal changes.
Testosterone in adult human males shows a single annual peak in the summer.
Bellastella et al. (29) studied 10 healthy men in Italy (age range 25–30 years) and found an annual peak for testosterone in autumn and an annual peak for LH in spring, with no seasonality detected for FSH.
If the rhythmicity of testosterone and luteinizing hormone reflected a direct connection between the pituitary gland and the testicle, there would be two testosterone peaks every year.
Prepubertal males exhibit circannual rhythms of plasma luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, testosterone, prolactin, and cortisol, according to a 1983 study by Bellastella et al.
Testosterone levels in humans correlate with environmental temperatures, with testosterone levels rising as environmental temperatures increase and reaching their highest values in summer.
In the first group of patients studied, serum luteinizing hormone (LH) and testosterone levels did not differ significantly among seasons (p = 0.773 and p = 0.301, respectively).
The study on seasonal changes of serum gonadotropins and testosterone in males identified several strengths: it evaluated a large number of men living at the same latitude over a long time-frame, excluded participants with known diseases affecting the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, and measured both testosterone and gonadotropins serum levels.
Serum total testosterone in adult human males is directly related to maximum, minimum, and mean daily temperatures, as well as daylight duration, but is not related to humidity.
A mean testosterone increase of 0.44 ng/dL was detected in the study cohort after the 9-year evaluation period from 2010 to 2018.
In a study of seasonal hormonal variations, serum testosterone levels in males were measured as 5.36 ng/dL in winter, 5.35 ng/dL in spring, 5.44 ng/dL in summer, and 5.26 ng/dL in autumn, with a p-value of 0.013.
Testosterone levels showed a significant trend across years and a seasonal distribution, which was confirmed by the Box-Ljung test (X-squared = 10.989, degrees of freedom = 8, p-value = 0.022).
The study observed an increasing trend of environmental temperatures across the years of observation, which correlates with increasing testosterone serum levels.
The ancestral secretory pattern of hormones adaptive to seasons in various animal species may be gradually disappearing in humans, as evidenced by the limited amplitude of testosterone and luteinizing hormone (LH) fluctuations across the year, the absence of seasonality in the youngest and oldest age groups, and reduced exposure to environmental factors in the industrialized era.
A relationship between testosterone and melatonin secretion has been suggested in scientific literature.
Maes et al. (1997) analyzed components of biological variation, including seasonality, in blood concentrations of TSH, TT3, FT4, PRL, cortisol, and testosterone in healthy volunteers.
A review of 15 clinical trials regarding testosterone seasonality found that 10 studies (66.7%) detected testosterone fluctuations throughout the year, while 5 studies did not.
Smals et al. (40) studied 15 healthy men in the United States (mean age 33.5 ± 5.9 years) and found bi-annual peaks for testosterone in summer and autumn.
The study on seasonal changes of serum gonadotropins and testosterone in males had several limitations: patients were evaluated only once, testosterone levels were measured using commercial kits rather than the gold-standard liquid-chromatography tandem mass-spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), there was no data on liver function to assess sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) changes, and semen analyses were only available for a small subgroup of patients.