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Men's Sexual Health and Fertility pp 31–43Cite as

Physiology of Testosterone Production

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Abstract

Androgens play an essential role in the development of male reproductive organs, the maintenance of male fertility, and the preservation of secondary male sexual characteristics. The production of testosterone, the dominant circulating androgen, is a finely balanced process with many points of potential regulation, starting with the translocation of cholesterol across the mitochondrial membrane and ending with the negative feedback of testosterone at level of the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland. This chapter explores the physiology of testosterone production, beginning with its intracellular synthesis and steroidogenic conversion, and then follows testosterone’s transport across the cell membrane and into circulation. Regulation of this system via the hypothalamic–pituitary–testis axis is reviewed. Finally, this discussion concludes with two increasingly prevalent clinical circumstances in which testosterone physiology is altered: the metabolic syndrome and the aging male.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Joseph W. McQuaid

  2. Department of Urology, MGH Fertility Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 55 Fruit Street, YAW-10A, Boston, MA, 02114, USA

    Cigdem Tanrikut

Authors
  1. Joseph W. McQuaid
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  2. Cigdem Tanrikut
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Correspondence to Cigdem Tanrikut .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, USA

    John P. Mulhall

  2. Department of Urology, Kaiser Permanente, Oakland Medical Center, Oakland, California, USA

    Wayland Hsiao

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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McQuaid, J.W., Tanrikut, C. (2014). Physiology of Testosterone Production. In: Mulhall, J., Hsiao, W. (eds) Men's Sexual Health and Fertility. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0425-9_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0425-9_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-0424-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-0425-9

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