More and more men are taking supplemental testosterone due to decreasing levels globally. One common question from patients is whether testosterone supplementation will make them taller.
The answer is usually no, but it depends. In this article we’ll explain why testosterone supplementation isn’t likely to make you taller.
Unless you begin testosterone therapy while still in your pubescent years (i.e., in your teens), it will not make you grow significantly taller. The reason for this is that long bone growth stops near the end of puberty.
What Factors Influence Height?
Growth hormones made in the pituitary glands have the greatest impact on stature. These include human growth hormone (HGH) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1).
Though testosterone is not a growth hormone, it does stimulate the production of HGH and IGF-1. This is why high testosterone levels can lead to an increase in height, especially during puberty.
A growth hormone deficiency, however, may cause problems in the growth plate in stimulating growth and may end up making someone shorter.
During infant and childhood development, the human growth hormone is responsible for the elongation of bones. At this time in their lives, children undergo stages of continuous growth.
Children grow at a rate of 2.5 to 3.5 inches per year from the ages of two to five years old. Growth begins to slow down at about 2.5 inches per year for children aged 10 and above.
As they enter their pubescent stages at around 11 to 21 years of age, they will grow to their final height. Around this time, the growth plates in their bones stop creating new bones.
As people continue to age, they may also start losing height.
Testosterone is Generally Associated With Decreased Height
One of the counterintuitive things about testosterone is that even though it’s an extremely important hormone for male development, it has been associated with decreased height in studies.
One medical study found that low levels of testosterone had a growth-promoting effect, while higher levels had an inhibitory effect on height development. This was a longitudinal study so no treatments were given to the adolescent boys; their growth and testosterone levels were simply tracked over time.
Supplemental testosterone therapy has also been used in medical research as a treatment for excessive height in boys, suggesting it can actually make you shorter instead of taller. The linked study used testosterone therapy in adolescent boys with extremely tall stature as an effective treatment measure for reducing final height.
What’s fascinating about these two medical studies is they suggest both naturally-produced and exogenous (supplemental) testosterone have a height-reducing effect.
This is exactly the opposite of much advice online and popular discourse. Since tall men are generally considered more masculine it has often been assumed that testosterone can make you taller, but medical studies evidence the opposite effect.
Growth Hormone is What Increases Height
There has been significant medical research on supplemental growth hormone for increasing height in adolescents, and this compound can in fact increase height.
Testosterone and growth hormone are often confused because both are often supplemented by men for performance benefits, but they serve significantly different functions in the body and during vertical growth.
Testosterone is the primary hormone that drives secondary sexual characteristics in men, which causes increased muscle mass, changes to vocal cords, and increased body hair production.
Growth hormone is produced in significant amounts by both men and women, and influences the height of both genders. Growth hormone therapy is even a standard treatment for short stature. One medical study found it to be effective in increasing adult height when administered to children, and another study reached the same conclusion. These are just two examples, and there are many further studies on growth hormone’s height-promoting effects (both naturally and supplementally).
We want to be clear that we are not recommending growth hormone treatment to increase height in children, but just sharing some of the published research. Hormone therapy in children and adolescents is risky and should be discussed with a doctor. Get our most popular articles straight to your inbox
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