Men, Do Not Practice “Testicle Tanning” to Increase Testosterone Levels

The suggestion came up during "The End of Men," a recent Tucker Carlson segment that the entire internet rightly mocked

Tucker Carlson on stage before his speech during the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) Feszt on August 7, 2021 in Esztergom, Hungary
Tucker Carlson on stage before his speech during the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) Feszt on August 7, 2021 in Hungary.
Janos Kummer/Getty

In fear of dropping testosterone levels and sperm counts in men, Fox News personality Tucker Carlson seems overly excited by a potential solution: “testicle tanning.”

Some unfortunate backstory here: Per The Week, Carlson was recently interviewing fitness professional Andrew McGovern for an upcoming Tucker Carlson Originals episode entitled “The End of Men.” McGovern started discussing something called “red light therapy,” which involves using infrared light as a form of (sigh) “bromeopathic” therapy to increase testosterone levels; Carlson, meanwhile, began to refer to this as “testicle tanning” and just went with it.

“Half the viewers right now are like, ‘What?! Testicle tanning, that’s crazy!’” Carlson said. “But my view is: Okay, testosterone levels have crashed and nobody says anything about it, that’s crazy, so why is it crazy to seek solutions?”

Political commentator Elizabeth Spiers had the same reaction that most of would have had.

Weirdly, the next segment had Carlson trying to sell the idea to Kid Rock, who didn’t really embrace the concept.

Let’s break down a few things here:

  • Fox News once won a court case because a judge ruled no reasonable person would take Carlson seriously.
  • Testosterone levels are indeed dropping — and the reasons can’t quite be pinpointed to a particular cause or cultural/environmental shift. But as Neil Howe at Forbes noted a few years back, “A less testosterone-laden world might be less aggressive and more emotionally expressive.”
  • “Red light therapy” doesn’t appear to be a thing anyone is talking about professionally or medically, basically because the idea makes no sense.

If you’re worried about testosterone levels, talk to a professional. Like a doctor.

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