To understand how emotional stress effects hormone secretion such as testosterone , we must look at how our body works a little bit. You see the human body is like a biomechanical robot and chains of commands are being formed every second from interactions we deal with. When your walking alone in the woods and a cool breeze developes , the nerve endings in your skin send a message to the brain that your cold and losing body heat.
Ultimately the nerves take that message to the hypothalamus (the major nerve terminal). Now the hypothalamus can respond in two ways : it can send out its own nervous impulses , stimulating the raising of body hair to control heat loss or it can ; through chemical secretions , increase blood circulation to maintain core body temperature.

Fear , anger , lust , just about all our conscious emotions apparently reach the hypothalamus. It is continuously busy , sending messages like “Tell the adrenal glands to secrete adrenalin! More thyrotrophin! Less aldosterone!” Sometimes input into the nervous system is so excessive that the hypothalamus overworks. Nervous tension can produce digestive disorders , or interefere with the liver , kidney , causing dangerous buildup of toxic substances, ect.

Both physical and emotional stress triggers the hypothalamus to stop stimulating the testes which leads to a downer of testosterone levels. According to several military studies , men who were training in hazardous conditions or deployed for combat had dropped testosterone levels than those that were recovering. The civilians had the highest testosterone levels.

Estrogen , the female sex hormone which stores fat is also an enemy of testosterone. Large quantities of estrogen can plummet testosterone levels and cause feminization. But it is a secondary enemy. The primary enemy is stress. Stress is a far more serious threat to masculainity as we know it than any other socialogical factor.