Relative to industrialized populations, men from subsistence groups exhibit lower testosterone values and more modest declines with age. Limited energy availability has been hypothesized to suppress testosterone production, particularly during young adulthood when testosterone levels are highest, resulting in a flatter trajectory of age-decline. Energetic constraint, however, is not unique to the evolutionary ecology of humans, and yet significant age-related testosterone decline is observed in numerous species of wild primates. Conversely, human life history is distinguished by extensive bi-parental care and male provisioning. Because fathers show decreased testosterone with parenting effort, we argue that within more naturalistic and evolutionarily relevant ecologies, natural fertility and earlier reproduction suppresses testosterone in emerging adulthood such that a lower relative baseline dictates less age-decline across the remaining lifespan. We examine men’s testosterone levels as contrasting functions of energetic status and paternal involvement across three traditional populations with substantial variability in men’s nutritional condition and parental investment. Anthropometric and demographic data along with saliva samples were collected from 70 Datoga, 29 Hadza, and 43 Qom men, ages 20–72 years. Population variation in salivary testosterone was greatest at younger ages and patterned so paternal involvement associated with lower morning and evening testosterone, along with diminished age-decline in both measures. Men’s energetic status as indicated by body mass index was not associated with testosterone values or age-related decline. Within socioecological contexts of smaller scale society, these data suggest that blunted age-decline in men’s testosterone levels is primarily due to population variation in parental investment rather than energetic constraint.

中文翻译：

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Datoga牧民，Hadza觅食者和Qom过渡性觅食者之间男性生活史，年龄和睾丸激素水平的比较

相对于工业化人口，自给自足人群的男性睾丸激素值较低，随着年龄的增长下降幅度较小。假设能量供应有限会抑制睾丸激素的产生，特别是在成年期睾丸激素水平最高的情况下，这会导致年龄下降的趋势更平坦。然而，能量约束并不是人类进化生态所独有的，然而在许多野生灵长类动物中观察到与年龄相关的睾丸激素显着下降。相反，人类生活史以广泛的双亲照顾和男性供养为特征。由于父亲在养育子女的过程中睾丸激素水平降低，因此我们认为，在更具自然主义和进化相关性的生态系统中，自然的生育力和较早的生殖抑制了成年成年期的睾丸激素，因此较低的相对基线表明在剩余寿命中年龄下降的幅度较小。我们检查了男性的睾丸激素水平，这是三个传统人群的精力充沛状态和父辈参与的对比功能，男性的营养状况和父母投资存在很大差异。从70名Datoga，29名Hadza和43名Qom男性（年龄20-72岁）收集了人体测量学和人口统计学数据以及唾液样本。唾液睾丸激素的种群变化在年轻年龄时最大，且其规律是父系参与与早，晚睾丸激素降低有关，并且这两种方法的年龄下降都减少。体重指数表明男性的精力充沛状态与睾丸激素值或与年龄相关的下降无关。在较小规模社会的社会生态环境中，这些数据表明，男性睾丸激素水平下降的年龄下降主要是由于父母投资中的人口变化而不是精力充沛的制约。