If you’ve listened to any “manosphere” podcast, you might have some concerns about the state of American masculinity. No, not because people are actually listening to such stupid podcasts, but because the literal chemicals that many people use to define “masculinity” are decreasing in the population.

For years, these podcasters have been claiming that testosterone is down. In fact, they say it’s such a big problem that some people should consider “replacing” their testosterone levels — which also explains why your one older co-worker now has acne and anger issues.

It turns out that this panic might be based on a misunderstanding.

For years, testosterone was measured using a cheaper and less precise technique called immunoassay, which estimates testosterone indirectly using antibodies. Today, we rely on liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS), a more accurate and sensitive method that directly measures hormone levels.

The problem? We set all of our testosterone baselines using the previous method, which tended to overestimate testosterone levels. This means that the baseline for “normal” is likely much higher than it really should be given the new methods of measurement.

In short: average testosterone levels probably haven’t plummeted. Instead, our perception of what’s “normal” might just be inflated to begin with.

So, if you cut microplastics out of your diet due to testosterone fears, you can go back to eating credit cards again!