Are you still also not understanding this either?
Essential Points
- Circulating levels of DHT in response to testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) do not correlate with those found in androgen sensitive tissue (e.g., prostate, adipose, muscle) due to local regulatory mechanisms that tightly control intracellular androgen homeostasis.
Madman, the problem as I see it here is MANY if not MOST men here aren't doing just testosterone replacement.
Taking HCG increases testicular testosterone and mimics LH causing a high LH level despite having a high testosterone level, I believe the prostate also has LH receptors. DHEA "backfills the pathways", testosterone applied on the scrotum not only increases testosterone but also increases DHT. Many also take pregnenolone.
So IMO one or more of those adjunct hormones we take OVERRIDE the mechanism that androgen-sensitive tissues use to "self-regulate tissue DHT levels by downregulating its synthesis and upregulating metabolism during DHT excess."
I would be especially suspect of HCG, since as noted by many, there are LH receptors in many places in the body.
What tends to be studied, if anything all all is studied, is raising one hormone in isolation.
We know the prostate is small at birth (1.5 g) and remains so until early puberty when it increases in size via an androgen-dependent pubescent growth phase from 10 g to an average of 20 g.
A lot is made about returning our hormone levels to "youthful" levels. Perhaps not all youthful levels are helpful?
I have a reason for thinking this way.
On five years of TRT only, my PSA level remained 2.4.2.8. After 4 months of TRT+HCG+DHEA+NDT my PSA went from 2.4>4.2.
What caused that increase, not sure, but I think for me it's far safer to stay on TRT only. (though I doubt thyroid hormones play any role in the prostate)
A study which won't be done because it's not ethical but would be useful, how does one use all of these hormones to deliberately increase prostate size in adult men? Can we use hormones to restore the prostate to it's youthful growth phase? Not that we want to, but is it possible?
One thing for sure, there aren't studies of what adding all these adjunct hormones to TRT causes, are there negative / positive effects from attempting to achieve an optimal level of many different hormones?