Link between TRT and hypothyroidism?

[rifter]

I'm dead sure this has been explained already on these boards but the correlation is so prevalent that I cant find a post which explains the reason why so many men on TRT are hypothyroid as well. i.e, is hypothyroidism a symptom of TRT? Are they both a symptom of the same underlying problem? Are men's pituitary glands just dying after 30?

If someone can send me a link to an explanation, i'd greatly appreciate it.

 

[Vince]

Does Testosterone Replacement Affect the Thyroid?​

https://www.excelmale.com/forum/showthread.php?3950-Does-Testosterone-Replacement-Affect-the-Thyroid

I have found no paper on the effect of testosterone replacement on TSH, free T3, free T4, etc

After reading several papers, my opinion is that TRT has no clinically significant effect on thyroid function in men with normal thyroid unless you block aromatization to estradiol.



One study showed that the use of an androgen that does not get converted to estradiol affects the way the thyroid gland responds to thyroid releasing hormone (TRH):

"Fluoxymesterone, an androgen not converted to estrogen, caused a significant decrease in the TSH response to TRH in 11 men with primary hypogonadism [maximum change in TSH: before treatment, 11.3 ° 0.9 juU/ml (mean ° SE); 8.9 ° 1.0 after 2 weeks (P < 0.001); 8.2 ° 1.1 after6 weeks (P < 0.01)]. There was a significant fall in serum T

[SUB]i[/SUB]

−binding globulin (TBG) (measured directly by RIA) without a change in the free T​

[SUB]4[/SUB]

or free T​

[SUB]3[/SUB]

index.
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http://press.endocrine.org/doi/abs/10.1210/jcem-52-2-173

This study looked at the effect of hCG (which raises T and E2):

After 3 months of hCG treatment, there was a marked rise in serum estradiol as well as testosterone. Serum T4 was reduced without a change in T3, T3 resin uptake, or TBG. Furthermore, there was no alteration in the TSH response to TRH.
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6408116

This study showed the effect of anabolic steroids on thyroid function. However, it does not mention if the were aromatising anabolics or not. My opinion is that estradiol has a normalizing effect on thyroid function. Low E2 may be the cause for these results:

During the use of steroids significant decreases (P < 0.05 to 0.001) in the serum concentrations of thyroid stimulating hormone, thyroxine, triidothyronine, free thyroxine, and thyroid hormone-binding globulin (TBG) were found, whereas the value of triidothyronine uptake increased (P < 0.001). In relation to the changes in the thyroid function param eters measured, we suggest that the primary target of androgen action was TBG biosynthesis.

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http://ajs.sagepub.com/content/15/4/357.short

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[1Draw]

I'm dead sure this has been explained already on these boards but the correlation is so prevalent that I cant find a post which explains the reason why so many men on TRT are hypothyroid as well. i.e, is hypothyroidism a symptom of TRT? Are they both a symptom of the same underlying problem? Are men's pituitary glands just dying after 30?

If someone can send me a link to an explanation, i'd greatly appreciate it.

TRT by itself does not cause thyroid problems. What DOES cause problems are low iron levels which come from having to donate blood to keep HCT in line that many of us experience on TRT. Check this link out, no study but several other thyroid websites state the same thing -

https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/reverse-t3/

With a lot of us having to donate every 8 weeks, our Ferritin tanks which causes an iron deficiency in the body which causes thyroid problems.

 

[Vince Carter]

Great posts above but what also happens is that guys get in to TRT and Thyroid diagnosis (past misdiagnosis) comes up very frequently as the condition just get's a lot more exposure once a guy comes in to TRT when all the low T symptoms don't seem to resolve solely with TRT.