Yes, the protective nature the respective steroids provide against one another is very useful. I’m in complete agreement that there is not enough data on the absolute e2 level.
I tend to believe it can only cause issues but it would seem as though a low e2 in the presence of high androgens is certainly toxic. The ratio issue does hold true. This however is not a license to run supraphysiological amounts of testosterone because absolute levels may still prove detrimental in a dose dependent manner. We simply do not know yet. But the neurosteroid enhancement of the androgenic metabolites is what men are chasing with their increasing doses of testosterone. E2 is just a consequence.
Androgens, especially the metabolites of testosterone, can be another reason people opt to run higher testosterone levels. Androgen metabolites increase t4 to t3 conversion. And healthy thyroid numbers also equal more metabolites. Which comes first? I believe either can effect the other.
People have lower metabolic function especially cellular thyroid function and lower creation of metabolites. They take supraphysiological amounts of testosterone to improve their load of androgenic metabolites that they are just under converting.
That’s why we need to just begin also supplementing metabolites and keeping everything physiological.
I also have my doubts to the anticipated conversion rates we have for estradiol and dht. We will see with my bloodwork. I believe that there may be much more conversion peripherally than what we see in serum. The serum measurement is what our ratio’s currently speak to. Not the cellular load.
I’d be hesitant to think that systemic estradiol makes its way back into organs such as testes. For example exogenous Dht does not raise intra prostatic dht levels. Maybe clomiphene elevates lh too high causing higher intra testicular e2 or some other direct action of clomiphene. While I cannot dispute the correlations, I’m nervous to accept a clomiphene study on its own because it is indeed a different animal than testosterone therapy.
There are many men with low testosterone that feel like super hero’s because they have robust conversion of dht and e2. Some men have high testosterone but deficiency or less than ideal 5ar activity. They are muscular but have sexual dysfunction or small genitalia in more extreme cases micropenis.
