Reply to thread

It's a straightforward "yes" for men with functioning HPTAs because of the stimulation caused by lower estradiol; higher testosterone production means more DHT.


With TRT and HPTA suppression the subtle effects dominate, and I can only speculate that the answer is "probably", but I doubt it's significant. One factor is that isolated aromatase inhibition would tend to increase free testosterone by putting downwards pressure on its metabolic clearance rate. If free testosterone increases then DHT should also go up. Given that estradiol is only about 0.3-0.6% of testosterone and DHT is about 10% we're looking at a pretty small potential effect. Another factor is that estradiol has a little inhibitory activity at 5ar. The loss of estradiol then would put a little upwards pressure on the MCR for testosterone, downwards pressure on free testosterone and upwards pressure on DHT. Thus you have competing pressures on free testosterone, so it's hard to predict where it would end up. Nonetheless, I'd guess that the two mechanisms could lead to a small increase in DHT.


Back
Top