Delving into the sex hormones connection

[ErgogenicHealth]

I can't answer your questions but I have some anecdotal evidence that supports your theory. Venlofaxine was terrible for me and I think had some kind of hormonal influence- I had night sweats, weight gain, much higher susceptibility to illness and injury, and much less muscular endurance. I tried horny goat weed, which has estrogenic properties, and it immediately aggravated my PSSD and brought back the symptoms of vastly decreased muscular endurance (I believe this is due to decreased nitric oxide). I had my prolactin checked and it was just outside of normal range, although my doctor said that was normal due to being on escitalopram. But it could also have been elevated due to lowered dopamine availability.

I agree that there is certainly a sex hormone connection, beyond just low testosterone.

Look what I found about Horny Goat Weed:
We found that CMS procedure significantly increased CRF expression levels in the brain regions, and decreased GR and 5-HTR1A in hippocampus and frontal cortex, with sucrose intake reduction representing the hedonic deficit in rats. Icariin restored these alterations in CMS rats. These results confirmed the hypothesis that icariin exerted antidepressant-like effect via its regulation of central CRF system.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19631474

[PsychoGenesis]

What do you guys think about SARMs? Has anyone tried it?

the SARMS we have today are shitty and not well studied, on the other hand we have extensively studied sarm-like steroids i.e nandrolone


why i believe nandrolone might help the condition??

first lets review what leds to silencing of AR

DHT reduced by 30-90% in tissues expressing 5a
increase in the number and sensitivity of AR occurs to keep stimulation with testo in the same tissues
when you stop the use of medications suddenly DHT gets back in levels ~ 300% greater than before
DHT alone is 5x more androgenic than testosterone
epigenetic silencing occurs in response to superexpression of AR

Insensitive AR >> activation threshold is greatly reduced
hypothalamus receives the signal that the body has enough testo when in fact it does not
less LH production >> less testo >>> follows the loop....

ime this theory is on point

testo triggers a negative feedback loop, we can´t use it to resentitize AR:
im experiencing it myself now as i got back from PCT and injected T my morning wood is gone(only thing changed, doing enanthate EOD and TRT dose)
bloodwork confirmed lower than ref range LH and SHBG, im yet to test 5-ar metabolites


now here are some differences between the two hormones


testosterone and DHT:

# 5ar-reduced metabolite that is more androgenic, which in a low test scenario and desensitized AR would lead to upregulated 5-ar, i assume

#high affinity for SHBG, makes hard to test things having one more variable to deal, also androgens reduce SHBG leading to another feedback loop which too is amplified by the hypersensitive AR



Nandrolone and DHN

# low androgenic nature of DHN will 1)force the AR to sensitize where it expresses 5ar or 2)downregulate the 5ar itself(https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/ful ... 09.00439.x)(this is very interesting)

# in case (2) higher androgenicity of nandrolone and/or low SHBG affinity will keep androgen receptors from increasing in sensitivity/number until 5ar comes back to normal(after cycle, which according to reports can take 2 months)



there´s also some neurotransmitter changes with nandrolone which i see as interesting FOR US like:

sensitization to amphetamines/MDMA
sensitization of some dopamine receptors
increased dopamine in the mesolimbic pathway
increased DAT expression
blocked SERT increase in response to stress

more info here from Dr. MezDez

https://www.reddit.com/r/PEDsR/comments ... potential/

[Truskawa]

sensitization to amphetamines/MDMA

Do you think that it has anything to do with one user reporting recovery after taking MDMA+psilocybin??
Is injecting nandrolone the only way to cure our condition if this theory is true?? Because I am willing to try.

[mmbkk]

I've been on Clomid for ~4 years. I had great results being on an SSRI + Clomid for 3.5 years. After stopped, I had a 1 week window on Clomid where everything feels great. After that it seems the estrogen side effects slowly accumulate. Contemplating a switch to toremifene.

[PsychoGenesis]

sensitization to amphetamines/MDMA

Do you think that it has anything to do with one user reporting recovery after taking MDMA+psilocybin??
Is injecting nandrolone the only way to cure our condition if this theory is true?? Because I am willing to try.

maybe, but i tried MD/shrooms and got nothing on the ED department

[PsychoGenesis]

i think the pharmacodynamics are even more interesting here, if you read that reddit link again you'll see that the finasteride/nandro combo has exactly the opposite effect

with the supposed AR silencing it gets upregulated slowly then when fina is removed suddenly, AR overexpression and silencing occurs

with the combo it gets downregulated slowly(thanks to nandrolone being one of the most androgenic compounds)

5ar likely becomes upregulated also

then when fina is removed suddenly, all that nandrolone gets converted to DHN which signals the downregulated gene to re-express itself


we are talking at least 4 weeks for the gene expression phase and 2 weeks for the AR re-expression

going to try it after the testosterone trial im doing now

[Truskawa]

Do you think that something could be achieved with SSRI microdosing from a theoritical point of view assuming that AR is really the case?

[succubus76]

A week or two after sertraline, at one moment, I remember i felt like if my entirely masculinity was stripped away from me so harshly.
Like if my hormones crash very suddenly. My gland become the size of a clitoris, my aggressive thoughts completely disappears, my interest in woman totally 0, my ambition for power and dominance was gone. All these characteristic Male traits were gone in like a 5 minute thing. I knew it was some very powerful hormone reaction, sadly, didnt have the opportunity to check my hormones at the very moment.
Seems that I'm the only one that got that sudden hormonal crash. Some of these trait were recover, but not 100%, I still need to check my hormones, but I suspect they are going to be normal at this point.

[PsychoGenesis]

A week or two after sertraline, at one moment, I remember i felt like if my entirely masculinity was stripped away from me so harshly.
Like if my hormones crash very suddenly. My gland become the size of a clitoris, my aggressive thoughts completely disappears, my interest in woman totally 0, my ambition for power and dominance was gone. All these characteristic Male traits were gone in like a 5 minute thing. I knew it was some very powerful hormone reaction, sadly, didnt have the opportunity to check my hormones at the very moment.
Seems that I'm the only one that got that sudden hormonal crash. Some of these trait were recover, but not 100%, I still need to check my hormones, but I suspect they are going to be normal at this point.

no I'm the same bro, 4 days on ssri here

it got a little better but I'm not satisfied yet, i want the raging boners i got on a TRT dose of test, high libido high energy,

its not about plasma hormone levels but the androgen receptor sensitivity/function

anything less than this i don't consider myself cured

[PsychoGenesis]

Do you think that something could be achieved with SSRI microdosing from a theoritical point of view assuming that AR is really the case?

i woulnd't ever touch it again
mushrooms maybe, that's what im doing now
lsd micro didn't help