Okian
New Member
Your opinion on this one please :
''What effect does testosterone (therapy) have on cortisol? Does it raise or lower cortisol levels?
Unfortunately, the answer to that question is not as easy to find as we might like. There is a study that looked at giving men testosterone enanthate, which is very similar to the testosterone cypionate that most American men on HRT are used to and found that "No obvious changes were found in the levels of C." This was a small study on healthy men but shows the consensus: testosterone therapy seems to have no major effect on cortisol. However, I think that testosterone likely does affect cortisol in some rather key ways that I will mention below.
Again, though, finding larger studies on more varied populations is few and far between. I think we can still come to a fairly definite conclusion based on input from the steroid community as well.
First of all, there are quite a few stories out there of steroid users greatly lowering their cortisol levels during a cycle. However, I doubt that this is normative for men on any kind of reasonable testosterone replacement for a simple reason: if testosterone decreased cortisol, we would be reading about it everywhere. For example, if testosterone realy lowered cortisol, why did we not see at least some small effect in the study above. And, let's face it: it would be huge news if testosterone therapy substantially lowered cortisol levels and there are enough men on HRT now that this would almost for sure be a well-known observation.
All of that said, I believe there are two ways that testosterone therapy, and this would be for men with low or lowish testosteorne, would like see his cortisol parameters improve:
1. Testosterone-to-Cortisol Ratio. Stop and think of the significance of the discussion above: if you go on HRT, you are very likely going to significantly increase your T/C, or testosterone-to-cortisol, ratio. Why? A hypogonadal male that doubles or even triples his testosterone without much change to his cortisol levels has clearly doubled or tripled his T/C ratio
2. Cortisol Reactivity. Cortisol or stress reactivity has a very specific medical meaning and I am not referring to that here. However, what I am trying to point out that is men on HRT who have, in fact, actually improved their testosterone numbers will very likely put out much less cortisol than they normally would have due to the ACTH effect mentioned above. [2] Of course, this assumes normal adrenal function.
So the bottom line is that you are not likely to get a big drop in cortisol from testosterone replacement in my opinion, but that doesn't mean that your body's managment of cortisol will not have greatly improved. ''
http://www.peaktestosterone.com/Testosterone_Cortisol.aspx
My result from this morning :
Serum Cortisol : 942.8 nmol/L (7-10 A.M : 171 - 536 ) nmol/L
That may explain panic attacks, anxiety ..
I am also waiting for ACTH result , which will take few days..
''A higher than normal level may indicate:
-Cushing disease, in which the pituitary gland makes too much ACTH because of excess growth of the pituitary gland or a tumor in the pituitary gland
-Ectopic Cushing syndrome, in which a tumor outside the pituitary or adrenal glands makes too much ACTH
-Tumor of the adrenal gland that is producing too much cortisol '' .
Any advice Nelson , Gene , Chris ..please? Thank you.
''What effect does testosterone (therapy) have on cortisol? Does it raise or lower cortisol levels?
Unfortunately, the answer to that question is not as easy to find as we might like. There is a study that looked at giving men testosterone enanthate, which is very similar to the testosterone cypionate that most American men on HRT are used to and found that "No obvious changes were found in the levels of C." This was a small study on healthy men but shows the consensus: testosterone therapy seems to have no major effect on cortisol. However, I think that testosterone likely does affect cortisol in some rather key ways that I will mention below.
Again, though, finding larger studies on more varied populations is few and far between. I think we can still come to a fairly definite conclusion based on input from the steroid community as well.
First of all, there are quite a few stories out there of steroid users greatly lowering their cortisol levels during a cycle. However, I doubt that this is normative for men on any kind of reasonable testosterone replacement for a simple reason: if testosterone decreased cortisol, we would be reading about it everywhere. For example, if testosterone realy lowered cortisol, why did we not see at least some small effect in the study above. And, let's face it: it would be huge news if testosterone therapy substantially lowered cortisol levels and there are enough men on HRT now that this would almost for sure be a well-known observation.
All of that said, I believe there are two ways that testosterone therapy, and this would be for men with low or lowish testosteorne, would like see his cortisol parameters improve:
1. Testosterone-to-Cortisol Ratio. Stop and think of the significance of the discussion above: if you go on HRT, you are very likely going to significantly increase your T/C, or testosterone-to-cortisol, ratio. Why? A hypogonadal male that doubles or even triples his testosterone without much change to his cortisol levels has clearly doubled or tripled his T/C ratio
2. Cortisol Reactivity. Cortisol or stress reactivity has a very specific medical meaning and I am not referring to that here. However, what I am trying to point out that is men on HRT who have, in fact, actually improved their testosterone numbers will very likely put out much less cortisol than they normally would have due to the ACTH effect mentioned above. [2] Of course, this assumes normal adrenal function.
So the bottom line is that you are not likely to get a big drop in cortisol from testosterone replacement in my opinion, but that doesn't mean that your body's managment of cortisol will not have greatly improved. ''
http://www.peaktestosterone.com/Testosterone_Cortisol.aspx
My result from this morning :
Serum Cortisol : 942.8 nmol/L (7-10 A.M : 171 - 536 ) nmol/L
That may explain panic attacks, anxiety ..
I am also waiting for ACTH result , which will take few days..
''A higher than normal level may indicate:
-Cushing disease, in which the pituitary gland makes too much ACTH because of excess growth of the pituitary gland or a tumor in the pituitary gland
-Ectopic Cushing syndrome, in which a tumor outside the pituitary or adrenal glands makes too much ACTH
-Tumor of the adrenal gland that is producing too much cortisol '' .
Any advice Nelson , Gene , Chris ..please? Thank you.
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