Posted by bubblegumchewer on August 12, 2002, at 12:01:09
In reply to Re: High testosterone , posted by cybercafe on August 11, 2002, at 23:52:12
I wonder if the the bodybuilders are short-tempered for a different reason than you. From what I understand, the extra testosterone they get sets of a spiral of imbalanced hormones both male and female (we all have certain amounts of both, whether male or female) and they also get, um... shrunken organs from this imbalance. Perhaps increased estrogen goes along with increased testosterone and is responsible for the atrophy.
Anyway, here's one consideration: My doc says I have slightly insensitive ovaries; they work fine but require a few more days each cycle of being pelted with increasing hormones in order to fire (ovulate), giving me a longer cycle and a greater amount of various hormones which include testosterone. Amongst the beneficial effects of testosterone that I supposedly enjoy (I won't go into better libido but it's there) are "increased vitality and sense of well-being," the doc said.
??? I still don't know what that means.
But I thought that men are less prone to depression on average than women and one reason for this discrepancy is maybe that testosterone has a protective effect and estrogen has a depression-worsening effect. Witness the fact that birth control pills, which maybe not coincidentally tend to wipe out most of a woman's small but functionally important amount of testosterone, are also well-known to cause or worsen depression.
My point is that maybe the bodybuilders are getting the worst of both worlds: while testosterone is known for causing the typically greater aggressiveness that characterizes males, EXTRA testosterone may be worsening matters while estrogen is making them all cranky like a woman with PMS. These are all simplistic guesses, of course.
My other simplistic guess is that if you have a NORMAL amount of testosterone, which most men do, reducing the amount you have by some medicinal means might not help anything.
Just wanted to add some assorted factoids/ guess-oids to ponder.
poster:bubblegumchewer
thread:115793
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020807/msgs/116149.html