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I was mistakenly taking Sawpalmetto for a year between 2008 and 2009. Had my T to the floor and recuperated from that over years to the lower end of the range. Life hadn’t been the same for a long time. Now that I have decided to go on TRT, my stupid decision to mess up of DHT & 5Alpha reductase has got me worried if I would have estrogenic side effects. Really hoping that it would rebalance my levels over time. Any opinions on whether I would be more prone to estrogenic side effects than others ? I have read that 5AR inhibitors alter gene expressions. Hence the concern

AlphaMD's Answer

One of my colleagues may jump in & add to this regarding that interaction, but I'll share some experiences we have.

We've had men in similar situations or cases where someone heavily abused UGL steroids & may impact their outcomes on treatment. What we're learned from that is that it's still very dependent on the person in terms of how their body reacts & how all of their hormones rebalance. Some of those men were great on T update & their Estrogen/E symptoms looked amazing. Sometimes a normal gentleman who's done none of that has a huge amount of Estrogen/E side effects even on a very minor dose.

The chance for someone to experience those would probably be around 25%, so still the minority of people. But if you were to fall into that or if your history caused it to be more likely, you could still be managed the same way as anyone else in terms of keeping it controlled. I wouldn't consider it a reason to not try TRT or to be overly worried. Just let your providers know up front & they can probably give you an AI to have on hand just in case or be ready to adjust things with you.

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