Mew, this is not fair. You know very well that testing for receptor downregulation is not a “tick the form” kind of thing you can get done around the corner. To get to this kind of testing done will require massive scientific involvement and possibly a substantial amount of money. This, however, will only ever happen if opinion leaders like yourself clearly back the androgen receptor/insensitivity theory - which is currently not the case.
The only thing that we can do to “test” receptor response at the moment is by trying out Andractim. If we don’t get any response from that, we have somehow become resistant to androgens. Full stop. Unfortunately, almost nobody has tried this so far. Because if they would, there wouldn’t be so much distracting talk about 5AR2 deficiency and Adiol-G around here.
You can read my thoughts on this subject in the following post:
propeciahelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3251
From my own experience with Andractim/T in all kinds of dosages I can say that this is not correct. Depending on how badly affected you are by this, you potentially need to avoid raising DHT like the plague. In my case, the more the worse.
Since last October I was supplementing Creatine. Since then, I got increasingly depressive, got muscle cramps, shrinkage, penile pain, anxiety - basically the whole works. I then realized that Creatine increases DHT by reading a thread in this forum. Three weeks ago I immediately quit taking the stuff. Since then I have gradually “recovered” to the point I was before taking creatine. I feel like a new born. This has definitely convinced me that this whole 5AR2 deficiency / Adiol-G talk is BS and am determined to put an end to it.
Having said this, it seems that not everyone here is desensitized to the same point. Some people seem to get some benefit from supplementing androgens while others don’t. You’ll only know how “bad” your own state is by giving it a try. You’ll get the clearest answer to that question by trying andractim. But only do so for a very short duration of 2-3 days. Otherwise you risk downregulating your own T production and aggravating your problem. I would talk this over with your doctor.
The question for me is not “if” we have become desensitized but rather by what mechanism. The dynamic nature of the negative response that I am experiencing is letting me wonder if our body could be overproducing some anti-androgen protein to compensate for a perceived “over-production” of DHT. We will only ever find out the answer to these question if we manage to get more focused.
Btw, we already have a thread for the whole androgen receptor discussion and don’t really need a new one:
propeciahelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2216
Why don’t you post further thoughts on this subject over there. Try and read through it if you are so enclined. Pretty much everything has already been said about the subject.
