Does finasteride block dht or cause the body to produce less dht?

[the_charger]

Hey, if you don't mind and like doing a little research anyway, would you mind checking to see if they measured baseline estrogen levels before and after dosing? It always seemed to me that if a sizable amount of testosterone is not converted into DHT, it would be free to convert to estrogen. But that's just a guess.

unfortunately it doesnt look like they checked any baseline estrogen levels, just testosterone and DHT. these figures werent mentioned specifically, but they just said that men who started in the study showed no difference in testosterone/DHT levels regardless if they had sexual problems or not.

Maybe men who experience symptoms from finasteride have abnormally high levels of aromatase, and without all that 5-alpha-reductase, testosterone is left with only the excess aromatase converting it into estrogen. High estrogen in men is associated with the same side effects reported on finasteride. That would explain why only some people have symptoms (as most men don't have excess aromatase), and why symptoms only present for those few they do present for when the individual starts on finasteride (because before, 5-alpha-reductase was competing with the excess aromatase).

Anyway, that's just a guess. I'm probably just talkin' out of my ass. It would be interesting to see if that study said anything about estrogen or aromatase levels.

No, this is a good theory.. I unfortunately dont even know much about hormones, but I did read that estrogen levels might go up a bit when taking finasteride because DHT has been lowered. Im not sure if this would cause side effects, but it might! Maybe some guys (2%) just cant handle high estrogen, or maybe their estrogen levels are already high and propecia pushes it up over the edge? I really dont know.. I havent seen any studies that can really explain even why propecia causes side effects.. It would be nice if we could get some input from some medical experts in here!