Estradiol increases TBG. I didn't know that. And then of course, you will be hypothyroid. Cortisol will perpetuate the whole thing...
Cortisol is metabolised into 5-alpha tetrahydrocortisol (5-alpha THF) and 5-beta tetrahydrocortisol (5-beta THF), where 5-alpha reductase is involved. That's prob why propecia elevated cortisol. Cortisol will then keep you hypothyroid by reducing T3 and increasing RT3. (On a side note: May be that cortisol elevates 5alpha reductase too ?? this would explain slightly high IGF-1 that I have, through conversino from DHT. This would mean hairloss comes from cortisol and is possible to loose hair from stress through DHT...merck has been hiding this from people to sell finasteride! you should just..destress)
When you increase RT3 it will block the receptors of T3. And this will be perpetuated until you do something about it. This will cause something called: Tissue resistance to thyroid hormones.
The high cortisol from finasteride will stress your adrenals and until they put up with it you will remain hypothyroid and this represents the first stages of adrenal fatigue.
The crash comes when the adrenals can't hold it anymore and switch from cortisol production to adrenaline and noradrenaline!!!
I was under stress from hairloss and school when I started propecia. Then side effects from propecia came in, made stress much worse. One year later after quitting, I was feeling stressed with school again and because my mother was holding me down from doing some stuff i wanted to. One day, I was programming until 6 am, and then my neighbour woke me up with loud noises at 8am and was impossible to sleep again because of the noise. The next day the same thing, and the following. Then I crashed, couldn't sleep more than 3 hours in a row at night, heart jumping out of my chest when my head hit the pillow...etc. That was the adrenals stressed out, they started pouring adrenaline and noradrenalien because they couldn't make anymore cortisol, from exaustion over time.
The adrenals for sure need to be healed.. My GP actually agreed with me on the need to give a rest to the adrenals. They have been running a marathon all this time.
Then the thyroid hormones -needs to be addressed of course. We need to completely shutdown RT3 production to clear it up. That will take a few weeks, around 6... THen the system will have rebounced! We will be good!!
Whatever propecia did, is not doing so anymore, so 5arII is back in place, even if slightly readjusted, because other hormones are out of balance! When they come into balance everything falls into place.
I think it's really important to test all the parameters for the thyroid and adrenals.
I think we are suffering from equivalent toResistance to Thyroid Hormone, together with adrenal fatigue. Doctors never check forResistance to Thyroid Hormone, its a rare condition.
http://content.spineboy.com/view.php?p= ... %20Problem
Some people felt good on selenium some on zinc... I think it will be helpful to get selenium+zinc+copper, since these are involved in the T3 conversion.
Our hormones look good on paper but they aren't being produced the way they should and they are being compensated because nature designed our system like this, with negative feedback mechanisms, this will keep us alive but make us feel like shit because even though the system hasnt shutdown, it's not running straight. it's not a matter of androgen desentization and whatever...Doctors don't believe us because hormones look fine, but they aren't fine. They have been readjusted all this time!
My opinion is that the most important tests are: RT3 and Cortisol in saliva. Then they should believe us.
There's some studies citing that cortisol remains elevated in depressed people after remission. This would perpetuate hairloss and would put you at risk for further depressions. The most predictive factor in having depression is that you had a depression before!
