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- Jan 3, 2022
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If you guys really want to get into the nitty gritty details of muscular development via testosterone vs dihydrotestosterone and how much muscle is built on a DHT inhibitor I recommend Derek’s channel more plates more dates. I hate that YouTube channel name but anyway he nerds out on all the available science behind what evidence we do have about how those two kinds of testosterone affect - or don’t - muscle development. My takeaway was that DHT doesn’t build any more muscle than testosterone itself but does significantly contribute to follicle miniaturization and yes permanent balding. There is also evidence that a DHT boosting steroid does build muscle but my understanding is that it doesn’t do so anymore than simple testosterone. When you administer extra T you are going to convert that to other hormones including DHT which is why men on steroids bald faster, and also why women on male hormones get thinning hair. Look at some of the trans females becoming male through hormones and you can see what happens right away: their hair becomes thinner and sparser. It’s not testosterone that does it, it’s DHT. DHT is made by the interaction of testosterone and 5ar. The study in the package insert for finasteride, the famous one about sexual side effects, is a very limited and short term study. It has a certain number of men I can’t remember like 500 or so, and the entire study is like 6 months. Out of the initial group, only 1% experiences sexual side effects. They followed up later with them, 6 months later. Something like 99% of that 1% had recovered from the sides but 1% persisted. From that 1% of 1% (or whatever number but it was very small), they concluded that 6 months still having symptoms = a risk you may want to consider. Popular science journalists picked up on this and sensationalized it as “permanent sexual dysfunction!!” Which isn’t at all what happened. They did a single follow up of the side effect group and like 1% of that group still had symptoms after only 6 months. Hardly permanent. Personally I haven’t experienced any side effects. But I know most guys priority here which is ironic considering the extent to which steroids affects sexual health. Many guys who are not natural just simply use viagra. But somehow when it comes to finasteride, a very safe and widely available and prescribed medication, there’s tons of misinformation and hesitation around it.
