Adrenal glands question

[Zemak12]

Hi everyone,

Do our adrenal glands still produce testosterone whilst on cycle and during pct?

I believe that we are fully shutdown but some people believe we never have '0' testosterone in our bloodstream?

Opinions?

 

[Choppedjunior]

I think everyone is different and would really come down to blood work, I don't believe youd have 0 but not sure.

 

[heavylifter33]

Exogenous testosterone will inhibit testosterone secretion by adrenal gland. Even when we are shut down there is still minor hormone production, it doesn't actually 100% stop.

 

[Zemak12]

So we are never 100% shutdown? We would still be producing a tiny amount of testosterone even if someone was on for say 1 year straight?

 

[heavylifter33]

So we are never 100% shutdown? We would still be producing a tiny amount of testosterone even if someone was on for say 1 year straight?

The endocrine system won't fully shut down. The longer you go, the longer it would take to return to homeostasis.

 

[FRITZBLITZ]

Exogenous testosterone will inhibit testosterone secretion by adrenal gland. Even when we are shut down there is still minor hormone production, it doesn't actually 100% stop.

No offense Rhadam but that is 100% wrong. Your adrenals can max produce 12% of your testosterone, however this is a response to something and it produces this semi-large amount because when it does its all FT and your body make use of it almost instantly because of lots of other hormones saying so. This does not get shutdown because it is not a regular source. Imagine a car with NO2 equiped, you can burn out the fuel pump (testes) but No2 is still there. Over use of adrenals shut it down. PTSD for example.

 

[Zemak12]

No offense Rhadam but that is 100% wrong. Your adrenals can max produce 12% of your testosterone, however this is a response to something and it produces this semi-large amount because when it does its all FT and your body make use of it almost instantly because of lots of other hormones saying so. This does not get shutdown because it is not a regular source. Imagine a car with NO2 equiped, you can burn out the fuel pump (testes) but No2 is still there. Over use of adrenals shut it down. PTSD for example.

Our bodies would stop producing fsh and lh which are signals to release testosterone. Without these commands why would we still produce test? I like your point though

 

[brofessorx]

The hypothalamus is an area at the base of the brain that regulates much of the body's hormonal activity. It does this by sending chemical signals to the pituitary gland, a cherry-sized organ that produces a wide variety of hormones involved in the regulation of growth, thyroid function, blood pressure, pregnancy, birth and other critical body functions.

To stimulate testosterone production, the hypothalamus releases a substance to the pituitary gland called gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). This hormone, in turn, causes the gland to produce two other hormones, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH), collectively known as gonadotropins. LH is released into the bloodstream where it travels to the male testes and triggers the production of testosterone from cholesterol. If this process continues until the testosterone level becomes too high, the pituitary slows the release of LH so production slows down. FSH is similarly involved in the increase and decrease in sperm production.
When LH reaches the testes, it influences activity in the Leydig cells, which are where cholesterol is gradually changed into a series of compounds until it becomes testosterone. When the small but vital amount of testosterone produced is released into the bloodstream, it is mostly bound to a special "carrier" compound called sex hormone binding globulin or SHBG. SHBG, which is produced by the liver, plays an important role in regulating the amount of "free" testosterone circulating in the body at any one time. The more SHBG there is the less unbound, active testosterone is able to move from the blood stream into cells where it is needed. As SHBG levels rise and fall, so do free testosterone levels, except in reverse.

With such a complex chain of events leading to a normal testosterone level, many problems or interruptions along the process can lead to sub-normal or low testosterone levels in men at any age. If there are diseases or negative conditions involving the male testes, hypothalamus, pituitary gland or genetic material, the resulting state is called hypogonadism.

Testosterone inhibits both GnRH and gonadotropin secretion. Exogenous administration of synthetic testosterone results in negative feedback on the hypothalamic-pituitary axis, inhibiting GnRH, leading to inhibition of FSH and LH production. As a result, intratesticular testosterone levels (ITT) and overall testosterone production decrease. Exogenous testosterone therapies can suppress ITT production to such a degree that spermatogenesis can be dramatically compromised at ITT concentrations to less than 20 ng/mL, even resulting in azoospermia
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Adrenal androgen secretion is dependent on adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) secreted by the anterior pituitary. Both prolactin and estrogen can affect adrenal androgen production.[...] Adrenal androgens increase in response to ACTH stimulation, while androgens do not influence the ACTH secretion.

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As DHEA/S is a precursor to estradiol (7), this may reflect a compensatory interaction between the hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal (HPG) and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axes. On the other hand, males have higher circulating levels of DHEAS than do females, despite having substantially higher levels of testosterone (T). This suggests that an inverse relationship between adrenal and gonadal steroids exists in females, whereas a positive causal relationship may exist in males.

this is important because of how test is produced in the adrenal glands:

so supplementing with test will have an effect on production, leading to increased dhea-s, which is unusable.
edit: just realized I left part of the info out. It's in the linked study. it's 130am here an I gotta get up in 6 hours.

 

[Zemak12]

Really interesting replies I have not heard or read before! Thanks everyone for the replies so far.

Are we concluding that our adrenals will always produce testosterone, however our bodies will not use it whilst we are on cycle?

 

[heavylifter33]

No offense Rhadam but that is 100% wrong. Your adrenals can max produce 12% of your testosterone, however this is a response to something and it produces this semi-large amount because when it does its all FT and your body make use of it almost instantly because of lots of other hormones saying so. This does not get shutdown because it is not a regular source. Imagine a car with NO2 equiped, you can burn out the fuel pump (testes) but No2 is still there. Over use of adrenals shut it down. PTSD for example.

lol wat

 

[brofessorx]

Really interesting replies I have not heard or read before! Thanks everyone for the replies so far.

Are we concluding that our adrenals will always produce testosterone, however our bodies will not use it whilst we are on cycle?

No, as testosterone ( or the amount of androgens I should say) increases, the adrenals increase production of dhea-s, which is unusable.
Though I guess you kind of said the same thing. Most androstenedione produced will be aromatized into estrogen, the test that gets converted from androstenedione will probably be converted into estrogen or dht.
Then dht is quickly deactivated in the muscle.