Talk:Testosterone

Talk page archived

I archived the previous talk page because it was enormous. There were 40 topic headers, but no user signatures from 2009, so I assume none are current discussions. — VoxLuna ☾ ^orbit_land  

05:45, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

Testosterone and skin thickness?

Does testosterone make the skin thicker? Do men have thicker skin than women, in general? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.169.67.57 (talk) 08:07, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps the question should be whether loss of testosterone leads to thinner or fragile skin and if testosterone replacement therapy then restores skin thickness. The answer to that, with older men, often is yes, and skin thickness and elasticity can be restored when T levels are restored. Thinning of of the skin is from collagen loss. It would appear that the thinning and fragility of skin that comes with old age may significantly a result of lost testosterone levels. As for your original question, women have softer plumper skin as a result of their estrogen levels and perhaps other factors. What do you mean by 'thicker skin'? —Preceding unsigned comment added by KSman (talk • contribs) 20:20, 29 August 2010 (UTC)

Testosterone and corpus callosum

Claims regarding the sexual dimorphism of the corpus callosum did not seem to be supported by the corpus callosum article, so I removed them. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.167.111.212 (talk) 14:24, 3 February 2010 (UTC)

Not Enough Information for Physiology

THis article does not give key information such as where the hormone is secreted nor does it give the exact locations as to where it is produced and lacks alot of information on the role it has in homostasis or the source of control: the means by which the secretion of this hormone is regulated. Too much information is wasted on its use in sports and not enough information is given on the cells and glands invovled in it. In others words this article is highly uninformative. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.124.157.159 (talk) 00:50, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

It also mentions nothing of the target tissues or organs nor what the response of the target tissue or organ is to the hormone. So much important information is lacking why hasn't this been fized yet????

Clearly this article needs to be expanded and reorganized, but at least some of the information that you have requested is already there:

* where the hormone is secreted – "testes" (Testosterone#Biosynthesis)

* nor does it give the exact locations as to where it is produced – "Leydig cells" (see Testosterone#Biosynthesis section)

* the means by which the secretion of this hormone is regulated – "Estradiol rather than testosterone serves as the most important feedback signal to the hypothalamus (especially affecting LH secretion)." (Testosterone#Mechanism_of_action)

* not enough information is given on the cells and glands invovled in it – "Sertoli cells" (Testosterone#Physiological_effects)

* mentions nothing of the target tissues or organs – "bone and muscle mass", "maturation of the sex organs" (Testosterone#Physiological_effects)

I have been meaning to improve this article further. In the mean time, please keep in mind the following:

Thank you for your suggestion regarding Testosterone. When you believe an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the edit this page link at the top. The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to).

Cheers. Boghog (talk) 21:01, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Related Drugs

This section needs more references. I have a long list and will add them soon. In terms of finasteride, the NEJM Prostate Cancer Trial should be referenced. Drbarrywheeler (talk) 18:27, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your contributions, however any detailed discussion of finasteride really belongs in the article about finasteride rather than this article which is about testosterone. Finasteride is only one example of a 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor. Furthermore, the subject of 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors is somewhat peripheral to the central subject of this article. Hence the section on related drugs should give an overview of the classes of drugs that mimic or block the effects or biosynthesis of testosterone and/or DHT and not get bogged down in the details of any specific drug. On the other hand, citations to review articles which discuss classes of drugs related to testosterone and their pharmacological effects would be most welcome. Other more specific citations about individual drugs should be added to drug specific articles. Boghog (talk) 19:41, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

SHBG

SHBG bound T [SHBG-T], does not transport testosterone to any T receptors as the T is too tightly bound; and is thus not bio-active. SHBG-T delivers T to the liver for clearance. SHBG can transport and release estrogens and this leads to the misconception that it does the same for T. Bio-active testosterone levels [bio-T] can be determined with lab tests that report bio-T as the total of free T [FT] and weakly bound T. Weakly bound T is mostly T bound to albumin. Total testosterone levels [TT] include free T, weakly bound T and SHBG-T.

When SHBG levels are high, SHBG-T goes up and FT and bio-T go down.

As the definition of bio-T implies, SHBG-T is not part of bio-T and is thus not bio-active.

This content: "Like most hormones, testosterone is supplied to target tissues in the blood where much of it is transported bound to a specific plasma protein, sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG)."

Should be edited as SHBG-T does not deliver T to target tissue [receptors].

The article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_hormone-binding_globulin does not imply that SHBG-T delivers T to T receptors, only that most of the T in circulation is SHBG-T.

and "Like most hormones, testosterone is supplied to target tissues in the blood" should read "Like most hormones, testosterone is supplied to target tissues via the blood" - as target tissues are not in the blood

While the article does not state explicitly that SHBG-T delivers T to T receptors, it is unclear and perpetuates the often repeated mis-conception that it does. 68.91.152.231 (talk) 04:10, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

The "free hormone hypothesis" states that only free and albumin bound forms of sex steroid hormones are available for diffusion into cells (see PubMed). This is certainly the generally accepted theory. However recent research suggests that megalin acts as a receptor for SHBG including a variant of SHBG called the androgen binding protein (ABP). Furthermore ABP/testosterone complex can be internalized into the cell by megalin where it is degraded in lysosomes releasing free testosterone that can bind to the androgen receptor (see PubMed and PubMed). This theory is supported by the observation that megalin deficient patients display signs of androgen deficiency. It still may be true that the majority of testosterone is delivered to target tissue as in free and albumin bound forms, however this new research raises the possibility that at least some testosterone may be delivered bound to ABP. Boghog (talk) 19:53, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

Castration, aging, and health

A section "castration, aging, and health" may be added in the content because although low testosterone may lead to aging and dementia, the castrated people in history could still live a long life which is relatively healthy and common. (Comment by User:Mzpediawiki moved from article --Aronoel (talk) 17:49, 29 November 2010 (UTC))

Prostate cancer in men using testosterone supplementation

This serious problem has been neglected in this article.

Prostate cancer in men using testosterone supplementation. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16006887

CONCLUSIONS: Prostate cancer may become clinically apparent within months to a few years after the initiation of testosterone treatment. Digital rectal examination is particularly important in the detection of these cancers. Physicians prescribing testosterone supplementation and patients receiving it should be cognizant of this risk, and serum PSA testing and digital rectal examination should be performed frequently during treatment. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Linda Martens (talk • contribs) 07:08, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Two datum worth adding

• Serum testosterone has been decreasing over time (in the US), and it's not clear why.[1]
• Different races of people have different average serum testosterone levels. It is unclear whether this is genetic or environmental.

Where would be good places to incorporate these facts in the article?--Babank (talk) 22:27, 3 April 2011 (UTC)

Recent unsourced additions

I have removed the following text from the article mainly since it is unsourced. In addition, much of the material strays from the main topic of this article, testosterone. Perhaps a condensed version of the text that focuses on testosterone and that is supported by reliable sources could be re-added. Boghog (talk) 09:14, 27 August 2011 (UTC)

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