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Androgen Resistance

Russ H

By Russ H
in Related Issues & Disorders

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Russ H Community Regular
Russ H
Posted

Although I believe I have had coeliac disease since childhood, my symptoms became much worse at the beginning of 2000 following influenza. I experienced significant weight loss, one of my friends describing me as 'emaciated' when she saw me after several years. One of the striking things is the amount of muscle I lost. Over the years I became quite feminized in appearance and began to be subjected to constant homophobic abuse when I went out in public. Apart from making my life a misery (I estimate I have been abused in the order of 10 000 times over the past decade), it has made me very aware of the plight of sexual minorities and the misery that such bullying causes. I have now been strictly gluten free for 9 months, and have began to put on muscle and am regaining a male shape. I haven't been abused for a couple of weeks now. The skin on my hands has become noticeably thicker and rougher, as is normal for a man (I am not doing any physical labour or training). My libido, mood and confidence have also greatly improved. Curious as to the cause of this, I made a quick internet search. It seems that 1 in 5 men with untreated coeliac disease experience androgen resistance. Paradoxically, they often have raised testosterone but this is not being converted into the more active form dihydrotestosterone (DHT). Hormone levels normalise on a gluten-free diet. From one review:

Quote

Plasma testosterone and free testosterone index were increased while dihydrotestosterone was reduced. These hormone levels appeared to normalize, with an improved small bowel architecture on a gluten-free diet. Serum luteinizing hormone was also raised and interpreted to reflect androgen resistance. These endocrine changes, suggestive of androgen resistance and hypothalamic-pituitary dysfunction, were interpreted to be relatively specific to celiac disease, but an association with disordered spermatogenesis was not determined.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3001971/

Has anyone else experienced this? The cause is not clear although there are several hypothesised mechanisms.

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Scott Adams Grand Master
Scott Adams
Posted

I've not heard of this before, so thank you for bringing it up, as it is very interesting. Given the huge variety of nutrient deficiencies that most celiacs have when diagnosed, I would assume that this condition would likely be related to malabsorption issues.

It's great to hear that you're gaining weight again, and feeling better, but the level of bullying that you've experienced due to how you look seems pretty extreme. I certainly hope that this abuse will stop as you regain your physique. 

I'm not sure if you've read this series of articles, but they discuss the many issues celiacs face when trying to socialize with others:

 

Russ H Community Regular
Russ H
Posted
  • Author
On 5/31/2022 at 7:46 PM, Scott Adams said:

I've not heard of this before, so thank you for bringing it up, as it is very interesting. Given the huge variety of nutrient deficiencies that most celiacs have when diagnosed, I would assume that this condition would likely be related to malabsorption issues.

It's great to hear that you're gaining weight again, and feeling better, but the level of bullying that you've experienced due to how you look seems pretty extreme. I certainly hope that this abuse will stop as you regain your physique. 

I'm not sure if you've read this series of articles, but they discuss the many issues celiacs face when trying to socialize with others:

 

Thanks, it seems to be improving. I have met a few people with the condition now, which has been a great help.

Most of the work regarding this dates back to the 1980s. This is a frequently cited paper:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6682819/

There are quite a few endocrine-related disorders related to coeliac disease such as type-1 diabetes. The mechanism for androgen resistance in coeliac disease is not clear. DHT is synthesised at the sites where it is used and so is not a systemic hormone like testosterone. This suggests to me that the enzyme that converts it from testosterone, 5α-reductase, is being inactivated in some way. One of the papers I read speculated that it was caused by auto-antibodies. I have had less common coeliac manifestations - tendonitis, arthritis, chilblains, painful scalp and neuropsychiatric symptoms. Perhaps I have a less common coeliac immune response and different antibodies. For example, anti-tTG2 is gut/liver, anti-tTG3 is skin/follicles, anti-tTG6 is brain/lungs. Maybe 1 in 5 people make an antibody that inactivates 5α-reductase?

knitty kitty Grand Master
knitty kitty
Posted

This sounds interesting....

 

Mechanisms of honey on testosterone levels

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6612531/

Russ H Community Regular
Russ H
Posted
  • Author
13 hours ago, knitty kitty said:

This sounds interesting....

 

Mechanisms of honey on testosterone levels

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6612531/

The easiest way to naturally increase testosterone is weight training the large muscle groups. The problem with coeliac disease is not overall testosterone, which is often raised, but the conversion to the more active form DHT.

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