Comment · Thu, August 6, 2020 · ND Owner
Berberine and Testosterone
Original post in this thread
varvela · 7 points
I recently came across this study finding that Berberine significantly lowered testosterone in women with PCOS.
I mainly take Berberine once at night for longevity reasons (AMPK regulation), but am concerned now that it could have adverse testosterone effects.
Does anyone have further information on this?
What they were answering
Direct reply to the original post — see the thread post above.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · ND Owner
You can't just look at a study design like that and pull one outcome out of it to apply to everyone. Women with PCOS have an issue where their ovaries produce too much testosterone. The cause of it is usually because their pituitary is releasing too much luteinizing hormone (LH) and their pancreas is releasing too much insulin. This is what is signaling the ovaries to produce too much testosterone. Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) goes up at the same time as well. This happens during their menstrual cycle. This situation is VERY different than normal healthy men, or even women.
That study was looking at specific responses to berberine in women that had PCOS. The reduction in testosterone from berberine is directly due to its effects on luteinizing hormone (LH) and insulin. It's a GOOD thing what berberine is doing here. PCOS results in way too high of testosterone during a woman's menstrual cycle. Preventing that from happening by stopping the cause of the increase is a very good thing. It actually worked BETTER then metformin, while having less side effects and better clinical outcomes. This study is a very good one for women with PCOS.
You have to be very careful trying to interpret studies surrounding hormonal changes during research into diseases specifically caused by hormonal imbalances. You cannot apply basic measures from said studies to other completely different scenarios. If we oversimplify things, they lose all meaning. It's not a case of "lower testosterone always bad." The devil is in the details, and often times testosterone is a bad thing if your levels are too high because of a disorder. This is especially true in the case with women that have PCOS. Even so, berberine is not directly affecting testosterone in that study. It's affecting luteinizing hormone and insulin, which were the things causing the overproduction of testosterone in the first place. The only thing you should take from that study is that it is retarded we are still prescribing metformin when berberine exists, because it is as good or better than it, without the side effects.