Comment · Mon, June 6, 2022 · ND Owner
Does cistanche increase FSH levels?
Original post in this thread
Raywan2 · 5 points
Trying to figure out if cistanche is meant to increase Follicle Stimulating Hormone levels, and whether this is safe or not?
What they were answering
Direct reply to the original post — see the thread post above.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · ND Owner
https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.jep.2016.07.033
That study saw an increase, which was even more pronounced with pure echinacoside.
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3854047/
That study didn't see any significant differences.
No significant differences were observed between the groups regarding FSH concentrations
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https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378874112007775
That study showed that Tongkat Ali could increase FSH, and improve sperm levels and quality.
The testicular testosterone also peaked in the animals treated with 25 mg/kg F2 and was higher than that in the plasma. The plasma LH and FSH levels of the rats treated with 25 mg/kg of F2 were higher than those of the control (P<0.001). In contrast, the plasma estrogen level was significantly lower than that of the untreated control. Amongst the isolated quassinoids of F2, eurycomanone and 13α(21)-dihydroeurycomaone significantly increased the testosterone level from the Leydig cells of the testicular interstitial cells cultured in vitro (P<0.05).
The standardised extract F2 of E. longifolia and its major quassinoids especially eurycomanone improved the rat spermatogenesis by affecting the hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal axis and the potential efficacy may be worthy of further investigation.
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Our result showed that both apigenin and baicalin, significantly and dose-dependently enhanced the reduced levels of serum testosterone, follicular stimulating (FSH), and luteinizing hormones (LHs), testicular weight, reduced-glutathione (GSH) level, and catalase (CAT) activity, sperm count, mobility, and viability, and suppressed the elevated testicular malondialdehyde (MDA) level, and caspase-3 immunohistochemical expression, as well as they, abrogated the disturbed testicular histopathological pictures, induced by chloroquine, with superiority of baicalin. Furthermore, the low-dose combination therapy was as effective as the high dose apigenin therapy, except for sperm viability, where it was as powerful as the baicalin high dose. Therefore, both apigenin and baicalin either alone or in low-dose combination could be promising in the management of male infertility.
So I bet it is the combo you are on. Seems safe, and actually improves sperm count, quality, and motility.