Frequently testosterone deficiency are traceable to excess estrogens , alluded to earlier as hormonal equivalent to the eternal battle of the sexes. Often testosterone secretion will be solidly within normal range , but estrogen production may be two or three times the expected.

That excess estrogen has many effects on the male body , one has to do with sex hormone binding, which are produced in tthe liver and bind with sex hormones in the blood. We have seen that while the hormones are bound with SBG , they cant be utilized by the body. An excess of SBG causes a functional testosterone deficiency, whether or not adequate testosterone is being produced by the testses.

Both androgens and estrogens stimulate SBG production. That is one way the body maintains optimal blood hormone levels. But when excess estrogens are produced , more SBG is called for. That would not be much of a problem if SBG binded primarily with estrogens but it doesnt. Infact the reverse is true , sbg binds preferably with testosterone , leaving estrogens free to feminize the body.

In the normal male testosterone actually depresses SBG production , and in the normal woman estrogen stimulates it. Thus SBG helps maintain our sexual identity. In women it keeps testosterone levels low , and in men testosterone keeps SBG low so that masculatinity can be asserted. Thus men produce about one half as much SBG as women do.

Probably the original defect which permits excess estrogen occurs in the interstitial cells of the testes , where about two thirds of male estrogen secretion are produced. For reasons not yet known some men are hypersecretors of estrogen. The normal man produces about seventy five times as much free testosterone as does a woman , but as the ratio between testoterone and estrogen decreases , so do masculine characteristics.

According to endocrinologist Mortimer Lipseett , any disease or malfunction to the liver can affect the body’s hormone balance. Perhaps that may explain the general observation that chronic excess drinkers and alcoholics seem to have lower sex drives than does the general male population. Long before cirrhosis of the liver develops , alcohol causes abnormal changes in the liver cells.