Does anyone understand the relationship between serotonin and testosterone levels?

This is bit of an offshoot of the other thread.

Basically wondering if higher serotonin levels *could* lower testosterone through raising dopamine levels? Or does serotonin directly impact testosterone?

I know serotonin can correlate with estrogen levels, yes?

Does anyone know how this works, CS?

CS, are you familiar with this subject at all?


Thanks!

This is a very "this just in" field of physiology/sociology/psychology/neurobiology. A lot of the ideas are there, the dots if you will, to where intuition alone is helping us hash out relationships but the actual mechanisms - meaning what receptors and what brain regions - are currently being researched. Like you can imagine, its very complex. Dopamine and serotonin each have multiple receptor types each of which cross talk with eachother differently and seem to agonize/antagonize different regions of the brain and peripheral nervous system. You could spend a very long time getting up on this area of science.

What I would suggest as a guide to begin researching would be the relationship between testosterone and dopamine, rather than serotonin. A lot of the serotonergic pathways we normally associate with the typical anti-depressive effects actually have their effects through the dopamine system. Testosterone seems to track dopamine very closely and behaviors/experiences/perceptions which increase one tend to increase the other, respectively. Low testosterone tends to correlate with low dopamine. It becomes really interesting when we consider how the symptomology of both low T and low dopamine are related: low drive & ambition, low sense of purpose and potency, loss of sense of pleasure, low feelings of capability, generalized anxiety and social anxiety. All of these things are very much related to social status and self-perceived social status and we find low income populations tend to be lower in both of these hormones, one of the primary reasons why we see addictive tendencies in lower class areas...these people are literally behaving in a way - without realizing it - to increase their dopamine levels. When you cross reference that with the social experiences that boost testosterone (winning, increased mate choice, higher social status, feelings of dominance), it becomes easy to see how these systems synchronize and are probably very, very related with reference to how the steroid hormones effect cognition/behavior.

But yeah, if you're interested and want to dive into this, its very cross-disciplinary, but I'd start with looking at T and dopamine. I'd venture to say that the biggest reason men tend to notice powerful benefits to their potency/confidence/sexuality/self-worth is because increased testosterone is increasing dopamine signalling.

If you've ever dealt with an addiction, you've felt the roller-coaster of dopamine highs and lows. For instance, when I go and smoke a cigarette (or even get the thought to go smoke) my dopamine increases in anticipation. But the cigarette, over time, increases short term dopamine levels to supraphysiological levels (it gives you more of a high than you're supposed to have). This causes you to downregulate dopamine receptors - cells are saying, "Dopamine, get the fuck out". So then when the levels return to normal minutes after smoking a cig, you're getting less signalling at a basal rate than you were before you started smoking. You get this depressed feeling. Then a little while later you need another one. And that's the circle.

AS54, what's your opinion about SSRI's? It seems like I'm seeing more and more people on them (maybe they are just more open about admitting it now).

AS54, thanks for that informative reply.

Would you say high serotonin levels cause dopamine levels to go down?

As this low dose lexapro really does help my mood/stress levels, I'm not sure if my serotonin levels would be considered *high* when taking it or just more *balanced*..

If serotonin levels at some point cause a decrease in dopamine, I guess I'm wondering how high serotonin levels would have to be..

sizzlinghairs - It's a very interesting question. Just a quick note - In the context of hair loss, I would avoid at all costs, SSRI's. Generally they raise prolactin levels (causing hair loss). Also I think AS54 probably already mentioned that there is a relationship with dopamine and seratonin.

More on T and Serotonin here: It's definitely worth reading, because it also discusses the relationship of cortisol, and important factor as well.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3294220/

I have noticed that some people are either "serotonin heavy" or "dopamine heavy" and others are somewhere in-between.

How that is determined depends on their autonomic nervous system. Also, in the above abstract, the relationship of cortisol (which is also determined by the ANS) definitely plays a role here.

Thanks for the reply CS.

Fortunately, I dont think the lexapro is causing any hairloss at all. But I do plan to be getting off of it in somewhere around a year.

I will read through that link, but do you believe there is that inverse relationship, that if serotonin levels rise, dopamine levels fall? Or is it more just based on that persons body?