CONTROL YOUR PROSTATE CANCER: THE MAJOR GOAL OF HORMONE THERAPY
The major goal of hormone therapy is to reduce testosterone, which stimulates the prostate tumor. What’s the best approach? There are several good places to break this hormone chain—drugs that can target the hypothalamus (LHRH), the pituitary (LH), the adrenal gland (adrenal androgens), the testicles (testosterone) or the prostate (DHT).
The cheapest and easiest way to control testosterone is by a simple surgical procedure, castration (also called an orchiectomy). Castration works fast; it reduces the body’s amount of testosterone by 95 percent almost immediately, and permanently. Within about three hours after surgery, testosterone levels begin to plummet to a level called the “castrate range.”
Many men, for many reasons, don’t want to undergo surgical castration, so they opt for chemical castration—taking drugs that accomplish the same result. There are several options: One is a group of drugs called estrogens. DES, the main oral estrogen, targets the hypothalamus-pituitary connection, instead of the testicles. It works by blocking the release of LHRH—which, in turn, blocks LH and FSH, and this virtually shuts down the testosterone-making factories in the testicles. So testosterone drops to the castrate range. (Note: Men with a history of heart disease or thrombophlebitis should not use DES as their main form of treatment.)
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