Smoking also has effects on adrenal androgen secretion. Higher levels of androstenedione and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) are found in smokers (62–65). ACTH-stimulated androstenedione, 17-hydroxyprogesterone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) levels are reported to be higher in male smokers (66).
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link to www.eje-online.org]
Cross-sectional studies have associated cigarette smoking in men with elevated androstenedione and little net effect on other sex steroids.
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link to www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]
Androstenedione is the common precursor of male and female sex hormones.
Androstenedione was manufactured as a dietary supplement, often called andro (or andros) for short. Andro was legal and able to be purchased over the counter, and, as a consequence, it was in common use in Major League Baseball throughout the 1990s by record-breaking sluggers like Mark McGwire. The supplement is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, and from the Olympic Games.
The International Olympic Committee in 1997 banned androstenedione and placed it under the category of androgenic-anabolic steroids.
Androstenedione has been shown to increase serum testosterone levels over an eight-hour period in men when taken as a single oral dose of 300 mg per day, but a dose of 100 mg had no significant effect on serum testosterone. However, serum levels of estradiol increased following both the 100 mg and 300 mg doses.
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link to en.wikipedia.org]