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Originally Posted by
MJRuff01
HPTA is your Hypothalmus Pituitary Testosterone Axis.
The hpothalmus is a part of the brain that controls much of your endocrine system, it is in charge of your pituitary gland. Your pituitary gland secretes many different hormones including HGH, LH, FSH among others, but for this we will focus on LH and FSH. So basically the HPTA is not a thing per se, but more of an explanation of hwo the body mantains homeostasis in regards to Testosterone. Basically testosterone acts in a negative feedback loop, by that I mean you start with the Hypothalmus it tells the anterior pituitary to secrete LH and FSH, those work on the leydig cells to signal them to produce testosterone. As your testosterone levels increase, the Hypothalmus recieves a signal to tell the pituitary to stop secreting LH and FSH so then the Leydig cells in the testes are no longer getting the signal to produce testosterone, thus maintaining a normal level of Testosterone on the body.
So basically if you are taking exogenous testosterone to supraphysiological levels, your body will shut down it's own production of the hormone.
SOmetimes in the body, the threashold somehow gets set artificially low on it's own due to any number of different factors, and HRT is required, or in many cases the body produces less testosterone, but it is not necessarily due to this particular function.