Although some studies show a slight decrease of LH immediately after smoking, it seems that chronic use doesn't have any impact.
Pharmacol Biochem Behav 1986 Jun;24(6):1749-54 Related Articles, Links
Acute effects of smoking marijuana on hormones, subjective effects and performance in male human subjects.
Cone EJ, Johnson RE, Moore JD, Roache JD.
Four healthy male subjects smoked two marijuana cigarettes or one marijuana cigarette and one placebo cigarette, or two placebo cigarettes on separate days in a random order crossover design. Each marijuana cigarette contained 2.8% delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Plasma hormones and THC were measured before and after each smoking session. Plasma LH was significantly depressed and cortisol was significantly elevated after smoking marijuana. Nonsignificant depressions of prolactin, FSH, testosterone and free testosterone and elevation of GH also occurred. Concurrent measures of subjective effects via subscales of the Addiction Research Center Inventory, Single Dose Questionnaire and a Visual Analog Scale were generally elevated. Significant impairment on a psychomotor performance task paralleled elevations in subjective effects, hormone effects and peak THC determinations. Although all the hormone effects were within normal basal ranges, interactions between these systems, and their effects on behavior cannot be discounted.
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J Pharmacol Exp Ther 1978 Nov;207(2):611-7 Related Articles, Links
Effects of chronic marihuana use on integrated plasma testosterone and luteinizing hormone levels.
Mendelson JH, Ellingboe J, Kuehnle JC, Mello NK.
Integrated plasma testosterone and luteinizing hormone levels were determined for 13 healthy adult males before, during and after a 21-day period of marihuana use. No significant relationships were found between antecedent or concurrent marihuana smoking and integrated plasma testosterone and luteinizing hormone levels. All values for all subjects obtained during the entire study were within normal limits for healthy adult males.
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Drug Alcohol Depend 1991 Aug;28(2):121-8 Related Articles, Links
Effects of chronic marijuana use on testosterone, luteinizing hormone, follicle stimulating hormone, prolactin and cortisol in men and women.
Block RI, Farinpour R, Schlechte JA.
Department of Anesthesia, College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City 52242.
To investigate possible effects of chronic marijuana use on reproductive and stress hormones, we assayed testosterone, luteinizing hormone, follicle stimulating hormone, prolactin, and cortisol in 93 men and 56 women with a mean (+/- S.E.) age of 23.5 +/- 0.4 years. Hormone values were compared among groups of subjects stratified according to frequency of marijuana use (frequent, moderate and infrequent; N = 27, 18, and 30, respectively) and non-using controls (N = 74). Chronic marijuana use showed no significant effect on hormone concentrations in either men or women.
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Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse 1975;2(2):269-75 Related Articles, Links
Plasma testosterone levels in healthy male marijuana smokers.
Cushman P Jr.
Plasma testosterone, FSH, and LH levels were obtained from 25 healthy consecutive heterosexual male mauijuana smoking university students. All values were within the range of normal and the means did not differ significantly from those of 13 normal controls. These data suggest that the casual marijuana smoker (at least one time weekly with an average of 5.1 joints per week) may have plasma testosterone levels which are normal for the time of day and the laboratory.
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Beitr Gerichtl Med 1990;48:57-66 Related Articles, Links
[Serum testosterone concentrations in cannabis and opiate users]
[Article in German]
Friedrich G, Nepita W, Andre T.
Institut fur Rechtsmedizin, Universitat Freiburg.
The object of this study was to establish possible influences of long-term cannabis usage on plasma testosterone levels. The plasma testosterone levels of 66 male Pakistani who for years had smoked cannabis daily or drank cannabis regularly where measured after chronic and acute intake of the drug and compared with a material of 41 normal controls, i.e. persons who did not use cannabis. An evaluation of the results showed that there were no significant differences between the two groups. No influence of long-term cannabis usage on plasma testosterone levels was found.Furthermore we wished to find out wether long-term heroin abuse showed an effect on plasma testosterone levels. The concentrations of testosterone in the plasma of 102 heroin addicts assigned to a Methadone Program were measured and compared with the values of 29 male healthy students as controls. Plasma testosterone levels were found to be significantly decreased in heroin addicts as compared to controls.