Originally Posted by Gilda

Estrogen in water is at such a low concentration that it's going to have no effect on testosterone levels. Hormone production in the body does work on a negative feedback loop, and ingestion of massive amounts of estrogen will significantly reduce the production of lutenizing hormone, which intern will reduce the production of gonadotrophin releasing hormone, which in males will reduce the amount of testosterone produced. This would take massive amounts of estrogen, enough to make the person ingesting it physically ill, perhaps as much as 12-16mg of estradiol a day, or double what a transsexual takes to induce female secondary sexual characteristics. The amount of estrogen in water is also a trace amount of what the average male already poduces naturally through chemical conversion of testosterone. It can't be having the effect indicated because a man's body already produces more estrogen by several orders of magnitude than is being ingested.

It likewise would make little sense to assume that girls' puberty is affected. If the amount of estrogen were enough to produce an early puberty, we'd likely be seeing a much larger percentage of boys at about the same age displaying partial development of female sexual secondary characteristics. No such increase has been evident.

timothy4testes: Not all hormone treatments are bad. There's really no evidence that animals treated harm humans, and humans often benefit greatly from the treatment.