[xxd]

Welcome, and thanks for making this great chart and bringing this research. I think these important details are ignored too much. It seems like it's assumed that if something has 'estrogenic activity' that it is beneficial for NBE, but there's so much to take into consideration. How does a certain phytoestrogen compare to estradiol? How does it affect the body's production or function of testosterone, or estradiol, or DHT, or aromatase, or 5ar? What other compounds are in the herb that could have different effects on these hormones and enzymes?

If all of this information was available I think NBE would have much better success rates. I suspect that many NBE programs are counterproductive. The main reason I'm not on PM now is that I've been worried that it would cause my already high T to shoot through the roof. I am mainly concerned with getting that T to turn into E.

I could only find three herbs that specifically raise aromatase which is the enzyme that converts T to E without blocking the estradiol receptors competitively:
licorice (which is the best at doing it but is dangerous) - multiplies aromatase production by 4.5 times
white peony (which is about half as potent as licorice) - multiplies aromatase production by 2 times
genistein (soy extract) - increases aromatase production by 40%.

D-aspartic-acid increases aromatase by 2X and estradiol by 80% but also increases T & DHT by 2x. With d-aspartic-acid you'd also need a DHT blocker.

That said, I don't know if increasing aromatase by this much would be enough by itself. It looks to me like PM doesn't increase T at all, quite the opposite. In fact I think if you take PM combined with one of the herbs above you're basically on a low dose sex change regime almost equivalent to taking hormones.