In males, alcohol can accelerate testosterone to estrogen conversion, leading to gynecomastia, diminished sex drive, and increased fat storage.

“To keep this discussion relatively constrained, it's fair to say that alcohol, and, in particular, the toxic metabolites of alcohol, increase the conversion of testosterone to estrogen.”

“I think it's fair to say, based on my read of the literature, this review and other reviews that focus more particularly on humans, that regular ingestion of alcohol is going to increase estrogen levels whether or not you're male or female, and it's largely doing that through the aromatization process, by increasing the aromatase enzyme.”

“In males, accelerated or abnormal conversion of testosterone to estrogen can actually lead to growth of the breast tissue in males, so-called gynecomastia, or other effects of high estrogen, or I should say of altered testosterone-estrogen ratios, 'cause that's really what's important. And these can include things like diminished sex drive, increased fat storage, and a number of other things that I think most people would find to be negative effects.”

“Alcohol, does it increase aromatase, the enzyme that converts testosterone into estrogen or not? And is there a dose dependence there? It significantly does. There is a dose dependence.”

“Second would be a hormonal effect. So alcohol use uh tends to cause the liver to rev up. Tends to cause more estrogenization. So you tend to get low testosterone from that. So it's a hormonal effect and a direct effect.”