Testosterone

[Mirage]

This may sound stupid, but sometimes I think my facial hair started growing faster after I started SS.

[quadancer]

My test is much lower than the O.P. and I can't get HRT from my docs; and I've been lifting for 10 years. Eventually, your stuff will drop regardless.

As far as your naturally produced test, yes this will be decreasing. But it's decreasing anyway with age. You can't really stop this.

If your GP is willing to prescribe it now, jump on it. If you don't like what you find, jump off. But keep in close contact with your endocrinologist and GP to monitor everything. Especially the prostate. The prostate thrives in test. That doesn't necessarily mean prostate cancer, but one can still get benign growth. But enlargement of the prostate is another fact of getting older. Every male gets and enlarged prostate with age.

Apart from the prostate, oestrogens need to be monitored too. If this is looked after, patients can reduce the possibility of Gynecomastia.

When I reach a certain age, I will definitely be thinking about ART.

New studies have differing results regarding prostate cancer and test; not as bad as once thought. Not ALL men, but about 50% die with prostate cancer; they just don't die FROM it. So it's still an issue to be checked if you want HRT. If one can get HRT, ART, or even your doc's attention, thrive on it; most aren't nearly up to speed with research, and just lump us all in the "normal for your age" bucket.

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

Couple of suggestions for getting HRT.

FIrst, when you go to any doctor, look at the pamphlets they have in the waiting room or in th eback near the exam rooms. If you don't see a pamphlet for what you have, you may want to go some where else.

Normal serum test ranges from 350 ng/dl to 1250. A range that big means it's about worthless. Find out the high levels (top 10 percentile for your age or for 25-28 year olds) and say you want that. WHen they say average is fine, ask them if they are an average doctor. If they say they are, say you a better doctor. If they they aren't, say you don't want "Average" test either. Average does mean acceptable.

Find someone that specializes in this. THis can be very expensive, but well worth it.

[PMDL]

If I were over 40, and my test was low, and I could legally get a script for HRT, I'd be on it without a second thought.

RAR HARDCORE BRAH is fine shit, I guess, but I'm not one to let machismo get in the way of a real quality-of-life improvement. Your views certainly may vary, but I don't see the point in letting the decline of my body due to age cripple me as I get older.

[Sami]

If I were over 40, and my test was low, and I could legally get a script for HRT, I'd be on it without a second thought.

RAR HARDCORE BRAH is fine shit, I guess, but I'm not one to let machismo get in the way of a real quality-of-life improvement. Your views certainly may vary, but I don't see the point in letting the decline of my body due to age cripple me as I get older.

+1

[quadancer]

Dang straight, Skippy! But with construction on it's butt, and I'm under VA care, I'm also at their mercy. For now, they're VERY slowly investigating me for chronic fatigue syndrome - this could take years. IF I had money, I'd be looking elsewhere. I'm now trying to get them to let me see their Urologist, but my primary care physician is self-important and thinks I don't need one. She gets one more chance and I can request a new physician.

[Phil Stevens]

I would not use HCG. The old thought of it being a T level restorer has been proven wrong. How it works is it acts in your body like LH which is the signal to produce T in the testes.The LH is usually in a healthy make produced in the pituitary gland. The administration of HCG then makes it so the pituitary doesn't NOT have to do its job. The administration of exogenous hormones makes the body stop its production. It sense there is enough of said hormone in the body so it has no need making it. So that part of your body stops. Your are in a sense making your body secondary hypo-gonadal. meaning the pituitary isnt creating LH. You would start such adminstration if you had a test to find out that the reason you are low if the pituitary ( which many times can mean a tumor) Where as you would start exogenous administration of T if you were primary hypo-gonadal meaning you have LH being produced but your testes are not taking the signal and making T.

Either way, the administration of either WILL create a situation that you no longer produce your own natural T and should only be taken if you have a clinical diagnosed hypo-gonadal condition and then accept you will be on it for life.

In the case of the original poster. i would get further tests to see if you are primary or secondary and then from their take the required actions to regain your levels.

[Sami]

My test is much lower than the O.P. and I can't get HRT from my docs; and I've been lifting for 10 years. Eventually, your stuff will drop regardless.

That's a bit fucked up. What are their reasons?


New studies have differing results regarding prostate cancer and test; not as bad as once thought. Not ALL men, but about 50% die with prostate cancer; they just don't die FROM it. So it's still an issue to be checked if you want HRT. If one can get HRT, ART, or even your doc's attention, thrive on it; most aren't nearly up to speed with research, and just lump us all in the "normal for your age" bucket.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I've recently started discovering this too. I think it stems from the fact that chemically castrating men (stopping all testosterone production) has a 100% success rate, in that they don't die from prostate cancer directly. But they end up suffering from all the other serious side effects from not having any testosterone, and the hell that they are associated with.

But either way, a lot of data and studies are all showing that testosterone levels are in fact NOT causing prostate cancer.

One thing I don't understand is why don't we all get prostate cancer of BPH (benign prostate hyperplasia) when our natural testosterone levels are at their highest, 18-25ish?

[quadancer]

That's a bit fucked up. What are their reasons

Either it's the sluggard speed of the VA, the lack of knowledge in this field, or the self-aggrandizement of the VA docs as knowledgable members of the medical community...and also that they prefer to only treat service related injuries. I take it as a bonus when they do other things for me, such as supplying my prostate and cholesterol meds. I can only TRY to get them to acknowledge other problems, such as aging, a business they aren't really part of.

[FatButWeak]

I believe tennisisgod is correct about SS causing his increase in T levels. The reasoning has to do with the body's feedback loop. Sex hormones like T and estrogen (probably all hormones) are extremely "plugged in" to the feedback mechnaism of the body. If estrogen levels get too high, extra T is produced to maintain a balnce for one's gender. If one begins experiencing higher T levels, her body will strat producing more estorgen. This is why some men get bitch tits when they go on certain types of anabolic drugs -their bodies pump out more estrogen to counterbalance the excessive T in their system, and pubescent girl titties are the result.

If, through heavy weight training, the body senses a need to to adapt and put on more muscle, I would EXPECT an increase in T levels, since this is the body's anabolic hormone. I'll say that again: heavy weight training forces adaptation and T is the body's natural anabolic muscle building hormone. So it is highly appropriate that more T would be synthesised.

Our balls can synthesize plenty of T until we stop asking them to. One way to ask them to stop is to stop lifting heavy weights. Another way is to be done with puberty. It makes sense that the way to "turn on" the "please make more T" switch is to lift heavy weights. If your lying around on the couch every evening watching TV, your not asking your balls to produce anything.