My story so far:
60 years old male, 5â?? 11â??â??, waist 38â??â??, 205lbs
Bald with good growth of facial and body hair
Lost hair on legs below the knee?
Gained 30lbs of fat over last 10 years mainly around middle and backside
Developed man boobs
High blood pressure controlled with meds 140/90 (Amlodipine â?? calcium channel blocker)
Some problems with enlarged prostate, tried Flomax for a few months gave up because my vision became blurred.
Treated for depression for the last 10 years with SSRI (Prozac)
Diet is reasonably good. 2,000 calories per day.
Train 2 to 3 times per week with kettle bell 30 to 40 mins
Right testicular ache â?? left is starting to ach â?? ultra sound showed nothing wrong
Morning wood â?? canâ??t remember the last time.
I went to my GP who run tests and said I was in good health and still depressed. Keep taking the medication. I did not get the blood test from her but she said my Test was low normal and so was my Thyroid hormones so they canâ??t be the problem.
So I went to a Naturopathic Dr who said that my Test and Thyroid hormones are within normal range but only just and I might feel a lot better if I was on a little bit of Testosterone E. He started me on 50mgs self-injected weekly and 7.5 L-Thyronine.
Starting blood work
Total Testosterone 15.7 ( range 8.4 - 28.7 mmol/L)
Free Testosterone 270 (200 - 800 mmol/L)
Bio Test 7.2 (3.0 - 12 mmol/L)
Eastrodial 93 (< 156 mmol/L)
SHGB 40 (13 - 71 mmol/L)
Prolactin 13.1 (4.0 - 15 mmol/L)
T4 16 (11 to 22 mmol/L)
T3 4.8 (4.0 - 7.8 mmol/L)
Just out of interest this did not come cheap. His bill for the visit and blood work was $600.
Anyway after about 6 weeks I was feeling a bit better. Even weaned myself of the Antidepressants for the first time in years.
New blood work:
Total Testosterone 18.4 (range 8.4 - 28.7 mmol/L)
Free Testosterone 359 (200 - 800 mmol/L)
Bio Test 9.2 (3.0 - 12 mmol/L)
Eastrodial 127 (< 156 mmol/L)
SHGB 35 (13 - 71 mmol/L)
T3 5.5 (4.0 - 7.8 mmol/L)
The only side effect was itchy nipples. Dr said it was just my hormones adjusting and increased my Test E to 60mg per week and stopped the T3
After about three months begin to feel shitty again.
New blood work:
Total Testosterone 16.2 (8.4 - 28.7 mmol/L)
Free Testosterone 315 (200 - 800 mmol/L)
Bio Test 8 (3.0 - 12 mmol/L)
Eastrodial 138 (< 156 mmol/L)
SHGB 34 (13 - 71 mmol/L)
Prolactin 13.1 (4.0 - 15 mmol/L)
T4 18 (11 to 22 mmol/L)
T3 4.8 (4.0 - 7.8 mmol/L)
At my request he started me on ½ tablet of Anastrozole twice per week and upped the Test to 80mg per week. The nipple itch went away within a few hours of taking a front loaded dose of a whole tablet. After about 4 weeks started to feel better again. Not great just better.
After plowing through the stickies my thoughts are that the initial dose of T just shut down my normal production and left me no further ahead. Also, I must be a very sensitive to Estradiol because I was getting gyno symptoms from such low numbers.
Any suggestions on where I should go from here?
Your high body creates a lot of T–>E2, sort of expected and not unusual.
You have to understand that doctors do not understand lab ranges. A normal lab range captures 3 standard deviations of the sample data. The term “normal” from a statistical term is misunderstood to mean normal health.
For thyroid TSH should be near 1.0, T3, T4, fT3, fT4 should all be near mid range or a bit higher. Your T3 is low. Labs should be for fT3, fT4 as we really don’t care about the TBG bound hormones and fT3 is the most important one as it is fT3 that enters your cells via T3 receptors. Please see the thyroid basics sticky and check your body temperatures as suggested and evaluate your long term use/dis-use of iodized salt. Your thyroid issues might be from a correctable iodine deficiency. You also need selenium in your vitamins.
See the recommended starting protocol in the advice for new guys sticky and the protocol for injections. Many report a good improvement in mood with 250iu hCG SC EOD.
To loose fat:
high range TT and FT
E2 near 22pg/ml
optimal thyroid levels
You should be able to drop the SSRI’s but that can be a tough transition.
Sometimes we see TRT fix some hypothyroidism issues and vice versa. We do not know your status without fT3, fT4, TSH, body temperatures and iodine intake habits.
I thought trt in. Canada was one shot of Sustanon 250 mg every three weeks, 60mg a week bringing you up to 348 test . Get a younger uralagist. I have found women are more liberal with dosage than men as women have been on hrt for several decades.
Read the finding a TRT doc sticky and get referrals from pharmacies. They know who the progressive doctors are and doing this drives more business back to the pharmacy.