Yes, penis sensitivity has improved dramatically, I can often achieve a full blown erection from completely flaccid at the slightest touch now. I’ll be walking around in my boxers and get stimulated just from that. At my worst my balls were shriveled up and dick was completely lifeless. So massive progress.
I feel strong, I feel good, I feel happy & motivated. It’s just the vision/brain-fog thing that has me worried. I hope its adrenal fatigue related. It does get worse whenever I engage in stimulating activities, like exercising, socialising, looking at computers, etc… I have read a few anecdotal accounts on adrenal fatigue recovery pages saying that brain-fog is the last thing to go usually in recovery. So fingers crossed. I’ve also read on this forum; that neurotransmittors can take 3-6 months to change following a change in hormone levels (could be broscience idk). So maybe I just need to be patient.
I will say, I lied earlier, I am taking some supplements, however, my main message is do not look for health in supplements. I am disgusted at how much money I wasted on useless supplements that do nothing. Do not expect to pop pills and recover, we are desperate and seek out quick fixes, the truth of the matter is however, recovery takes effort & consistency on your behalf. I take the following only to ensure there are no deficiencies & just for general health:
B12 (I went whole foods plant based vegan around 3-4 months ago)
Vitamin D 5000 IU per day
Magnesium 400mg, Zinc 15mg, B6, supplement before bed daily,
Home made fermented probiotics. I use water kefir. Healthy gut = healthy everything.
Lots of omega 3s from walnuts, hemp, chia and flax seeds
In my opinion the #1 contributors to my recovery have been eliminating all stress and focusing on good high quality sleep every single night without fail.
Thanks for the updates, keeps me hopeful! I have been implementing the advice from health recovery. I have gotten myself out of that stressed out state. Eliminated alot of social media etc, talking walks daily. I have these random tickles in my scrotum as if some some things are being produced. Hope I get to your level soon!
Great to hear, hoping the best for you mate. I had those random tickles all the time when I first crashed. It REALLY stressed me out and had me worried as they could be quite intense. It’s gone now, my advice to you is to just ignore them, don’t stress out over it.
Hop on HCG for a few weeks to plump your balls up and then PCT while doing everything Health Recovery suggests.
Also don’t push yourself to exercise, if you really don’t feel like going for a walk, then don’t. Exercise can cause a lot of stress & inflammation if your body is in a weak, burdened state. Always listen to your body.
Hey dude, I only really take the supplement for the Magnesium and Zinc, the B6 is just in there (its just one pill), but I am taking Pyridoxine Hydrochloride 30mg daily. The form of magnesium I use is a mix of Magnesium Glycinate & Ammino Acid Chelate.
Forgot to mention - my TSH came back at 4.07 on a range of (0.4-4.0). So this could be the cause of my brainfog & low libido. ft3, ft4 and rt3 all mid range. Antibodies fine. If anyone has any suggestions would highly appreciate it.
Glad to hear bro! I feel like I too have recovered. I stopped clomid finally about 2 weeks ago. Energy good, but most important libido is back and so is erection health. I can’t say for sure I’ve recovered fully because I haven’t had bloodwork done; waiting on the clomid to leave my system. But once I do I’ll update. Biggest issue was erections, I needed cialis every time. Haven’t used it in 2 weeks and every sexual encounter I’ve had has been successful no limp dick. Happy for you bro, we learned the hard way our body gets tore up from this stuff more than other guys.
I’ve given it some more thought and research on the vision/brainfog thing, and dissociation is the best way to describe what I am experiencing. I feel like I’m there, but not there, like im detached from the world, like I’m in the backseat almost. Apparently this is really common for people who have been through severe trauma, so I plan to talk in through with my psychologist
yo man, funny that you mention that, just saw my integrative medicine doctor, and he’s put me on Zinc + P5P in the morning, and magnesium glycinate before bed. Zinc & magnesium compete for absorption, so best to consume separately. So I will be doing that moving forward.
Hey man, I wanted to share what I’m going through incase you or future readers can relate & if it helps someone in some way. Saw my doctor this morning and turns out I am dealing with Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or CPTSD from crashing my test to zero.
The dissociation I am experiencing is essentially our brains way of dealing with trauma - the brain “shuts down” and dissociates to protect itself. This is very common with PTSD.
Because the trauma was prolonged for so long (I was hypogonadal for about 12 months), my nervous system also got heavily dysregulated leading to hypervigilance and a narrow window of tolerance (see link below) - essentially any form of stress or stimulation ramps up my nervous system into overdrive and pumps the body full of cortisol. This can take days to return to baseline. Essentially my body was stuck in fight-or-flight all the time, as I was so sensitive to the everyday stresses of life. Also, hence the insomnia, how are you going to be able to sleep when your body is stuck in fight-or-flight.
This explains clearly why I was unable to heal and recover my androgen levels completely until I started following protocols for adrenal fatigue, which involves reducing stimulation & stress, and focusing on keeping my body calm and relaxed. I needed to get out of that hypervigilant state of fight-or-flight for my body to have any kind of chance to heal itself.
I am off to see psychiatrist next week for medication to fix this in the short-term, however long term will likely involve lots of therapy & psychotherapy.
If your experience was as traumatic as mine was, and if you find yourself stuck in that stressed state, this might be something worthwhile talking to your doctor and maybe a psychologist about.
You can also look at getting a saliva cortisol test done (it HAS to be saliva, blood is NOT accurate). I thought I had low cortisol (adrenal fatigue) as my blood cortisol came back really low, however a recent saliva cortisol test came back with the exact opposite - my doctor said he has never seen someone with such high cortisol in his life. My body is stuck in fight-or-flight essentially unless I constantly override that through meditation, relaxation, etc. This is no doubt why I remained hypogonadal for so long. My cortisol result below on a day I felt like dog shit (a few weeks back).
Saliva Morning Cortisol 70.30 nmol/L (6.0 - 42.0)
What I’m saying may only be applicable if you are prone to anxiety. I just want to share my experience incase it helps others.
Forgot to mention, if you’re more prone to the “freeze” response, rather than the “fight-or-flight”, your experience will be very different to mine, and instead you may have the following symptoms: depression, flat effect, lethargy, deadness, exhaustion, chronic fatigue, disorientation, disconnection, dissociation (Stuck OFF - see below). I think this sounds more like what you are experiencing from what you’re telling me, than the severe flight-or-flight I did.
According to that article I linked above it is also possible to oscillate between the two states, so your experience could be mixed. This perfectly explains why I am experiencing crash & recovery cycles, snippet from the article below:
"Hypoarousal may occur when we have too much hyperarousal, surpassing the pain/emotional overwhelm our brain/body is able to tolerate, causing us to plunge into a state of hypoarousal (shutting down or dissociating). In this state our system can become stuck on off characterized by exhaustion, depression, flat affect, numbness, disconnection, dissociation etc.This too impacts our sleep in that we may want to sleep all the time, this impacts our appetite and digestion as well and may make us feel emotionally deadened. "
Anyways, I could be way off the mark here with what you’re going through, but I just want to share what I’m experiencing incase it helps point future readers in the right direction. I would have really benefited from this sort of information 2 years ago - shame useless doctors and therapists I saw were of no help.
Thanks alot for the updates man, it’s really appreciated. For sure my body was in fight or flight mode for a long time, I had all the signs you mentioned. Seems to have settled alot now, tinittus is completely gone thank god. My skin has improved and I can sleep 6 hours without waking up some days! Numbness is still present, but I guess that’s the last thing that will solve itself.
What do you do for sleepless nights? I do still have them from time to time. Any sleeping pill recommendations? I’ve tried Zopiclone but it did nothing for me.
I am trying to stay away from everything but honestly the insomnia is very bad. Also the feeling of derealization is bothering me alot. Man I miss enjoying and lookind forward to doing things you know? I don’t get that at all, Did you experience that? Like before I’d get the urge to do something, go out with the boys, have fun, excercise etc. Now however I don’t get pleasure from anything, i am living the life of a caveman.
Yes brother, I experienced everything you are describing. For at least a year I was a hermit and spent most days/nights in my bedroom. I used to be someone who loved going nightclubbing every weekend chasing girls with the boys, playing sport, snowboarding, camping, etc, etc. I lost all desire for everything I enjoyed and spent my days in my house. The depression I experienced was really bad. I would go to sleep praying I wouldn’t wake up in the morning. I went from muscly and shredded to putting on 15kgs and was fat as fuck. It was rough.
Understand that you are not alone. You are experiencing severe health complications and that is effecting your mental state. Understand that this is normal and expected. Also understand that this is temporary, nothing lasts forever, and you will get through this. I used to think I would be like this forever, that is not the case, trust me you will get through this.
When you are feeling really low, write down 10 things you are grateful for in your life. Always chose to be positive. Just remember, your situation is only temporary and realise how much worse you could have had it. Your life could be so much worse, you could have been born in Syria and beheaded by ISIS, or born in Africa and starved to death at 3 years old, or slaughtered by machine gun fire on the front wave of the D Day landings. Always chose to be grateful and positive for everything in your life, it could be so much worse. Do not compare yourself to your friends or other people you see on social media, instead be grateful for what you do have. Think about all the positives that will come from this situation, this is an opportunity for transformation, you will appreciate the smaller things in life so much more once recovered, always chose to be positive.
It will be impossible to heal your body and recover your androgen levels without fixing your sleep. I do suggest you try a natural approach first before medication
And practice all the good sleep hygiene I have elaborated on in my previous posts. Avoiding artificial light / screens before bed is crucial as this significantly impairs your natural production of melatonin. You can also try some sleep meditations, look up Michael Sealey sleep hypnosis on youtube.
Feel free to keep me updated / ask questions here man, I can relate to exactly what you are going through and genuinely want to help.
I strongly suggest you see a good psychologist to talk these things through. The dissociation / derealization / depersonalization is a very strong indicator you are dealing with some heavy trauma and it would be worthwhile talking it through with a professional for help.
