History of Illness
Age: 37
Height: 71 inches
Weight: 255
Waist: 38 inches
BF%: 23%.
BF Distribution: all over, but mainly pecs, thighs, midsection and glutes
Body/facial hair–low levels of hair in axilla, arms, with fairly dense hair below the belt and moderate leg hair (except no hair from 3 inches above ankles and below). Moderately dense beard, but grows very slowly. Facial hair (sparse) since age 13, pubic hair since 11-12 maybe.
Health conditions: Hyperension (149-154/86-92), ADD
RX–none for a while, but was taking Lisinopril and Adderall along with Androgel. I have been off all meds for approx a month. I am taking D3(10,000 IU/day), Fish Oil (Omega 3 @ 300 mg), Super B Complex, and Zinc (100 mg/day).
Diet–whatever I want, whenever I want it, but generally the American Diet of occasional fast food (good choices), occasional chips, not nearly enough protein. I don’t count macros at all.
Training: 3 days per week of strength training (45-60 mins per session with warm-up) with 2-3 conditioning sessions (conditioning may be done on lift days, maybe not–definitely not overtrained)
Morning wood: (very rarely–1-2x/month); Nocturnal erections: (same as morning wood)
As a teenager, I was very heavily muscled and lean (sub 8% bodyfat at 19 and 180 lbs, naturally). Body fat kept creaping up throughout early 20’s and beyond.
First noticed approx 2000
Symptoms:
Fatigue
Irritability
Lack of motivation
Social withdrawal
Emotional outbursts
Increased weight/fat gain around chest, buttocks, inner thighs
Mental fog
Loss of libido
Absence of nocturnal or waking erections
Decreased strength of erections
Decreased volume of semen (per semen analysis Oct. 2009/Feb 2010)
Decreased sperm count/motility (see above)
Originally diagnosed as depression and prescribed various SSRI medication
Wellbutrin
Celexa
Late 2008-Early 2009
No change in symptoms (or worsening)
Blood test by PCP to check Testosterone levels (orig tests revealed test levels of 100-120 if I remember correctly)
Began regimen of 3 (weekly) 100 mg injections of Test Cyp in MD�?�¢??s office with follow-up bloodwork performed on 4th week.
Felt great initially, but crashed before follow-up injection
Follow-up blood test (taken approx 1 week following last injection showed minor
increase in testosterone level)
Weekly injections performed in MD office were not practical as I was travelling over an hour for each injection.
Loss of testicle size with concurrent aching at times.
Impractical nature of travelling for injections as well as disappointment led to stopping treatment for approx 1 year.
Late 2009-Early 2010
Switched to Urologist for fertility consult
Marginally normal findings at that time.
Repeated semen study 4 months later with little to no change
Began Androgel Application (5mg/day) (packet)
Felt better at first, then rebound symptoms
Testosterone level checked with marginal improvement (approx 30 points to 197 (range 168-146)
Time of last application to blood test was 24-25 hours.
Started 7.5 mg Androgel
First blood test revealed decrease of testosterone levels from 197 to 168 (approx)
Time between last application and blood draw was 24-25 hours again.
Changed jobs, no insurance so stopped treatment.
Jan 2011
Currently applying 7.5G/day of Androgel since Jan 5th
Current symptoms
Low libido
Weak erection
Fatigue
Slow body composition change despite training (especially in pecs, thighs, glutes)
No motivation for activities
Social withdrawal
Jan 21st blood work with blood draw 3 hours after application of 7.5G Androgel (x 3 weeks at that point).
TT: 328 (250-1100)
FT: 73.5 (35-155)
E2: 50 (13-54)
Prolactin: 7.6 (2-18.0)
TSH, 3rd Generation 1.96 (0.40-4.50)
FSH: 2.4 (1.6-8.0) Relatively high since TRT should shut down natural production, no?*
LH: 0.7 (1.5-9.3) Relatively high since TRT should shut down natural production, no?*
Discussed those numbers/results with the fertility doc and at first he was on board with treatment. A week later, he said “If I didn’t know you were on TRT, I’d say you are perfectly normal”–My reponse to that? “You’re fired” (in my best “The Donald” voice).
I made an appointment with a local doc who specializes in TRT. I was supposed to see him yesterday and have all of my bloodwork done, but his office was flooded due to torrential downpours and melting snow putting the river by the office over 7 feet above flood stage.
I’ve rescheduled the appointment for 2 weeks from today. I’m fairly confident things will turnaround soon.