This question is for KSman specifically, but anyone else too:
Have a bit of a riddle for you.
About a year and a half ago I noticed my hair was falling out like crazy, and I was not feeling well at all. I’d dealt with 15 years of low libido and T levels in the 400’s thanks to Propecia in my mid 20’s. I tested my numbers and they came back:
Testosterone tanked to 295
Estrogen tanked from 20’s to 8
DHT tanked to something like 5
However…
LH was showing at a sold upper range: 5.0
FSH was also slightly above mid-range.
I spent some time trying to figure out if this meant I was primary or secondary. I decided to try low dose Clomid to “kickstart” myself back into the 400’s. First 25mg. Felt great then horrible a few days later. Lowered to 12mg. Felt great for awhile, then tested my levels:
Testosterne went from 295 to 550 on only 12mg Clomid
But Estrogen tanked further to 3.
DHT tanked further as well, almost nothing.
BUT: Now LH and FSH were significantly “HIGH” out of range.
This left me scratching my head. LH and FSH too high from the Clomid no doubt. So should I even be on Clomid? I started out with almost “high” LH in the first place. Asking doctors resulted in zero advice. I should’ve come here. After some time, I began to feel terrible on 12mg clomid so I lowered my dose to 6mg, and added 5mg sublingual DHEA. This became my sweet spot for the next 10 months. Numbers leveled out at:
Testosterone - 450
Estrogen and DHT still too low
LH and FSH were now back in upper (but normal) range.
Later, in an effort to get my Estrogen back into the 20’s I decided to add Androgel, fully aware that this was a completely different can of worms I was opening. I made the leap from Clomid/DHEA to very low dose androgel. Barely the size of your thumbnail was sufficient to get me:
Testosterone 430’s
Estrogen back to 22
DHT back to normal
So now my question to you. Based on all of the above, do you feel I was primary or secondary? Notably my LH before all this began being at 5.0. I saw you say on the HTPA Restart thread: “If you have high FSH/LH, you are primary and there is nothing to restart.” I wasnt sure if a solid, healthy, slightly upper level LH qualified as “high” in this context.
Going forward:
I could bite the bullet and just suffer through the “proper” Clomid dose (100mg) with the hope that the onslaught would really kickstart my whole system once and for all. But this would no-doubt send my LH and FSH levels into the stratosphere. Im not sure if thats healthy/smart. That dose of Clomid would also suck. Bad headaches, night sweats, body odor, heavy body hair growth, terrifying nightmares, extreme mood swings, and bad hot flashes… but I could suck it up for a few weeks if I come out the other end “fixed”.
Your elaborate, detailed, insightful opinion are both welcome and hoped for. I’ve tried telling this story to doctors and its always too complex for them to maintain attention. Anyone else who wants to comment please do as well.