Hello all,
I was recommended this forum by a friend, so I hope I may receive some pointers on my situation. I`ll try to be as on point as possible.
-
I`m a 27 year old male, apparently healthy. Low stress, sleep well on a daily basis, eat healthy and work out moderately (i.e., very conscious about not overtraining and keep volume low). When I was around 20 years old, I was severly burned out after several years of too high expecations of myself: highly stressed, severly underslept, physically demanding full-time job, student, heavy duty training and too strict diet at times. This lead to a kind of nervous breakdown that put me out of business for a long while. I wonder if I may have hurt my body in some way leading up to this.
-
I used to work as carpenter and with a physically demanding job, stress and not always sleeping enough, I reasoned that feeling tired, zapped and with low libido was normal. After quitting my job, eliminating stress and sleeping adequately and beyond, I felt even worse. Actually, I felt terrible and spent as much time I could in bed. Extreme fatigue and zero libido. This made me realize that something was very wrong in my body.
-
Test results came back “normal” and my doctor said everything is okay. I noticed that ferritin was elevated (300+), indicating inflammation or hemachromatosis. I was met with ridicule for bringing it up, but after my ferritin reached 700 and I did not get any better, I finally got to consult a specialist. Prior to visiting the specialist, I had donated blood and since my ferritin levels dropped quite a bit and all the other supporting tests for hemachromatosis was negative, they concluded that I did not have the condition.
-
I then decided to stop worrying and just go on with life. My condition improved considerably from rock bottom, but I still felt like shit at times. After a few months, I just had to be honest with myself and realize that I don`t feel well or healthy. Main symptoms being lack of energy, fatigue and very low libido. This eventually led me to convince my doctor to try clomiphene treatment, 25 mg every day. This led to a measured boost in testosterone and I also felt much better physically, although libido did not improve that much. Eventually, the effect seemed to wear off and my doctor decided to not give me any more because she feared I may develop cancer.
-
Fast forward I later got to a doctor who wanted me to try a combo of various natural supplements, but also 50 mg of DHEA. For the first weeks I felt like shit, but I wonder if perhaps I did feel better at times using this. I think I had better libido on average, but the test results did not show any significant changes. I then asked for clomiphene and wanted to try that along with DHEA. After two weeks, I did not feel any better and even worse, so I decided to quit.
-
I have tried various natural supplements like Maca, Ginkgo Biloba, etc, but none of them seem to work. I once tried Tongkat Ali and seemed to get a good boost (not measured) from that, but I got too excited, forgot to cycle it and it seemed to wear off. Maybe it would be worth another shot?
-
There is a cyclical tendency with my state of being. I experience days where I feel very well and even raging libido. The feeling well and raging libido is not necessarily experienced together. I often experience high liido during periods where I have been tired and stressed. As late as 4 weeks ago I had a week of raging libido in my body where I needed to release multiple times daily and really felt like a sexual being. That is all gone now.
-
The last time I checked ferritin it was 200, which definitely is not low considering that I donate blood every 3 months. But probably nothing to worry about.
So, here I am, feeling kind of clueless about what to do. Maybe low testosterone is my real problem or maybe it is a symptom of something else. The doctor I have previously been with said that he would consider letting me try TRT if the prior combo failed (which it did).
However, I notice that I have lot of resistance against TRT, especially since I dont feel I can trust the knowledge of this doctor and because I fear that something else might explain my issues. The fact that I function well at times make me believe that I have the potential to function on my own without assistance under certain conditions, whatever the hell they are. What I would really prefer is to simply get well and function well on my own, but maybe that
s not an option?
If I knew for a fact that I needed TRT, I dont think I would hesitate, although I feel it is a last resort for me. On the other hand, I
ve been struggling for quite a few years now and I`m certainly not getting any younger.
Without giving the complete panel now (will do if anyone is interested), my testosterone have been measured in the range 390-429 ng/dL naturally. 507 ng/dL after one month of clomiphene.
So, guys. Any help on how to proceed from here would be highly appreciated. Ill even pay for good advice as I
m really at the end of my ropes here.
Thanks,
Johan Nes