My hypogonadism was brought about due a varicocele. This caused a progressive decline in testicular function over a period of 13 weeks. All through my life i have only had one good functional testicle due to my other being undescended then atrophied (it still remains in the scrotrum - though not ‘fully’ functional).
I have always been very skinny and never fully completed puberty (got about 80% through though). I got most of the bigger changes but never really finished getting muscle mass or “bulking out”.
I didn’t have a single problem before the injury except that i got tired alot of the time. This didn’t effect me though and i maintained a very healthy lifestyle (lot’s of walking/cardio and cycling).
Before the injury happened i always noticed that one side of my scrotum had a different color/texture to the other side. To put thing’s in perspective, one side looked healthy and normal and the side with the atrophied testicle always looked like it had a lack of blood flow or something. I did notice that throughout puberty one side of my body was faster to develop than the other. The side with my “good” testicle always had more hair than the side with the atrophied testicle. Thing’s would always “catch-up” though and normalize later on.
One of the first thing’s i noticed when the varicocele formed on my good testicle was that the scrotum skin texture/color (blood flow) changing and it became less healthy looking very quickly. My foreskin also changed and became alot “darker” and less healthy looking (like a lack of blood flow). The best description i can give is looking like it “aged” somewhat or had a lack of blood flow.
I also noticed some wrinkles appearing on my face before starting TRT which i never had before (i am only 23).
When my testosterone dropped down to 15.2nmol/l (FAI 58% - 70/100) my TSH was 1.9IU/L (0.4 - 5.5). My HDL Cholesterol was 2.05 ( >0.89) and LDL Cholestrerol 2.23 (0 - 3.35 range).
When i started on TRT i went on androgel 50mg and my total testosterone went up 25.2nmol/l and my TSH went to 2.1IU/L. I didn’t get total/free T3 and T4 values though.
I am curious to know what the link between testosterone (both total/free) is with the thyroid? When i went on TRT my LH level dropped down from 3.9 post TRT to 2.7 on TRT.
Just wondering if anyone has any advice on this? I have been suffering from dry skin on ‘thin’ areas of skin around my body (knuckles, elbows, knees, foreskin/scrotum, etc).
Has anyone else experienced this?