HRT/TRT/HGH Ongoing Observations

DrtyDiverDave

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Hey everyone,

Some of you may recall I came to this forum over a year ago when I was trying to find out more information about hormone therapy and sexual function after I had a Brain Tumor removed, and lost a lot of the function of my Pituitary as a result.

To recap - I lost the following function from my pituitary:

No FSH
No LH
No TSH
No HGH

Thank god my Cortisol levels finally came back, I hated being on Cortef - that stuff just messed me up.... But that's another story.

So, I went through a ton of different combinations of drugs, and wound up with the following (all these are Prescription):

112 mcg Synthroid - once daily
5 mg (4 squirts) Androgel daily
.6 mg Humatrope - Injected Subcutaneously every morning.

52 year old Male

My general complaints a year ago was that I had the libido of a 17 year old, but the erections of a 90 year old.


Over time, the Androgel seems to have balanced me out - I'm about as horny as I was when I was 35, which is to say, only a little bit less than when I was 17 - but at least I'm not a rabid dog anymore.

My resting pulse is still 62, which is not because I am an athlete - I'm still only 5' 8" and >200 lbs, but I have no dry skin anymore, so it seems like the Synthroid is working.

The Humatrope made me lose about 20 lbs right off the bat, which was great, but it also can cause me to retain water and swell up. My GH levels were right in the middle of the range, so it's not like I'm getting too much, but for some reason my body can only handle so much.


So - what are my complaints?

1) Boners. I get 'em every morning, and around 50% of the time they can get me through a session with the wife, but 50% of the time they fail me, so I've started taking a bit of Viagra if I think that something may happen after the kids go to bed. That's a bit of a drag - I'd rather not have to do anything like that at all (I didn't need anything at all up until 5 years ago, and the docs told me that the brain tumor was probably growing for 5-10 years before it got bad enough that I noticed the symptoms).

Now that it's gone, I'd kinda hoped that all these hormones I'm taking would correct that. My T levels are all in the High range, but acceptable, so it isn't that.

Since I don't have any LH or FSH being made by the Pituitary any more, I wonder if somehow "natural" production of testosterone can affect boners. We're done having kids, so I don't need sperm, which is the function of one of those two, so I'm not sure if this is relevant or not.

I did not try HCG since sperm were, well, "optional" and the docs said that TRT would accomplish the same overall goal for me in the physical areas I cared about.


2) Weight - my metabolism is not anywhere where it used to be - I used to be able to eat about 200% of what I do now - volume wise. I even asked the doc that did my Colonoscopy about that, so he put a camera down my throat and looked around and said I'm all fine in the stomach, so it isn't another tumor or anything like that). Yet, eating 50% of what I used to, I still don't lose weight. I've bulked up my muscles (the wife likes the change in my arms, I've got more "guns" now than I did 15 years ago), but my weight stays the same.


3) Ringing in the ears - I have ringing in my ears nearly all the time now. I check my blood pressure once a day, and it is usually in the 124/78 range - with highs after a workout of 138/90 and lows after resting of 115/70 - so it isn't BP related.

I've tried not doing the HGH and Androgel independently, to see if this is somehow related to them, but the ringing remains.


4) Low volume of ejaculate. Weird, I know, but maybe telling - why has that dropped to about 25% of what it used to be? Just before I had brain surgery, nearly nothing came out (you wanna see how freaked out you get as a man not being able to get a boner, and when you do, almost nothing comes out? I was looking for the nearest cliff...). I mean, plenty comes out now (at least by what my doctor says should come out), but I happen to know it's a lot less than before the tumor.

It shouldn't be attributable to lack of sperm, since sperm is only a small component of ejaculate (right?), so what could cause such a dramatic drop? It's not like I want to do porn or anything, it is just a further indication that somehow I'm "different" than before the tumor, and I'd like to know why/what.


5) Weird moving pains in my feet. It feels like Gout, except it moves from foot to foot, and joint to joint. One day, the joint where my tibia forms the ankle next to the heel will burn with pain, and the next day the other foot will have joint pain in the middle of the foot. Literally, it keeps moving, and only my feet - not the hands, knees, hips etc. I treat it with Indomethicin, which is indicated for Gout, and my Uric Acid levels were like 6.5 on a scale of 1-8, so I'm not exactly sure what it is, and neither are my doctors. Never had arthritis or anything else like that ever.

This, in particular, is annoying as hell, since it really interferes with any kind of working out. Anyone who has had these burning/aching feelings in the joints of their feet can attest that it's damn hard to do anything while you're in pain. I've tried hydrotherapy, massage, you name it, it just makes it worse. Indomethicin or Vicodin are the only things to make the pain stop.

And sometimes (like now) the pain will magically just go away - poof - for a week or more.


Other than that, life is good. I have a positive outlook on life, and thoroughly enjoy my wife and kids. If only I could rectify some of the problems above (and maybe win the lottery) I'd be perfect.


Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I'm posting this here because Anabolic Minds and it's users really helped me cope with the weird things you go through when you have a really devastating illness like what I had. If I can make some other guy out there feel like he's not alone, then that will be a start to repaying this great resource of information for the benefit I got from reading and participating in it.

Thanks a bunch.

Dave.
 

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