Mikemas
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Hey guys,
I have been looking at the site for a few months to get an idea of possibly what happened to me as well as any success stories for healing. To summarize, I am a 32 year old male, never used steroids, but ended up getting my HPTA and immune system destroyed by a prescription to Methylprednisolone (for some nerve pain) that I had a severe reaction to, including months of insomnia and RAPID weight loss. This happened at the end of September 2012, and, of course, every doctor said it was in my head until I got to an endo and they ran some real blood/urine tests. Here is a summary:
November 8 2012 @ 8am:
TSH: 0.94 (.3-5)
FT4: 0.95 (.5-1.2)
T3: 86 (80-200)
Antibodies in normal range
Testosterone: 148 ng/dL (300-1080)
Bio Available T: 79 ng/dL (131-682)
Free T: 26 pg/mL (47-244)
LH: 0.6 mIU/mL
FSH: 2.3 mIU/mL
Prolactin: 3.3 ng/mL
DHEA-S: 502 mcg/dL
SHBG: 28 nmol/L (11-80)
Cortisol: 11 mcg/dL
ACTH: 28 pg/mL (7-51)
Cortisol Free (urine): 35.3 ug/d (<61)
At this point, besides my testosterone, which matched a random blood draw a couple weeks earlier at my PCP, everything was "within range" according to him but at "stress levels", so he wanted to run another check a few weeks later. He did not want to start me on Androgel yet as he warned me about the fertility issue.
November 27, 2012 @ 8 am
Testosterone: 304 ng/dL (300-1080)
Bio Available T: 198 ng/dL (131-682)
Free T: 73 pg/mL (47-244)
LH: 1.1 mIU/mL
FSH: 3.2 mIU/mL
SHBG: 18 nmol/L (11-80)
Cortisol Free (urine): 74.6 ug/d (<61)
So he told me that since the T value "doubled" he was happy with the results. I told him that LH and FSH levels do not seem to be normal for my age and I still don't feel right. He said that these are normal stress level responses (hence the high cortisol) and I need to work on getting my stress down and come back in six months.
I started doing acupuncture, exercises, etc. to reduce stress and started sleeping well again over the next month or so. However, I had significantly reduced libido, it seems my testes were getting smaller, my hair was falling out, and I had low sensitivity in my penis and scrotum. Obviously, this was causing me a bunch of stress anyway, and I knew that at 300 my T was pretty low. So about two weeks ago I finally found a good PCP who cares about my condition and will do pretty much any blood test, and a reproductive endo who knows male hormones and prescribes clomid and hCG, which luckily my insurance covers.
So these are the results at 7:45am on January 9:
TSH: 0.835 (.45-4.5)
T4: 6.7 ug/dL (4.5-12)
Free t4: 2.5 (1.2-4.9)
T3 uptake: 37% (24-39)
Reverse T3 21.5 ng/dL (9.2-24.1)
Free t3: 2.8 pg/mL (2.0-4.4)
Antibodies in normal range
Testosterone: 382 ng/dL (348-1197)
Free T (direct): 12.6 pg/mL (8.7-25.1)
Estraidol: 12.2 pg/mL (7.6-42.6)
LH: 3.1 mIU/mL (1.7-8.6)
FSH: 3.0 mIU/mL (1.5-12.4)
Prolactin: 7.2 ng/mL (4-15.2)
DHEA Serum: 343 ng/dL (31-701)
SHBG: 28 nmol/L (11-80)
Cortisol: 21.6 mcg/dL (2.3-19.4)
Vit D: 26.7 ng/mL (30-100)
Ferritin: 104 ng/mL (30-400)
DHT: 33 ng/dL (30-85)
So, it seems my estrogen, test, LH, FSH, and DHT are still on the low side. I do have some options at my disposal. Do I continue to wait it out, or try a boost/restart? I was figuring that maybe I can use low dose (50mg or 25mg a day) and see how I feel, or should I try HCG first? Again, surprisingly my insurance is covering blood work, hCG and Clomid, but I don't want to cause more problems and want to be fairly conservative. I do want kids someday, and I do believe that my HPTA is suppressed but not dead. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to add in as much detail as I could.
I have been looking at the site for a few months to get an idea of possibly what happened to me as well as any success stories for healing. To summarize, I am a 32 year old male, never used steroids, but ended up getting my HPTA and immune system destroyed by a prescription to Methylprednisolone (for some nerve pain) that I had a severe reaction to, including months of insomnia and RAPID weight loss. This happened at the end of September 2012, and, of course, every doctor said it was in my head until I got to an endo and they ran some real blood/urine tests. Here is a summary:
November 8 2012 @ 8am:
TSH: 0.94 (.3-5)
FT4: 0.95 (.5-1.2)
T3: 86 (80-200)
Antibodies in normal range
Testosterone: 148 ng/dL (300-1080)
Bio Available T: 79 ng/dL (131-682)
Free T: 26 pg/mL (47-244)
LH: 0.6 mIU/mL
FSH: 2.3 mIU/mL
Prolactin: 3.3 ng/mL
DHEA-S: 502 mcg/dL
SHBG: 28 nmol/L (11-80)
Cortisol: 11 mcg/dL
ACTH: 28 pg/mL (7-51)
Cortisol Free (urine): 35.3 ug/d (<61)
At this point, besides my testosterone, which matched a random blood draw a couple weeks earlier at my PCP, everything was "within range" according to him but at "stress levels", so he wanted to run another check a few weeks later. He did not want to start me on Androgel yet as he warned me about the fertility issue.
November 27, 2012 @ 8 am
Testosterone: 304 ng/dL (300-1080)
Bio Available T: 198 ng/dL (131-682)
Free T: 73 pg/mL (47-244)
LH: 1.1 mIU/mL
FSH: 3.2 mIU/mL
SHBG: 18 nmol/L (11-80)
Cortisol Free (urine): 74.6 ug/d (<61)
So he told me that since the T value "doubled" he was happy with the results. I told him that LH and FSH levels do not seem to be normal for my age and I still don't feel right. He said that these are normal stress level responses (hence the high cortisol) and I need to work on getting my stress down and come back in six months.
I started doing acupuncture, exercises, etc. to reduce stress and started sleeping well again over the next month or so. However, I had significantly reduced libido, it seems my testes were getting smaller, my hair was falling out, and I had low sensitivity in my penis and scrotum. Obviously, this was causing me a bunch of stress anyway, and I knew that at 300 my T was pretty low. So about two weeks ago I finally found a good PCP who cares about my condition and will do pretty much any blood test, and a reproductive endo who knows male hormones and prescribes clomid and hCG, which luckily my insurance covers.
So these are the results at 7:45am on January 9:
TSH: 0.835 (.45-4.5)
T4: 6.7 ug/dL (4.5-12)
Free t4: 2.5 (1.2-4.9)
T3 uptake: 37% (24-39)
Reverse T3 21.5 ng/dL (9.2-24.1)
Free t3: 2.8 pg/mL (2.0-4.4)
Antibodies in normal range
Testosterone: 382 ng/dL (348-1197)
Free T (direct): 12.6 pg/mL (8.7-25.1)
Estraidol: 12.2 pg/mL (7.6-42.6)
LH: 3.1 mIU/mL (1.7-8.6)
FSH: 3.0 mIU/mL (1.5-12.4)
Prolactin: 7.2 ng/mL (4-15.2)
DHEA Serum: 343 ng/dL (31-701)
SHBG: 28 nmol/L (11-80)
Cortisol: 21.6 mcg/dL (2.3-19.4)
Vit D: 26.7 ng/mL (30-100)
Ferritin: 104 ng/mL (30-400)
DHT: 33 ng/dL (30-85)
So, it seems my estrogen, test, LH, FSH, and DHT are still on the low side. I do have some options at my disposal. Do I continue to wait it out, or try a boost/restart? I was figuring that maybe I can use low dose (50mg or 25mg a day) and see how I feel, or should I try HCG first? Again, surprisingly my insurance is covering blood work, hCG and Clomid, but I don't want to cause more problems and want to be fairly conservative. I do want kids someday, and I do believe that my HPTA is suppressed but not dead. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to add in as much detail as I could.