Hi Scottyo,
Sorry you having so much trouble getting it together. First I feel you are Secondary you need to have an MRI on your Pituitary Gland to see if you have a tumor. Don’t get upset over this it's no a life and death thing. Your LH and FSH are way to low with low T. And you did not say if the cortisol tests you did were before adding Isocort. You can't test your Adrenal out put of cortisol on Isocort or HC cortef.
I am now working at STTM's Men's Thyroid and the Hypituitary Issues helping out.
If your cortisol levels are real low you need to stop working out until you get your Adrenals Supported with HC or Cortef. I stopped using Isocort 8 pills a day my Dr. finely gave me Cortef I am bad dam low in the morning so I take 10 mgs. the I do 5 mgs at noon and dinner.
Taking your temps are good but you need to do this the right way. Three hrs. after your up start taking them and do it every 3 hrs. 3x's a day. Then add them up and div. by 3 for an avg. Put this on a chart
That you will find in a link later in this post. Don't get hung up on how high the temp is to start but look for the avg. temp going up and down more then .2 tenths of a deg. This tells you your Adrenals are not supported. When your on enough HC or Cortef they will level off and this is went you can up your armour.
When you wake up and feel better no fatigue you can start to get some exercise but don't over do it you will stress your adrenals more. So go by your temp avg. as long as you leveled your good. When you go to the gym do a stress dose of Cortef add 5 mgs. to what your doing just before the low workout. This will help to keep you from crashing. Read the following on how I started to treat my Adrenals and Thyroid.
This is a copy of a post I sent to Bill.
Phil
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Bill sorry to hear you have this problem your cortisol is lower then my first test I was 8. The ACTH Stim test will show if it's you Adrenals or your Pituitary not sending the message ACTH to your Adrenals to make Cortisol. Here is a link to Chris's Explaination of the ACTH test you need to read this I have seen posts where Dr.'s did it wrong. You need to be sure you understand about this test and how to read it.
Stop The Thyroid Madness :: View topic - My explaination of the ACTH stimulation test.
Most people find out they have low cortisol because they have a low Thyroid Problem one needs cortisol to carry the thyroid hormone from the blood to the cells. If there cortisol is low do to Adrenal Fatigue there is not enough cortisol to do this and as they up there meds they start to feel hyper because the hormone is going to high in the blood and not being carried to the cells. One big cause of Adrenal Fatigue is a low Thyroid the Adrenals work over time to bring up levels of thyroid and become fatigued.
Now we are finding a lot of men with low T had Adrenal Fatigue do to the stress of low T be it from the fatigue of low T or the high Estradiol. But it's dam odd that as men hear about this and are not feeling 100% on TRT that after a blood test there cortisol levels are low.
The first thing I did was to try and figure out what stage of Adrenal Fatigue I was at and it looked like stage 3.
Large Selye Chart
Then I went to this site and printed out a chart for tracking your body's temps. I would take it under my arm before getting out of bed for 10 min.'s if it is under 97.8 you have a thyroid problem my temps that I did were for 4 morning and then I did an avg. it was 95.8.
Temperature Patterns of low adrenal and thyroid function
Using this to take my temps it is also sold at Wall-Greens and Wal-mart.
Thermometer
Then after I was up for 3 hrs I took my temp every 3 hrs 3 to 4 times a day and did an avg. My avg. was low between 96.8 to 97.6 and each day was up or down this is Adrenal Fatigue.
I then ordered a Saliva Test through this link.
Stop The Thyroid Madness » Those durn Adrenals!!
From the Canary Club for about $140.00 this is the best way to test cortisol levels and DHEA.
Then I bought the book "Adrenal Fatigue The 21st. Century by Wilson. This book was a big help in understanding this problem but doing what he said to treat it with stuff like this did nothing to my temp chart. It has this in it Pituitary Extract (Freeze-Dried) 120 mg
Adrenal Cortex Extract 33 mg and cortisol but you have no idea how much.
20% Off PhytoPharmica End Fatigue Adrenal Stress-End, formerly known as Adrenal Soluble Fractions,50 capsules, PhytoPharmica - PhytoPharmica Energy 20% Off
Also he said to do B Vit.s.
20% Off PhytoPharmica End Fatigue Daily Energy B Complex, 30 capsules, PhytoPharmica - PhytoPharmica Energy 20% Off
Vit. C
Solaray Super Bio C - Buffered, 1000 mg., 360 capsules, Solaray - Solaray C Vitamins 50% Off
Everyone with low Cortisol has low DHEA I take this 2 a day.
PhytoPharmica DHEA-25, 60 caps, PhytoPharmica - PhytoPharmica Immune System 25% Off
I take 3 grams of a good brand of Fish OIL. I buy mine at Coscos (spelling) I get the one that is coated so you don't burp it up.
And there is Maca this helps keep your Adrenal hormones leveled. I was off this for 30 days and just went back on it I feel better on this. I do 1/2 tsp 2 x's a day. This is the best price and product on he web.
Maca Power® - 454g/1 lbs Raw Maca Powder
I dropped the Adrenal cortex
20% Off PhytoPharmica End Fatigue Adrenal Stress-End, formerly known as Adrenal Soluble Fractions,50 capsules, PhytoPharmica - PhytoPharmica Energy 20% Off
It did nothing.
I got some Isocort and started on it it is made from sheep adrenal's and wow the first pill made me feel good you need to start this slow. I did 4 pills = 10mgs. of cortisol first thing in the morning with food and 2 pills = 5mgs. of cortisol at noon and dinner. This changed my chart my temps come up to 98.4 to 99 but still up and down if your avg. is up or down from day to day more then .2 tenths your cortisol is still to low. I followed this to get started.
Stop The Thyroid Madness » How to treat adrenals–for the patient and their doctors
My Dr. would not give me Hydrocortisone said it's not safe to use. So I got this book by Dr. Jefferies "Safe Uses of Cortisol"
http://members.aol.com/jefferiesw/
http://www.ccthomas.com/details.cfm?P_ISBN=039807500X
Showed this to my Dr. and he blew it off and pissed me off.
I got up to 120mgs of Armour and could not do more my charting even showed my Adrenals were not right to go higher. So I switched to HC and stated with 10mgs. in the morning wow in less then a week my temps were a straight line across at 98.6 first time in 8 months of charting things were looking good and I was feeling better. So if you need to treat your Adrenals the best place for help is Val. at this link.
Stop The Thyroid Madness :: View Forum - ADRENALS and THYROID
Most of the people posting there are Thyroid and Adrenal Fatigue but she helps for Adrenals only too. Do get your thyroid checked have the TSH, Free T4 and Free T3 checked and post them to her.
as I mentioned earlier, the saliva testing of the cortisol showed them to be ENTIRELY bottomed out...as in not producing enough. however, im not sure how strongly this would have been affected by taking 4-6 isocort a day beforehand. i am now taking 8 a day, and still having what seems to be cortisol/thyroid issues.
i could care less about the testosterone right now, as that seems to be at least on track with the test gel and the hcg. the real quesiton is the cortisol (is it low, or is the supplemental screwing results...shoudl I stop it and see how thyroid works without it??)
Im starting to question whether starting the cortisol was the right thing in the first place. we thought it was, as i seemed to have all the symptoms of adrenal fatigue (but could it just have been hypothyroid??) I started the cortisol pre- armour thyroid, and pre-saliva testing.
pmgamer, if your around your advice appreciated as well.
S