Kasumeat
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I'm sure you've heard this before, but this forum is awesome, and I'm sorry I hadn't discovered it sooner.
Here's a brief recap of my history:
About a year ago, at 21, I had some bloodwork that showed a few problems, including low testosterone and borderline low levels of some other hormones that have since recovered (I'll get back to this). Extensive testing has been done, my testes, pituitary, adrenals (I'll get back to this as well) all tested normal, so my endo concluded that it was hypothalamus dysfunction, which I am quite certain was aggravated to a great extent by undereating/overtraining. Since then, I've been eating better, and everything except for testosterone has recovered, which has stayed low for pretty much a year now.
Current symptoms that persist include depression, extreme difficulty improving body composition, excessive irritability, fatigue (I sleep 9-10 hrs/day now), low libido, amongst others.
I saw another endo, who started me on TRT about 3 weeks ago (5g/day Androgel for a couple of weeks, and just recently 100mg/week test enth instead), and since then, I've seen some improvement. His idea was that my low testosterone has got me stuck in a downward spiral, where it's causing depression which is lowering my testosterone which is causing depression and so on. My concerns with my TRT are:
1. Estradiol. I had this tested after being on Androgel for two weeks, and the result for serum estradiol was about 185 (forgive me, I've forgotten units, and I don't have a copy of the results yet), normal being <205. Is this high that I should be worried? Should this go down now that I'm using the injections? I noticed that when on Androgel, despite feeling better overall, I had severe moodswings, and would feel emotional, vulnerable, and weepy even, which is not normal.
2. Does this treatment have a chance of restoring normal function to my hypothalamus? Like I said, just about everything on my bloodwork seems to be normal now, and my endo said that he thinks it's more likely than not that I won't be on TRT for life. I'm not so sure. How typical is a case such as mine?
3. Dose. I noticed the effects of the TRT very, very quickly. Nocturnal erections returned, acne returned, and the previously mentioned changes in mood. Then, towards the end of my two weeks on Androgel, things started to die down again, I had noticible testicular atrophy. Then, just three days ago, I got my first injection, and I felt fantastic, and good as I've felt in months. However, I'm already starting to feel a bit down again, and no morning wood today. Is 100mg/wk likely to be enough?
4. Adrenal disorder. I have just about every symptom associated with adrenal fatigue and high cortisol imaginable. 9-10 hrs of sleep a day, storing fat on the face and abdomen, I'm easily distracted, I feel on edge all the time, extremely skinny arms and calves (despite weight training) and so on. I'm pretty damn certain that I have some sort of problem related to adrenals. I actually had a fasted ACTH stim test run several months ago, but I don't know how to interpret the results:
Time / Cortisol (nmol/L)
0 / 646
20 min / 612
30 min / 599
60 min / 626
Lab range was 250-850, so my endo said that my initial coristol was on the high side, but it never got over the lab range, so there was nothing wrong. I'm a bit dubious, I would have thought that some sort of cortisol response would be expected from this test! I should note that I was feeling like utter garbage by the time they ran the test: starving, exhausted, and miserable.
Should I look into treating this further? How?
Any help with anything at all would be such a relief. If you need more details, I can fill you in as best I can, but I don't have quantitative data for the more recent results.
Here's a brief recap of my history:
About a year ago, at 21, I had some bloodwork that showed a few problems, including low testosterone and borderline low levels of some other hormones that have since recovered (I'll get back to this). Extensive testing has been done, my testes, pituitary, adrenals (I'll get back to this as well) all tested normal, so my endo concluded that it was hypothalamus dysfunction, which I am quite certain was aggravated to a great extent by undereating/overtraining. Since then, I've been eating better, and everything except for testosterone has recovered, which has stayed low for pretty much a year now.
Current symptoms that persist include depression, extreme difficulty improving body composition, excessive irritability, fatigue (I sleep 9-10 hrs/day now), low libido, amongst others.
I saw another endo, who started me on TRT about 3 weeks ago (5g/day Androgel for a couple of weeks, and just recently 100mg/week test enth instead), and since then, I've seen some improvement. His idea was that my low testosterone has got me stuck in a downward spiral, where it's causing depression which is lowering my testosterone which is causing depression and so on. My concerns with my TRT are:
1. Estradiol. I had this tested after being on Androgel for two weeks, and the result for serum estradiol was about 185 (forgive me, I've forgotten units, and I don't have a copy of the results yet), normal being <205. Is this high that I should be worried? Should this go down now that I'm using the injections? I noticed that when on Androgel, despite feeling better overall, I had severe moodswings, and would feel emotional, vulnerable, and weepy even, which is not normal.
2. Does this treatment have a chance of restoring normal function to my hypothalamus? Like I said, just about everything on my bloodwork seems to be normal now, and my endo said that he thinks it's more likely than not that I won't be on TRT for life. I'm not so sure. How typical is a case such as mine?
3. Dose. I noticed the effects of the TRT very, very quickly. Nocturnal erections returned, acne returned, and the previously mentioned changes in mood. Then, towards the end of my two weeks on Androgel, things started to die down again, I had noticible testicular atrophy. Then, just three days ago, I got my first injection, and I felt fantastic, and good as I've felt in months. However, I'm already starting to feel a bit down again, and no morning wood today. Is 100mg/wk likely to be enough?
4. Adrenal disorder. I have just about every symptom associated with adrenal fatigue and high cortisol imaginable. 9-10 hrs of sleep a day, storing fat on the face and abdomen, I'm easily distracted, I feel on edge all the time, extremely skinny arms and calves (despite weight training) and so on. I'm pretty damn certain that I have some sort of problem related to adrenals. I actually had a fasted ACTH stim test run several months ago, but I don't know how to interpret the results:
Time / Cortisol (nmol/L)
0 / 646
20 min / 612
30 min / 599
60 min / 626
Lab range was 250-850, so my endo said that my initial coristol was on the high side, but it never got over the lab range, so there was nothing wrong. I'm a bit dubious, I would have thought that some sort of cortisol response would be expected from this test! I should note that I was feeling like utter garbage by the time they ran the test: starving, exhausted, and miserable.
Should I look into treating this further? How?
Any help with anything at all would be such a relief. If you need more details, I can fill you in as best I can, but I don't have quantitative data for the more recent results.