Managing Testosterone

Great conversation, once we get older it becomes very frequent we need to know our test levels.

The symptoms that concerned me were: Lack of motivation and drive at work and play, lower overall mood, gaining fat and not gaining muscle despite continuing my workouts, poor sleep quality, libido not as high as it used to be.

Last week I did a telephone consultation with the lab that did my blood work. I took the consult with a grain of salt knowing that the person was not an endocrinologist, nor any type of doctor. However, she made a good point that what is acceptable as a normal result is not always optimal. For instance there is a dispute as to what is an acceptable range for vitamin D levels and many specialists recommend an even higher level that the minimums widely recommended. She also confirmed that I am taking a good approach - increase vitamin D and try to lower estadiol as a first step.

I think it is too early to form any conclusions, however I will say that I slept soundly for longer than normal 4 out of the last 5 nights and my libido this past weekend was higher than it has been in years and is not subsiding, yet.

Yes vitamin D is crucial.

So what are you eating? What’s your diet?

Good, conservative approach. Testosterone isn’t the answer to everything. I still suck at sleeping.. I take two Benadryl every night so that I can sleep past 4:00am. Some if it’s just getting old, but diet is a good start. I will say that the testosterone did help with muscle mass.

Testosterone is tricky, for many reasons some of which have been outlined in this thread already.

The major issue is that the range for total T on a blood panel is very, very wide. Some men are fine at levels below 500, some don’t really feel good until their levels get into the 800-900 range.

I’m on TRT myself with a great doc. Blood work is great so you know where you’re at, but you really should go by feel. For me the biggest benefits have been an overall increase in energy throughout the day. Pre TRT, I would be passing out at the dinner table around 6 PM while my son was trying to talk with me. No bueno.

Another benefit is the return of erections during sleep and thus morning wood. Overall libido is up in general.

So for me, TRT was the right move.

Otherwise, doing everything you can to optimize your nutrition, supplementation, and *sleep* should be a priority regardless. Especially vitamin D. And sleep. :)

My diet: Monday - Friday I eat twice, once at noon and once at 6pm. Therefore I’m fasting for almost 18 hours a day. My noon meal is focused on protein and fat with broccoli or cauliflower. I drink pomegranate juice with this meal. At 6pm I will eat more carbs, mostly because I am eating with others and they desire more carbs. I still try to make good choices - good protein source, healthy fats, limit the processed food. On the weekends I will eat three meals and I just focus on getting enough protein and green leafy vegetables. I don’t worry too much about the carbs on the weekends. I know, I know, I could improve my diet. I found that eating this way is a balance I can live with. I’ve been more restrictive in the past and I can’t sustain it. My current diet I can live with.

Also, today I can say that I’m contiuing to feel the improvements. Again, it is early, but I have a better sense of “wellness.” I am more focused at work and realized that I have accomplished more at work in the past week than I did the entire previous month. My libido has improved, I’m sleeping well, and my head feels “clear.” It is almost as if a fog is lifting. I cannot say that my free T is improving as I won’t know that until I get tested again. It could be that my vitamin D levels are improving. Again, I won’t know that until I get tested. Maybe it is due to sleeping better. I still can’t draw any conclusions, but I will continue what I am doing and see if I continue to feel better.

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Also, today I can say that I’m contiuing to feel the improvements. Again, it is early, but I have a better sense of “wellness.” I am more focused at work and realized that I have accomplished more at work in the past week than I did the entire previous month. My libido has improved, I’m sleeping well, and my head feels “clear.” It is almost as if a fog is lifting. I cannot say that my free T is improving as I won’t know that until I get tested again. It could be that my vitamin D levels are improving. Again, I won’t know that until I get tested. Maybe it is due to sleeping better. I still can’t draw any conclusions, but I will continue what I am doing and see if I continue to feel better.
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Hi I like this tread I am 45 and I AM worry about my erection because I am marry but when my wife is in her days I want to masturbate but I struggle to get it hard. Like when I was young this does not happen before now I have to help myself puting some oil on the head and I start rubbing it to get it hard ,besides this I feel tire I have 2 job and I don’t rest and sleep enough and my libido is down I am to start to take vitamani D and magnesium .thank

If you can afford to get a blood test, I highly recomend it. That way you have data. However, I would encourage you to get more sleep. Sleep is so beneficial to our health. We can take all the vitamins we want, but if we aren’t getting enough sleep we will never be at our best.

Yes.ditto on the sleep, because that’s huge. However, it seems like with your schedule, that’s difficult, but should be a huge priority. That being said, if erections aren’t what they used to be, welcome to being 45. I’ve been using low dose sildenafil for 4 years now. It helps a lot. I have 20mg pills and take between 1-4 of them, depending on the night and alcohol consumption. I just got married for the 2nd time 2 years ago, and my wife has a pretty healthy libido, so I need to keep up. Don’t be ashamed to ask for pharmaceutical help if you need it!

Thanks I will do that

Thanks I need to sleep more ,in the morning I feel better to have sex. Now I have like 12 days without having sex I hope to be lucky tonigth

Iam trying to eat health.. Thaks bouth of guys for liseting

Just an update - I have continued to do everything I have previously mentioned and I have started to lose some bodyfat. My overall weight is down 2 pounds and I can tell my waist is a little smaller. I know that 2 pounds isn’t a significant amount, but I had been slowly gaining bodyfat for months, despite not changing anything. Now, that seems to have reversed course. I am eating the same amount and exercising the same amount as I was before. I’ll take it as a good sign.

Also, my libido is still high. This too has seemed to increase since I started taking more vitamin D, eating cruciferous vegetables, and drinking pomegranate juice. Finally, sleep has been a mixed bag. A few nights last week I didn’t sleep well at all, but the last couple nights I slept really, really well.

I am anxious to get my blood tested and see what the results are. Still over a month away until the test.

Good job doing all this. I personally am on Testosterone Replacement Therapy and I feel amazing after 10 weeks. But I have seen a lot of anecdotal evidence of people claiming that red light increases their testosterone a lot as well. Ben Greenfield has a famous blog about putting red light on his balls and increasing testosterone. There is an article in pubmed about an actually study that red light almost doubled their testosterone levels. In a facebook group one guy claimed to get his testosterone to 1440 by working out in front of a red light for 90 minutes a day. Just FYI, red light can help a LOT!

Also don’t forget supplements like ashwaganda and tongkat ali which help support testosterone levels. You can add zinc to that as well.

Re: Shaun

You’re correct about how T levels work, being within the lines. That said, there’s more than one way to measure T levels so the lines will be different depending on which test is used. Also, if a man is consistently low but within the lines he may still have some effects of low T. So those lines are more guidelines than anything. I suffered for several years trying to identify the source of my own extreme exhaustion. It wasn’t until I finally had a blood test where I showed up *below* the minimum line on Testosterone that I finally got some help.

Hopefully doctors are beginning to take this sort of thing into account.