What to Get Check if You Suspect Low Testosterone Levels?

^ cosigned.

My doctor is on top of my HRT and I feel better than ever. It’s not something you can take like an over the counter remedy. This is serious business.

A “Time Out”? This seem like it’s out of control to you, sta?

I sorta thought we were just talking here.

Agreed, which is why I think it’s important to get a good medical analysis before acting on it yourself with broad spectrum hormones.

Yes.

However I read this and it comes across like it’s common problem and a major emergency.

How common is it? I mean seriously.

Agreed. Which is why I question a self-prescribed course of OTC.

It’s worth asking.

Uh, thanks. Good thought.

On the other hand, this thread isn’t really about me or anyone other than sed26.

There’s always the possibility that some of us already know how to monitor our health with the aid of a qualfied professional. ;)

Mr. Happy: I promised sed26 a few pages back that I was going to come back and clarify some things and correct some misinformation about HRT. So if you took my post as totally a response to yours, it wasn’t.

Why am I bothering to post in this thread with accurate information? Because I think about the future, someday a thunders guy will search for info on low test and come across some bad info. And maybe come away with some crazy notion that he doesn’t need to be treated.

That is the guy I am writing for.

Is it common? No, not like cell phone usage.

However, it is probably more common than you think. On an HRT support board I’m on, there are several guys who were initially diagnosed with depression. That’s because the symptoms of depression in men is very similar to the symptoms of low testosterone. The incidence of low testosterone is pretty high in men with diabetes.

In my case I thought it was “work burnout”, so I remained untreated for about 4 or 5 years.

Was it a “major emergency?”

Well here is what I lived though: I went from being highly energetic to being dead on my feet all the time, the worst kind of endless fatigue. I went from being an articulate person to somebody who could no longer “fetch” the correct words in conversation, so I would grab what ever word sounded closest and just not make any sense. I went from being a quick learner to not being able to learn anything at all. I went from being a nice person to being an angry irritable son of a bitch. Everything that gave me joy - my work, my hobbies, my friends - were WAY TOOOOOOOOO MUCH trouble, too hard to deal with any of that shit.

This is why I keep repeating that testosterone isn’t just libido and muscles.

Happily in a fitness forum I go to, I began to read about guys who had low testosterone and what they had gone through. Suddenly it all clicked, maybe it wasn’t “work burnout” after all. At my physical I asked my doc to check my levels. Doctors do not typically test this.

Once I got my dosage right, all of those horrible things went away. I could talk again, I had my old energy back, I was my happy nice self again, my joy came back.

You are welcome.

I don’t know what’s up with sed26. That’s why I kept advising he see a doctor. More likely than not, his test levels are normal. But it does sound like something is going on with him that he needs to get checked out

As I mentioned before, Doctors usually do not test for testosterone levels when you have a physical. You are ahead of the game it sounds like, but it wouldn’t occur to most people to have hormone levels checked when getting a physical. Again my purpose for suggesting is that it would be very nice to have a base level should something go wrong someday. It took a long time for my doctor and I to find the right dose for me. If I had walked in with a baseline reading from when my testicles were functioning, it would have taken months off the time it took for us to get my levels back to what is normal for me.

I’m with you Mr. kool.

I didn’t suspect that you were only responding to me, but I was a little confused, so I asked.

I suspected we were playing for the same team here, but given your personal history with this it sounds like you’re playing aggressive offense, whereas my approach to discussing this was more fall-back, wait and see defense.

As you’ve done the research, I’ll take the “it’s more common than people think” assessment from you - particularly as you have also acknowledged that, overall, it is uncommon. I’d go so far as to venture rare for a 20-something.

I would certainly agree that if it is really what the problem is it is something that should be treated - and with some degree of urgency. Maybe not “Officer down, send a bus quick! He’s bleeding out!” urgency, but certainly something to address quickly and decisively.

That’s where I’m coming from on this, except that you are quite specific in your recommendations for what to test, which is part of why Thunder’s Place is such an excellent resource.

So, just to be clear: I appreciate your clarity.

Let’s hope sed26 heeds the advice and gets properly checked out, rather than attempting to solve it himself with hormone use he learned on the internet - whether from bodybuilding sites or here.

You and I are ALWAYS on the same team! :cheerlead I’m really glad to have you back around this place again.

Yes it is rare. On the other hand it does happen.

For example, I know of two thunder’s members in their twenties who are being treated by a doctor for low testosterone.

Hi Sed,

I’m 23 years old, and I’ve been through an experience similar to yours - I.e. Despite strength training and eating fairly well, I had a low of sex drive, poor libido, and man boobs. Earlier in 2011, I resorted to viagra.

However, everything changed when I went on holiday to Morocco during the summer - I was getting erections like I was 15 again. I made the connection that I must have been Vitamin D deficient (UVB from the sun helps you make Vitamin D).

Sure enough, since I’ve been back in rainy old England, I’ve supplemented with 5000ui Vitamin D daily, and now have rock hard erections, rock solid abs, and a good sex drive. Other factors which may have contributed to this change include the following: taking ZMA, eating lots of cruciferous vegetables, and drinking lots of water.

It seems ridiculous that something so simple could make such a difference, but it did for me. A study has shown links between increased Vitamin D and increased testosterone (don’t remember the paper, check it up on pubmed). If you don’t get much sun shine, or if you use sun screen, you may be Vitamin D deficient.

Hope this helps

-Skitz

I’ll look into this. I hardly ever go out in the sun no more than to get to wherever I’m going. I usually avoid the hot sun like the plague and do’t really hang outside much at all. I’ll buy some vitamin D and see what happens.

Meanwhile I’m going to schedule an appointment to get my test levels(total and free) checked when I get back to school next week. I feel better doing it there than asking my parents to schedule an appointment.

Sed, have you ever had your blood sugar levels checked? I know somebody brought this up earlier. Most pharmacies can do this for you for free.

Vitamin D3 has lots of health benefits in higher doses. I take about 3,000 IU per day

Here’s a summary of some of the benefits

Great idea. Be sure to get a regular blood panel too (liver, blood sugar, cholesterol etc). Doc will probably want to do that anyway. Keep us posted.

Sun makes me feel WAY better.

“Mountain Dog Diet.”

Very interesting. I read about a guy with similar results. Personally, I used Vitamin D and did not notice much, but I do believe I may have suffered from a chronic infection at the time, so I`m ready to try it again.

Thanks for the reminder and if anyone else try it, please report back as I will.

No but as a matter of fact I thought about this yesterday when I asked my mom what the hereditary problems in my family were. Basically diabetics and cancers. So I will try and get my blood sugar levels checked here at home since we have one of those devices. I checked my blood pressure multiple times a couple days ago and it was high too. Im starting to do cardio on my off days when I’m not weight training to help. Problems with blood pressure is also in my family.