What's up fellas

Hey guys, new guy here. I just signed up with the Low T Network and will be setting my doc appt soon.

I'd gone to the Low T Center in the Houston area b/w July and Oct of last year, first pass on BW was 292 ng/dl total test (36 years old). I was a bit skeptical but also pretty happy to have an explanation for why I was feeling like crap, tired, fatigued, all the classic symptoms. I thought it had probably been induced by high job stress (just changed companies in a high-stress capacity), had a 2 year old and a 6 month old at the house, little sleep, working 14 hrs a day, and working on a masters degree all at the same time - with that much stress and sleep deprivation it made sense. When I got the remainder of the results all the other items were normal and within range except for hematocrit which was a little elevated. PSA, FSH, LH, all within range.

Started a regimen of TRT and by about August was in the low 400's. Felt marginally better but this frustrated me b/c when I brought up that for my age I was still on the low end of the range they said at 36 I was just below where I needed to be. I didn't really feel all that much different and started to think I was wasting my time.

By October I basically said screw this and inquired about trying to ween off, and they suggested an HCG protocol to help boost natural production. I said why the hell hadn't you suggested that while I was taking the TRT? Made sense to me that the best thing to do would be to perhaps fix, or at least help the underlying issue - apparent testicular failure (God I hate that term) - instead of just giving me half a cc shot every week. The response was, "oh no giving you HCG and TRT would raise your T levels too high" - and this while I'm only about 70 ng/dl higher (at 450) than my 70 year old father who has type II diabetes and just got his levels tested at 380!!!

So in frustration, and with huge workload making it hard to keep on the weekly schedule, I decided to quit cold turkey and retest after a couple of months to see if I improved. Fast forward to last week April 2013, and I tested my T levels again at the Low T Center and they came back at 283 ng/dl.

I was bummed, I was even lower than I was when I first tried TRT but I didn't feel near as bad as I did then. So I came across a link to this site while googling and thought I'd give it a shot. The idea of continuing to go on as I had before does not appeal, and I'd been thinking about trying to see an endo and get serious about dealing with this but it seems the bulk of the medical community is either too ultra-conservative or risk averse to do much more than try and get you marginally above minimum levels regardless of age.

I'm optimistic the Low T Network will be different.

That's my opening rant...glad to be here.

Cheers

Very interesting story SixtyCanine. Im glad you found this site and chose to become a member. And also I think you're well on your way to the beginning of a healthy life. Im confident the folks at LowT will have you singing in the shower, and perhaps even put that spring back into your step. ;)

Good luck and welcome to the Forums.

Agreed very interesting! I want to welcome you and wish you the best of luck with getting started on a new healthier life!

Keep us posted on your progress please!

kel

Update so far.

Got BW done by Labcorp (for Low T Network):
477 ng/dl - total testosterone (no exogenous testosterone in my system)

That is considerable spread from the 283 ng/dl reading I got from the other clinic (same day). Informed the TRT doctor, and she stated may be a calibration issue. (Good to know!)

Doctor prescribed 100mg/wk. Currently waiting on prescription to get delivered.

Will keep you posted

Hope you work things out, welcome and enjoy the site :)

welcome