New to Forum with Very low T of 148

[dwc928s4]

Hello all, New here.
51 years old, Male. I have been ill with the following symptoms since October 2007.
Bloating and pain, constant headaches, total body muscle twitching, excessive fatigue, inability to think clearly, dizziness, brain fog. Weet through a barrage of tests at the Cleveland clinic only to find nothing.
In 2009, Extreme blood found in urine, and a bladder tumor was found. This was removed, and continues being looked at every 6 months.
Recently during my 6 month bladder check up, I complained of my penis losing feeling, and shrinking. My urologist checked my testosterone levels. My results were 148 ng/dl, and was given Androgel at 2 pumps a day.
When I found out about Low testosterone, I thought maybe all of my symptoms for this long are related to low Adrenals becasue of alot of stress. A Endocrinologists ran tests for everything, and lab work came back fine except for low testosterone which is now 197 ng/dl, after 2 bottles of Androgel. Maybe all of my symptoms for this long have been from low Testosterone?
So its slowly coming up, but the reason I want to ask some questions is I am scared of the Androgel because of my bladder tumor a few years ago. I keep reading about PSA’s going up. So I keep procrastinating and skip some days of Androgel. Any Advice on this? Would going to a natural booster be better? Can Androgel make my bladder cancer come back ? If all of my other tests are normal, TSH cortisol Etc. What can a low testosterone level of only 148 be from ? what can be causing it ?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Justin]

Welcome to the forum!

1. Androgel cannot cause or promote cancer. This holds true with all forms of testosterone. In fact, a fairly recut study by Dr. Abraham Morgentaler of the Harvard Medical School released their findings that showed men who underwent testosterone therapy were far less likely to develop prostate cancer. It's a good study. I'd highly recommend taking a look at it. I think it might ease a lot of your fears.

2. If you truly have low testosterone, which from your symptoms and testosterone levels it sounds like you do, only testosterone will remedy the problem. An example I use all the time, when your car's out of gas it needs gas. You can add octane boosters and do things to your car to improve the milage but when the tanks empty gas is the only thing that's going to make the car go. And when your testosterone levels are low, when your body doesn't have the ability to make enough on its own, over the counter supplements and testosterone boosters won't do anything more than an octane booster would do for your car when it's out of gas.

3. If you're going to receive the benefits of TRT, if you're using a gel you're never going to get the full benefits by skipping days. In fact, you're putting your body under more stress. I say more stress because you're continually giving your body testosterone and then taking it away.

4. While I can't make a definitive judgement since you're skipping days of treatment, a lot of men do not respond well to gels and creams. From simply looking at your testosterone levels, which have remained low since you started, it would appear you're body is not absorbing the AndroGel very well. This is not uncommon. Again, many men cannot respond to gel and need injectable testosterone. However, you might find a significant improvement if you start using your gel as prescribed daily.

5. What's causing your low testosterone? The number one cause is age. We get older and our levels continually decline as we age at about 1-2% per year. Now this 1-2% per year assumes everything else is perfect and also doesn't take into account where you're starting from, where your prior peak levels were. Over the years, the stresses of life, poor diet, poor exercise habits, alcohol use and things of that nature can cause testosterone levels to lower faster. Then there are medications, medications that absolutely destroy testosterone levels. Prescriptions medications such as pain killers, statins and anti-depressants are some of the worst things in the world for testosterone production, they crush it.

For a middle-aged man with low testosterone and there are more than 20 million in the U.S. alone, once you have low testosterone you have low testosterone. There isn't a reverse course outside of therapy. Your natural production is not going to jump back up to where it was when you were 25, this is impossible. The solution, TRT. It's one of the safest and most beneficial things most any man can do.

Please check out some of the articles on this site regarding TRT and some of the fears you have and don't forget to look up Dr. Morgentaler's prostate studies and all his other testosterone related work.

[austinite]

Welcome aboard, dwc!

[dwc928s4]

Thanks Guys, The promting cancer and the article put me more at ease. Like i said i have been sick for about 5 years, with the symptoms above, and been to about 15 different docs testing me for all kinds of crap and nothing. All my levels of everything are perfect. Except for Testosterone that has recenlty been found to be 148. Still dont understand how i can be healthy as a horse. But T is so low. Is there not anything you can take naturally that will boost your lelvels back up. Or something naturally that will tell your body to produce more Testosterone ?

Thanks again.

[Justin]

The best things you can do to boost your testosterone levels naturally are the following:

1. Consume plenty of healthy fats.
2. Avoid simple sugars and excess carbohydrates.
3. Avoid regular alcohol consumption.
4. Exercise regularly.
5. Get plenty of sleep.

The opposite of any of the above will lower your testosterone levels. If you follow the 5 points above, will it increase your levels? Yes, more than likely. However, it's very unlikely it will be significant enough to get you out of a low level state. When you truly have low testosterone, and 148 is more than a true low level condition, the only thing that will fix it is testosterone.

By all means give the above a try and see how it works out but for a middle aged man you need to have realistic expectations.

One more thing, if you're taking any prescription medications, (statins, opiates, antidepressants, sleeping pills, etc) those items can crush your testosterone levels.

[dwc928s4]

Justin thanks for all your information. you seem very intelegent in this matter. Would you mind looking over my lab results and see if anything else jumps out at you. Maybe something that might be a clue of why this is happening to me. I would be very grateful

Thanks again for your input. Dave



1 2 /1 7 /1 9 6 2

AGE
50
L AB I D 21562

REPORTED ON
0 9 /1 2 /2 0 1 3 1 6 :1 3 :0 0
FASTING
NOT SPECIFIED


NAME VALUE NORMAL UNITS F L AG STATUS
COMP. METABOLIC PANEL (14) F

-Glucose, Serum 76 65-99 m g/ dL F

-BUN 18 6-24 m g/ dL F

-Creatinine, Serum 1. 13 0.76-1.27 m g/ dL F

-eGFR If NonAfricn Am 75 > 59 m L/ m i n/ 1. 73 F

-eGFR If Africn Am 87 > 59 m L/ m i n/ 1. 73 F

-BUN/Creatinine Ratio 16 9-20 -- F

-Sodium, Serum 141 134-144 m m ol / L F

-Potassium, Serum 4. 3 3.5-5.2 m m ol / L F

-Chloride, Serum 103 97-108 m m ol / L F

-Carbon Dioxide, Total 24 19-28 m m ol / L F

-Calcium, Serum 9. 2 8.7-10.2 m g/ dL F

-Protein, Total, Serum 6. 9 6.0-8.5 g/ dL F

-Albumin, Serum 4. 5 3.5-5.5 g/ dL F

-Globulin, Total 2. 4 1.5-4.5 g/ dL F

-A/G Ratio 1. 9 1.1-2.5 -- F



NAME VALUE NORMAL UNITS F L AG STATUS
-Bilirubin, Total 0. 8 0.0-1.2 m g/ dL F
-Alkaline Phosphatase, S 81 44-102 IU/L F

-AST (SGOT) 21 0-40 IU/L F

-ALT (SGPT) 20 0-44 IU/L F



FSH AND LH F

-LH 5. 8 1.7-8.6 mIU/mL F

-FSH 4. 1 1.5-12.4 mIU/mL F


THYROXINE (T4) FREE, DIRECT, S F

-T4,Free(Direct) 1. 19 0.82-1.77 ng/ dL F




CORTISOL F

-Cortisol 11. 5 2.3-19.4 ug/ dL F
NOTES on 'Cortisol':
' Cortisol AM 6.2 - 19.4
' Cortisol PM 2.3 - 11.9
'


TESTOSTERONE, SERUM F

-Testosterone, Serum 197 348-1197 ng/ dL L F




T SH F



NAME VALUE NORMAL UNITS F L AG STATUS
-TSH 1. 640 0.450-4.500 uIU/mL F




ACTH, PLASMA F

-ACTH, Plasma 29. 5 7.2-63.3 pg/ m L F
NOTES on 'ACTH, Plasma':
'ACTH reference interval for samples collected between 7 and 10 AM.
'


PROLACTIN F

-Prolactin 5. 4 4.0-15.2 ng/ m L F


GENERAL NOTES:

Test performed at:
LabCorp Dublin
6370 Wilcox Road
Dublin, OH 430161269

[Justin]

Hey Dave, more than likely you're simply dealing with the simple facts of aging. There are a lot of things that can cause low testosterone, but more often than not all that's happening is the body isn't producing enough. Sometimes it's as simple as that.