Hello,
I am a 27 year old male and I have recently been investigating my testosterone levels after feeling more and more fatigued and not ever getting a benefit of lifting weights.
I recently discovered 1.5 yrs ago that I had hypothyroidism and after seeing a great endocrinologist who formulated a time-released mixture of T3/T4 I feel like my thyroid is under control…there are also adrenal deficincies that I’m looking into as well.
I just tested my T-levels through a LabCorp blood test and my first reading was 327 ng/dl and I had a more comprehensive saliva test taken by www.zrtlabs.com that identified these results:
Testosterone - 56 pg/ml ( doc said anything < 80 would start usually seeing symptoms of hypogonadism) Age. Dep.
Estradiol - .8 pg/ml Range (.5 - 2.2)
Progestoreone - < 5 pg/ml Range (12-100)
DHEAS - < 1.0 ng/ml Range (2-23) Age. Dep.
My cortisol levels also showed abnormal in that there was not a normal adrenal spike in the morning.
Since I had a thyroid issue and I also have problems sleeping, I started to think there was a pituitary issue since the pitutatiry regulates melatonin and thyroid output as well. I have a 20 some sister who has fatigue/adrenal issues, a teen one who has thyroid issues and my father had similar testosterone results and lifelong issues of fatigue/mood issues as well so I think there’s heredity involved as well.
I read 2 great books on thyroid and testosterone:
Kenneth Blanchard’s "What your Doctor May Not Tell you about Hypothyroidism
Eugene SHippen’s “The Testosterone Syndrome”
Today was my first day using the testosterone/progesterone 1 ml creme on my forehead. I asked my doctor about HCG b/c I was worried about losing my own ability to produce my own testosterone and most likely there might be a pituitary connection due to the thyroid and possible pineal gland’s melatonin output issues due to the fact that I have real problems sleeping at night as my father does as well.
My concern is taking testosterone at such an early age and I mentioned measuring my levels of Luitenizing Hormone (LH) and FSH to determine if HCG might be better for me in getting my testosterone back up naturally.
Are there any side effects of taking HCG as OPPOSED to testosterone creme or should they be taken together?
I think hCG emulates FSH, so you’ll probably find it necessary to shave a little more often. Hmm, it might also cause trouble sleeping for some people, but it sounds like you wouldn’t notice anyway.
In theory, I believe the hCG will “force” your body to produce it’s own test to some degree, even if you are getting up to “normal” levels via endogenous means. The idea being that your nuts don’t take a vacation and become useless.
Anyway, while reading your situation, I was wondering if maybe melatonin might help. It helps some people sleep - and getting your sleep in order might help your body regulate a lot of other things.
Obviously, if you can find a way to let the body do things naturally, it would be a lot less hassle and possibly a lot less expensive. Besides, you can always turn to shots and creams and so forth at a later date.
Thanks for your reply…actually I started taking small doses of melatonin and it has improved by sleep cycle, but not really anything else.
I have a feeling the sleep issue + my thyroid issue + the low testosterone kinda indicates there might be an issue w/ the HPTA and I’m looking into that, but since I’m only 28 I don’t want to rely solely on endogenous means for testosterone as that may affect my testes’ ability to function and fertility issues down the road.
If you do in fact have adrenal issues (which low DHEA and cortisol would indicate) TRT will do little to alleviate your symptoms. In fact, treating your thyroid without first addressing the adrenals may cause you to feel worse, because thyroid hormones need optimal levels of cortisol to be absorbed and utilized by the body.
Thanks for your reply…I’m starting to put a lot of things into perspective…
The first thing I ever stumbled across and thought to test was thyroid and when they showed up low I thought that was my whole problem and I saw a good endo who specialized in that who seemed to address it well. After about a few months of feeling good, the symptoms of fatigue started to reappear although not as bad as when the thyroid issues were present.
Then I tested testosterone which showed around 327 ng/dl…borderline low-normal BUT I also uncovered very poor adrenal function, probably due to the low progesterone/DHEA…progesterone makes cortisol and DHEA/Progesterone make androstenedione which makes testosterone.
I’m hoping if I address the DHEA/Progesterone deficiency it will address my adrenals and T issues at the same time and save my boys and helping them make their own T.
Progesterone and DHEA are hormone precursors to androstenedione which is a precursor to testosterone. It also says that Progesterone produces cortisol. Considering how my DHEA and Progesterone levels were far lower than normal, I think supplementing with bioidentical progesterone and DHEA improve my adrenal insufficiency and testosterone at the same time.
I’m thinking my testosterone could be low due to the low Progesterone/DHEA and this would also perfectly explain my low adrenal function. I have some concerns about losing my ability to produce my own testosterone and if the proper DHEA/Progesterone levels could help boost me to normal, I would prefer going that route initially.
My doc prescribed Testosterone/Progesterone cream and I will try that for a few weeks but I just bought topical DHEA/Progesterone/Pregnenolone as a creme from the internet and as soon as I get that in I will start using it and leave the Testosterone/Progesterone prescription cream alone as I don’t want my HPTA to shut down…If I get it in the next few days, I would only have been using it 1 week and I don’t want my body to get used to endogenous testosterone until I see the effects of healthy levels of DHEA/Progesterone in my system.
Progesterone can suppress HPTA and libido, DHEA will not.
I would drop that and use pregnenolone. Many do not absorb this orally and transdermal is effective. Was your progesterone level checked with lab work? If you get pregnenolone up, your body will make more DHEA and progesterone levels will not be driven too high.
Many with thyroid levels low will not absorbed TDs for some reason.