Had a blood draw this morning for more extensive labs ordered by my urologist. Just got a few of the results back, still waiting on some. There are a few concerning results that I believe indicate primary hypogonadism, but can you guys help me out here.
Estradiol 22 pg/mL Standard Range 11 - 44 pg/mL Prolactin 12.0 ng/mL Standard Range 3.5 - 19.4 ng/mL LH 17 mIU/mL Standard Range 1 - 12 mIU/mL FSH 37.7 mIU/mL Standard Range 1.0 - 12.0 mIU/mL
Some of the results may not be back for a few days, but these LH and FSH levels almost confirms the dead testicle diagnosis from my urologist doesn’t it?
Absolutely, TRT is needed and there is no turning back. TRT will be covered by insurance, not even they can deny you.
Now all you have to do is convince doctors you require at least one to two injections of T per week. These every other week protocols are a terrible idea which the studies clearly show.
If your doctor says anything other than you require TRT, the doctor would be an idiot to put it mildly. Technically you are in the lab ranges for a 90 year old man, expect the endocrine society says low testosterone is below 300 ng/dL without considering Free T, another incompetent agency who really are no better than the doctors prescribing 200mg every 2 weeks.
The OP testicles are almost completely dead, I doubt there’s any sperm to speak of if the FSH has anything to say about it. Still worth a shot to find out if kids are important to you. HCG, clomid and FSH may do the trick.
Have a more sensitive semen analysis scheduled for next week. If anything comes of that, I do want to explore it further. The pessimist in me says that based on the the doctors evaluation, and the current lab results, there won’t be any sperm and it’s more of a planning on how to move forward with my life.
No sperm was found on the centrifuge analysis of the semen. There my be some exploratory surgeries that can be done to check for blockages. But given the diagnosis from the manually checking my testicles and fsh levels I’m not sure i want to incur that cost “just to see” if something can be found since it wont be covered by insurance. All the genetic screening tests came back normal. I see my doctor in 2 weeks to go over all the results, including the ultrasound, and discuss treatment options.
Just relieved to finally be getting some concrete answers about what is wrong with me.
Met with the urologist yesterday. After reviewing all my results he said the only way to check to see if any sperm exists would be a testicular biopsy. He put the odds for finding anything at less than 5%. Based on my numbers he doesn’t believe he can offer any testosterone treatment that would preserve fertility, if any fertility exists.
We agreed I’d need to have a discussion with my wife before making a decision about what option to pursue but he did answer some questions about testosterone treatments.
He said I’d have to sign a testosterone contract, which I’ve read is fairly standard. I’d be able to self inject, and he would start at weekly injections. He said he doesn’t prescribe any ai unless blood work comes back showing a need for one. Also said he likes trough bloodwork between 500-700 but that they will treat symptoms and not numbers.
After talking with my wife, we’ve decided to go straight to the testosterone treatment, and I go back on Wednesday to sign the contract and get my prescription.
Any tips or tricks for someone beginning their journey on self administered IM injections?
There really aren’t any tips. You stick yourself with what ever the doc tells you to. In 5-6 weeks you do bloods to see where you are. Your protocol is adjusted from there. That is it. TRT is pretty simple really it is when a guys wants to take more than TRT allows that many complications come into play. That is all the crap you read about here on the forum.