Hello,
I was unsure of where to go with my problem, but an acquaintance recommended this forum. This maybe too much information, but I don’t know of any other place to go. Since I became sexually active at 20, I have suffered from low libido and poor performance. After many years of various doctors informing me it was a psychological problem, I finally mustered up enough courage to go get myself tested for low testosterone. I found that it was low normal, technically not low enough to require treatment, but statistically about the same as the average 90 year old man’s (12.6 nmol/L, 363 ng/dl).
Having a background in biology, I immediately set about finding out causes and treatment of low testosterone. I didn’t qualify for TRT, and have hopes of eventually having children, so don’t want to go on hormone replacement anyway. Over the next 2 years I retested myself every few months, and tried a variety of different treatments, including powerlifting, d-aspartic acid (DAA), some store bought stuff whose name I can’t remember, and zinc supplementation.
In that time, my testosterone levels fluctuated between a low of 11 nmol (317ng/dl), up to a high of 15.4 nmol (444ng/dl), significantly below the average for my age group in this period (28-30 years old). There was a significant statistical outlier where I scored 19.6nmol (565ng/dl), which I achieved via abstinence from masturbation and sexual activity for a period of 3 weeks. Given that I want to increase my testosterone due to the relationship problems my low libido is causing, this clearly isn’t a workable solution.
Over this time period, my labs looked like this-
Date Test FSH LH Oestrodiol
9/09/2010 12.6 2.9 4.7 baseline
20/10/2010 15.4 67 zinc
10/11/2010 12 98 heavy cardio
18/12/2010 19.6 2.6 5.1 80 Abstinence (3 weeks)
7/11/2011 11.7 3.2 4.4 baseline 2
12/12/2011 11 3.4 7 Strength Training
23/12/2011 14.7 3.4 6.1 92 D-Aspartic Acid
9/01/2012 11.1 3.2 4.8 knee injury
7/02/2012 12.6 2.9 5.3 Abstinence (4 days)
25/02/2012 13.8 High Fat diet
8/03/2012 14.4 Herbal arimidex
*Test is in mmol, FSH and LH is in U/L, Oestrodiol is in pmol/L
This is not a complete list; my free androgen index was tested but I have misplaced it. I’m aware that this post is very tl;dr, but I wanted to be as thorough and include as much information as possible before coming to the point.
Given my labs, could anyone suggest a treatment other than TRT which would be able to bring my average up to at least 22nmol? I’m aware of treatments such as HCG and HMG, would they help? I want to avoid the mood changing drugs like clomiphene. While she claims it’s not the case, I can tell my partner is disappointed with the lack of intimacy in our relationship.
I have tried cialis; it’s extremely hit and miss. It doesn’t change my libido, all it does is change my reaction when my body does wake up and realise that it does have a sex drive.