My HRT Journey (So Far)

Pharma TRT
41

Your treatment for adrenals (cortisol) and hypothyroidism is similar to mine. I am on Cortef and doctor hopes the extra cortisol will feedback and positively affect my thyroid output as well.

I don’t know if Cortef is slow acting or not. I have been on it for about a week and a half now and haven’t noticed a huge difference in mood/energy.

I have gained fat in my stomach while pushing up the numbers on all my lifts more so than I would have expected in the past week, but I’ve also started a new training program and upped my cal intake so I would guess its more likely due to this than the meds.

I started out at at 5 mg/day with breakfast for first 5 days, then up to 10 mg/day divided between breakfast and my meal 4-5 hours later. I have been forgetting to take it at one meal or the other and try to get it in when I can think about it, but not on the proper times. Don’t know if this is relevant or not, but I cant see it as being detrimental to the intended affect.

42

well heck… I was reading another forum and it seems like I am all out of whack with my CHOL as well.

[Quote]
Originally Posted by cpeil2
Dr. Davis promotes on Trackyourplaque.com:
HDL: at least 60
Triglycerides: 60 or less
LDL 60 or less
Vit D: at least 60.
LP (a) should be as close to 0 as you can get it. [/quote]

my Total CHOL = 149 (bounces between 121 - 153)
my HDL = 44 (never above 50 in the last 3 years)
my Trig = 68 (bounces between 65 and 90 with one spike at 110)
my LDL = 91 (bounces between 70 and 95)
Vit D3 = 57 (was 17 before starting 15,000iu D3 daily - but it is still low even on that dosage)

but I have never had a single doctor (out of the eight I have seen) ever say anything to me about my CHOL (except for the one time with the 110 Trig spike, but he said we would just keep an eye on it).

I have also never had a comprehensive CHOL panel done (didn’t even know that one existed until reading out it here from people’s test results).

just great… well, I guess I have a new test to ask for in a couple of months. Everytime I try to simplify things and eliminate possibilities, the more complex things become.

Also, the lipid matrix micronized pregnenolone arrived, and I have started on that.
Started with 25mg first thing in the morning, and 25mg last thing at night.
Now on 50mg first thing in the morning, 25mg afternoon, 25mg last thing at night.

No appreciable effects as of yet. (I am also on 5mg SR HC @ 7am and 1pm.)

Things I need to think about changing:
–Replacing my Cod Liver Oil with something else without Vitamin A (due to possible interactions with my already low Vitamin D levels per Dr. Chrisler).
–Wanting to try 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of sea salt morning and night to see how I do (since my Aldosterone level = 2).
–Testing out increasing/decreasing Pregnenolone to see what impact it has.
–Testing out increasing/decreasing HC to see what impact it has.
–Thinking about testing out T3-only medications (I want to wait until my next blood test before I do that to see what the readings are off of all Thyroid medications, but my doc wanted to be on them now due to my high RT3 - which I feel is due to taking unnecessary medication.)
–Starting Vitamin E to help work with the Fish Oil (from what I read, the Vitamin E in a one-a-day multi-vitamin is not sufficient per Dr. Chrisler)
–Constantly fighting between wanting to wait and take things slowly VS being sick and tired of not feeling good and wanting to fix everything now by changing everything at once.

I am doing ok overall, night time erections, general mood, general concentration, general energy, but I have absolutely no desire/libido and am still far from being at 100%.

43

Yo, do you think your/our low libido could be due to lifelong treatment with methylphenidates (sp?)? Libido has so many things besides testosterone that influence it and one of those is norepinephrine(sp?). I’ve always wondered if guys like me that have used it for 9-10 years have burned out our dopamine receptors.

44

Yes, I am worried about that possibility, but since there is not much I can do about it at this point, I am focusing my efforts on my other treatment options.

I have tried many different ADHD medications.

Ritalin = for 15 years - no choice as a kid. It sucked big time. Forces you to concentrate, robs you of choice and interfers with emotional development.

taken off everything for college - another great idea from Docs “adults don’t have ADHD”… yeah failed out of college, couldn’t hold onto any job, got fired as a cashier, could not think, could not concentrate, could not function.

found a doc who put me on Desoxyn - a God send. It gave me the option to concentrate when I wanted to, or not. This completely turned my life around. able to study, go to class, complete assignments, have a life, have a job, actually function for the first time in my life. graduated Dean’s list, married, social life, good job, etc.

then all of the other symptoms started popping up and I thought it was the ADHD medication at first, so I tried different types - Adderal (not good made me feel weird/off), tried herbal supplements galore, but nothing seemed to help.

Once I figured out I had a Testosterone issue I started down the HRT path, but still played around with my medication. I switched to Vyvanse (which I am still on) with slowly increasing dosages. I tried DMAE which seemed ok, but not as effective. and Novigil (I think) an anti-narco drug which was horrible - it was like I wasn’t on anything and my mind completely shut down - which is a fate I would not wish upon anyone - not being able to think straight or get a coherent thought out is just gut-wrenching aweful - Alzheimers is the closest to how I was performing.

I have glimpses of how I can be when I hit a good day or couple of days, but nothing consistent and I can’t find a pattern behind what makes those days sooooo much better then my other foggy days.

I am not looking for 100% or 200%. I just want to be able to function, to feel normal, to hold down a good job, to contribute, to play with my kids, to ‘play’ with my wife, to hang out with friends, etc.

45

Everyone deserves 100%. I will look into the dopamine thing. There are no long-term studies on methylphendidates and their effect on hormones and dopamine production. I do know that we have lower “resting” dopamine levels compared to controls but I think the mechanism is similar to body builders who have lower resting testosterone–their levels “explode” during a workout I.e., when we take the medicine which results in lower resting testosterone/dopamine levels.

I think it’s feasible; I definitely don’t think about sex but maybe 1-2x a day. And it’s not like I ever fantasize etc anymore either. It’s like a black and white tv…it’s just there. I’m going through the motions. Their skin doesn’t have the same warmth it used to. So damn weird. I could be depressed.

LMAO-I remember one day after a MASSIVE poorly prescribed HcG shot (4000ius!!) I sat and watched this movie and I remember looking at Meryl Streep and popping wood. I was like hot damn she’s fine. Now I look at Bar Rafaeli and think…Hmm…I wonder what’s for supper today? Regardless, I think we need to start looking at our brains.

46

Ok so I settled on making two changes:

  1. well after a week of trying the lipid matrix pregnenolone, I am stopping.

The first day was pretty good (25mg am & pm) - I had a sense of well being overall, but then as I increased the dose to 100mg a day, my libido/desire tanked completely. Best guess would be excess conversion to Progesterone. A previous blood test showed that I had 3.4 progesterone which is double the male maximum range - so I may just overconvert to along that pathway, and since progesterone competes with and blocks DHT from working, excess progesterone seems to fit my symptoms.

a day after I stopped the pregnenolone, I am getting twinges as things are starting to reawaken.

  1. I decided to do the sea salt test to confirm Aldosterone issues - after reading some things on here and stopthethyroidmadness about Aldosterone issues.

My Aldosterone levels was at 2 at 8am and just like cortisol they drop throughout the day.

I took 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt in water last night, and I am taking that four time today. Within an hour of taking it, I felt things change. My mood was better, my energy was great, I was laughing and having fun, etc. It was an amazing feeling, and I was a completely different person.

IF it just so happens that all I have needed all this time was to fix my Aldosterone, I will be just a bit perturbed. :angry:

This site has some extremely detailed facts regarding aldosterone. I haven’t read everything here yet except for the bottom 3rd which deals exclusively with Aldosterone - http://www.tuberose.com/Adrenal_Glands.html

my symptoms of low aldosterone:
low blood pressure (prior to Testosterone injections)
swelling ankles/water retention/bloating gets worse the later it gets in the day (I had attributed all of this to estrogen problems)
excessive sweating (literally pouring off of me when I work out, when I am out in the heat, or when I have sex - again I thought estrogen was to blame)
heart palpitations at time (I thought medication, thyroid, or testosterone issues)
craving salty chips, extra salt on eggs, etc.
flashlight test shows that pupils can not stay dialated when light shined in them.

Today on the sea salt water, I am doing good, but not great. Having some heart palpitations and am a bit off my game. I am concerned that the extra salt/electrolyte balance is making me more sensitive to the medications I am taking.

47

Salt craving can be part of adrenal fatigue sometimes.

Maybe you need a small amount of pregnenolone.

48

well I have been taking the sea salt for a couple of days now (a total of 2-3 teaspoons of sea salt a day). btw, sea salt mixed with water is horrible. I found it is better to just toss the salt to the back of the throat and then chug some water.

overall things seem better - a little better focus at work, more energy at home, my libido is back, plus my knee has stopped hurting which is a weird side effect + TMI Warning (And for the first time in my life, I am having a bowel movements more than once a day. some doc told me once that going after every meal is ideal, but I laughed about that possibility at the time.)

also if I go more then 4 to 6 hours without extra salt I start to develop a headache - which has been waking me up at 4am (which is much too early). I doubled my salt dose last night and that seemed to help. Will try again tonight.

I guess I need to talk to the doc about the drug to treat low Aldosterone.

I also never tried the whole restart protocol (never knew it was an option until the last month or so), and this whole new Aldosterone problem has me worried about what else the HRT feedback loop is shutting down in my body. I’m not sure if I should just stay the course for now and stay on all of this medication, or if I should give restarting a try.

If I stay the course then I am on:
T-Cyp 30mg shots EOD
HCG 150iu shots EOD
Arimidex .25mg EOD
HC - 10-20mg daily
Vyvanse 60mg daily
Vitamin D3
Iron
Zinc
Copper
Fish Oil
Folate
Probiotics
Sea Salt (2-3 teaspoons daily)

  • possible T3-only medications (doc wants me to start)
  • possible Aldosterone replacement (forgot the name)

this seems like too long of a list to me - hence the thought to try restarting, but doing that means stopping everything more or less and risking relapsing back to where I was.

at this point, I just need to give it some more thought before I decide - plus I am not even sure if my current doc (or my wife) would be open to me trying a restart protocol.

49

I sent a fax to my doctor last week asking for specific blood tests. He agreed to most of them.

I had blood drawn on Saturday (10/02/10), and hope to have most of the results back by this Friday.

Here is what I sent him.

CURRENT ISSUES
Concentration, focus, drive, energy, libido, weight, sleep, and mood are all still fluctuating. They are better then before, but I am still far from doing good or great.

My low Testosterone symptoms seemed to get worse as I increased my Cortisol dose from 5mg daily t20mg daily so I tried increasing T-Cyp from 30mg t40mg EOD to offset possible downregulation of Testosterone. Initial reactions to the extra Testosterone were great. More energy, more libido, etc. but after 4 days my emotions started getting the better of me (crying, etc.), I could feel the presence of my prostate yet again, and my hair started falling out faster. I quickly dropped T-Cyp back t30mg EOD.

I tried taking Lipid Matrix Micronized Pregnenolone a couple of different times but have since stopped. Taking 100mg Pregnenolone = total loss of libido and zero physical sensation (due to excess conversion to Progesterone competing with DHT?). Taking 25mg Pregnenolone = immediate awareness of prostate (due to excess conversion to DHEA to Andrta bad Estrone 2:16 ratio?)

Previously when I was on 60mg oral DHEA, I had to take .75mg Arimidex daily or else my prostate starting aching. Dropping the DHEA completely allowed me tgt.25mg Arimidex EOD with no prostate side effects. My reaction to Pregnenolone & DHEA and my issues with Cortisol & Aldosterone seem to point to some issue with excess and/or deficient enzyme conversion ratios (symptoms could be showing possible excess 3b-HSD & CYP19 with possible deficient 17b-HSD & 21a-HSD).

I am going back and forth between 15mg HC daily and 20mg HC daily. 20mg keeps me up too much at night at times. I am on Slow Release which I think may be a problem because I can’t get the dose timing down. I take 10mg at 7am, and I crash hard at 2pm if I don’t take more between 12 and 1. But if I take 10mg at noon, then I can’t sleep at night easily. If I take 5mg, I am exhausted at night. We may need to look at regular HC.

I also started taking sea salt 1-3 teaspoons daily to help offset my ultra low Aldosterone levels and to improve electrolyte and sodium balance. I had an immediate and amazing improvement to mood, energy, and concentration. I am also sweating a great deal less, my left knee is no longer hurting, and I have multiple bowel movements a day (which is something that never happened before). At first, I was getting headaches if I went too long between doses, but that faded after the first week. The huge improvements have also faded a bit over time, but I am still seeing some measureable benefits.

My previous symptoms of low Aldosterone:
swelling ankles/water retention/bloating gets worse the later it gets in the day (I had attributed all of this to estrogen problems)
excessive sweating - literally pouring off of me when I work out, when it is slightly warm, or when I have sex (I thought estrogen was to blame)
heart palpitations at times (I thought medication, thyroid, or testosterone issues)
Flashlight test shows that pupils can not stay dilated when light shined in them.

CURRENT MEDICATIONS/SUPPLEMENTS
T-Cyp 30mg shots EOD
HCG 150iu shots EOD
Arimidex .25mg EOD
Vyvanse 60mg daily
HC Compounded Sustained Release 15-20mg daily
Zinc 50mg daily (to support my prostate)
Copper 3mg daily (to offset losses caused by extra zinc supplement)
Vit D3 10,000iu daily
Kelp (Iodine) 1000mcg daily (to support my Thyroid)
Folic Acid 800mcg daily (to boost my low folic levels)
Fish Oil 1 teaspoon daily
Iron 22mg daily (to boost my low ferritin levels)
Magnesium 600mg daily (to boost my low magnesium levels)
Vitamin E 200iu (mixed trop) daily (to help work with the increased omega-3s)
Multivitamin BlueBonnet Max x1 daily
Probiotic x2 daily
Sea Salt 1 to 3 teaspoons daily

CURRENT QUESTIONS

RT3 was very high when on Armour. Have been off for 2.5 months. What are my levels now? Is the Kelp (Iodine), Iron (ferritin), and Cortisol helping any?

Why is my system on such a hair trigger? Is there any particular excess enzyme activity is driving this? Am I a hyperexcreter/ hypermetabolizer? (CAH + Rhein panel will hopefully shed some light here)

Is my Aldosterone still at 2? Should I continue 2 teaspoons sea salt daily? Should we look at Florinef for low Aldosterone if still low this time?

What is my 2:16 OH ratio? Is that driving my prostate swelling issues?

I am concerned about my cholesterol levels, and I am hoping the more detailed VAP Cholesterol test will provide something useful. I heard Cholesterol ideally should be:
–HDL: at least 60 (mine is never above 50)
–Triglycerides: 60 or less (mine bounces between 65 and 90)
–LDL 60 or less (mine bounces between 70 and 95)

Are any of my other systems “off” that could help explain my ongoing symptoms and lack of improvement given the number of medications/supplements I am on?

Depending on the results of the tests, I would like to discuss possibly trying a restart protocol (SERM + Arimidex to reboot my system) in order to get off of the multitude of medications I am taking.

Here is what I had blood drawn for on Saturday:
VAP TM Cholesterol Test (#10270)
Pregnenolone (#31493)
Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia - Comprehensive Screen (#10299)
–11-Deoxycortisol, LC/MS/MS, Serum (#30543)
–17-Hydroxypregnenolone, LC/MS/MS (#8352)
–17-Hydroxyprogesterone, LC/MS/MS (#17180)
–Androstenedione, LC/MS/MS (#17182)
–Cortisol, Total, LC/MS/MS (#11281)
–Deoxycorticosterone (#6559)
–DHEA (#Dehydroepiandrosterone), Unconjugated, LC/MS/MS (#19894)
–Progesterone, LC/MS/MS (#17183)
–Testosterone, Total, LC/MS/MS (#15983)
DHEA-S (#402)
Dihydrotestosterone (#204)
Estradiol, sensitive (#4021)
SHBG (#30740)
Cortisol Binding Globulin (#Transcortin) (#37371)
Aldosterone/Plasma Renin Activity Ratio, LC/MS/MS (#16845)
Ferritin (#457)
Transferrin (#891)
Vitamin D, 25-Hydroxy LC/MS/MS
Iodine (#16599)
Ultrasensitive TSH (#899)
T3, Free (#34429)
T4, Free (#866)
T3, Reverse (#967)
Thyroxine binding globulin (#870)

I had also asked for a Rhein Urine Panel and a Spectracell MicroMineral Panel, but didn’t get an answer on those and I didn’t want to spend $150 on a phone consultation just asking for more tests.

50

on a side note, I had my first DRE (with my primary doctor who prescribes my Vyvance) - wheee…

and according to the doctor everything is normal - which is a relief.

Apparantly (just like how some women’s breasts hurt during hormonal changes) I can feel the presence of my prostate whenever there are hormone/supplement changes (or imbalances) - but that “presence” or ache is not due to the prostate swelling or increasing in size (at least not yet).

51

Anyone want to go down the rabbit hole with me?

Monster Post… blood tests can be downloaded at Loading... - use password: purechance

I was hoping for one or two things to make sense and to have my recent symptoms explained or supported by my recent blood test, but these numbers just make things more confusing.

I am still missing three test results: 11-DeoxyCortisol / DeoxyCorticosterone / Trancortin (CBG)

Useful Tidbits before you start
I am taking 30mg T-Cyp & 150iu HCG EOD
I am also on 10mg Sustained Release Compounded HC (@ 6am and 1pm) dose taken before blood draw
The blood was drawn on Day 3 (the morning of my shots before I injected).

Blood Test Summary

  • Total T (774) seems pretty high compared to past results given that I reduced my dose to only on 30mg EOD.

  • SHBG (11) is at the lowest level yet.

  • Estradiol (13) is still extremely low even though I reduced my Arimidex from 1mg daily to .25mg EOD

  • DHT (36) also dropped lower to the my lowest level yet - where is all of my T going? - I was on 65mg Zinc daily - was this interfering too much with conversions?

  • Pregnenolone (150) increased to be best levels recorded and this is with no Preg supplements (previous results were on 60-100mg Oral Pregnenolone daily)
    All of my numbers in the entire hormone chain seem low.

  • DHEA (90) low in range

  • DHEA-S (127) low in range (lowest results recorded - previous results were when I was taking 60-100mg DHEA daily - and it is at HALF of what it was pre-HRT)

  • Androstenedione (57) low in range

  • 17-HydroxyProgesterone (37) actually came back below the lab range - which can’t be a good thing.

Thyroid Function

TSH jumped to 2, but my free T4 (1.3) and free T3 (3.4) stayed about the same. RT3 (30) also stayed about the same which is not good. The extra Cortisol is not doing anything or I am not taking enough.

But I did learn that my Thyroid Binding Globulin (28.4) is higher then the lab range. And since we know that the lab ranges are so broad and include unhealthy people, it really is a red flag when you fall outside of them. My Iodine (68) is also very low in range; I guess the kelp supplements aren’t doing a thing for me.

OTHER

  • Low SHBG but High TBG (other posts say that those are almost always mirror each other - guess not for me) and the Cortisol Binding Globulin results are still pending.

  • My Vit D 25OH (62) did increase slightly - but man, I am taking 12,000iu liquid Vitamin D3 in the morning, and 5,000iu Powder capsule at 4pm that’s 17,000iu daily and I am only in the 60s.

  • My ferritin (72) is slowly increasing â?? so it looks like the iron supplements are slowly working. My transferrin (228) is significantly higher in the range then my ferritin, not sure if that means anything.

  • And lastly my Cholesterol numbers aren’t too good. My Total Chol is fine, but the ratios look pretty bad. I have too much bad LDL (Small Dense) and I am low out of range for the good HDL- 2 (Large Buoyant). I usually eat three eggs every morning (eggland best with omega 3, blah blah blah) as I was trying to feed more protein and Cholesterol into the production line.

So where does all of this leave me?

  • Need to fix my Thyroid - talk to doctor about T3-only medications - maybe try out a stronger or different version of Iodine - maybe look into taking Selenium?

  • Would like to boost my Pregnenolone and DHEA - but past experiments haven’t panned out - so I am not sure what do to here. Transdermal doesn’t seem to work. Oral DHEA causes too many issues with conversion to estrogens (possibly). Oral or Lipid Matrix Pregnenolone seem to cause a number of complications.

  • Aldosterone level still looks low. Not sure how to compare with Renin level or how to interpret.

  • Need to understand what the VAP Cholesterol test is saying - it is hard to match up the results with the Spectracell Chart - probably need to improve my Cholesterol mix - maybe start taking Niacin? ok to continue with eggs???

  • With my low SHBG and relatively high Total T (since the test day was at my lowest levels), I am thinking about dropping my T-Cyp from 30mg to 20mg EOD and possibly increasing my HCG from 150iu to 200iu EOD.

  • My estrogen seems way too low - so I am thinking about stopping the EOD .25mg Arimidex.

  • Maybe reduce or eliminate any extra Zinc supplements?

Current Supplements
T-Cyp 30mg shots EOD --------- Drop to 20mg?
HCG 150iu shots EOD ------------ increase to 200iu?
Arimidex .25mg EOD ------------ eliminate?
Vyvanse 60mg daily
HC SR 20mg daily -------------- increase slowly to 30mg or try regular non-SR?
Zinc 50mg daily --------------- eliminate?
Copper 3mg daily -------------- eliminate?
Vit D3 17,000iu daily ---------- change type to see if a can absorb better?
Kelp (Iodine) 1000mcg daily -----change type to see if a can absorb better?
B-Complex or Niacin only ------- start taking?
Magnesium mix 600mg daily ----- increase to 900 or 1200 (per Aldosterone thread)?
Folic Acid 800mcg daily
Fish Oil 2 teaspoons daily
Iron 22mg daily
Vitamin E 200iu (mixed trop) daily
MultiVitamin (1) daily
Probiotic x2 daily
Sea Salt 1 to 3 teaspoons daily

How am I doing / Current Symptoms

Well things are actually going pretty good right now - ever since I reduced my zinc dosage.

But I am still having issues with losing weight, and my energy levels fluctuate - it’s hard to go work out at night which is the only time I have. My concentration and drive at work seem a little better. I almost all here now.

I think that if I make the few tweaks above, get back into the gym at least twice a week, get 7-8 hours of good sleep at night, and keep up with my improved diet (more veggies and meat / less carbs / less processed foods) - then maybe I will be on the right track.

52

Use an iodized sea salt. Sea salt does not contain iodine, lost during crystallization.

You did not discuss FT.

Link does not work.

1mg anastrozole per day, WTF!
You may be an anastrozole over-responder. Such guys need 1/4th of the expected dose.

Iodine: search for Iodoral

Some are poor absorbers of oral steroids such as pregnenolone and DHEA [me too]. Will absorb better with a fatty meal and will absorb less with high fiber meals. Ditto for vit-D3 and all other oil based supplements and fish oil. Do not take these with oatmeal oat base cereals.

I need to take 100-200mg of DHEA to get higher levels. I purchase DHEA bulk powder.

Consider a weak statin dose, perhaps 10mg lovastatin. Get 20mg tabs and split. A 3 month supply 20mg at Walmart will cost $10 and last 6 months. Much cheaper than red rice extract tablets that have around the same amount of lovastatin. But I can’t see your numbers with that broken link.

How much zinc is in your multi-vit?

Re lowest T levels: With EOD injections, this is not an issue. Levels are very steady. You many need more T, not less… but lets see the FT numbers.

Try 250iu hCG EOD, this make allow the testes to make more pregnenolone as well as more E2.

Pregnenolone: Your body should be making this. It is produced by the mitochondria inside your cells. To improve mitochondrial function: CoQ10, lipoic acid, acetyl-L-caritine, fish oil, anti-oxidants, B-vits

Yes, take a high potency B complex product. This will promote higher HDL

53

just updating my thread with some of my other posts to keep them in one place.

[quote] PureChance wrote:

the patches were great for me… at least while they worked.

while using 2 patches at the same time 1 5mg patch and 1 2.5mg patch - I was great on them for 3 months (800 levels), then had 3 months of a continuous decline (down to 400-500) then I tried other medications and came

back to the patches for a bit and had levels around 300.

some people just can’t absorb or stop absorbing.

hmmm… new theory for those that can absorb and then stop.

  1. your body absorb the T initially
  2. the extra T stresses other systems that were able to limp along in the past, but now can’t keep up with the new demands the extra T is placing on them.
  3. your cortisol production (due to pregnenolone or 17-hydroxyprogesterone maybe??) gets screwed up (because of LH/FSH/ACTH suppression maybe??)
  4. the cortisol issues then cause problems with your thyroid (and/or Aldosterone levels).
  5. then something about being hypothyroid and/or low on Aldosterone interferes with the absorption of medications through the skin (maybe because of possibly a build up in the water layer just under the skin?? or some other mechanism) [/quote]

[quote][quote]PureChance wrote:
yep, had highish TSH 2+ and low ft3. took 120mg Armour for awhile, but ran out one day (pretty common with me and my adhd) and I didn’t notice a single thing different from being off armour, so I didn’t get it refilled. did some research and learned about RT3. Ran some tests and found out that I was over the max.

I first worked on supporting my low cortisol levels by taking 5 mg hydrocortisone and slowly worked up to the 15-20mg range.
then I started on T3 only medication and built up to 30mg daily. now I am keeping my body temps and waiting a couple of months to retest and see where my blood levels are.[/quote]

Hardasnails wrote:

Purechance,
Have you checked your shbg?
When ever treating thyroid please address adrenals first through 24 hour cortisol saliva.
Using t3 directly works for a small percentage of people. Idenifying why your rt3 is elevated and working to reduce it at the root cause would be the appropriate approach. [/quote]

54

Here is the fixed link to my blood test results and supplement list.

password is:

purechance

scroll to the bottom where it says this and click download →

Save file to your PC: Download

55

Current Supplements
T-Cyp ~25mg shots EOD
HCG 250iu shots EOD (increased back up after gettin 17-hydroxyprogesterone results)
Vyvanse 60mg daily
HydroCortisone 15-20mg daily
T3 Only 30mg daily

Zinc 50mg EOD
Copper 3mg EOD
Vit D3 17,000iu daily
Iodine 12.5mg EOD
Niacin 400mg daily (I have huge reactions when I started at 100mg and can’t take more than 200mg at a time)
Magnesium 1,200mg EOD
Folic Acid 400mcg daily
Fish Oil 1 pill daiy
Iron 22mg daily
Vitamin E 200iu (mixed trop) daily
MultiVitamin (1) daily
Probiotics periodically
Selenium periodically
Sea Salt 1 teaspoon daily
Super Enzymall daily

How am I doing / Current Symptoms

Well things are actually going pretty good right now, not at 100% but doing pretty good.

weight still comes and goes but within a 10lb window.
my energy levels can still fluctuate.
My concentration and drive at work are good most of the time.

I still need to work on working out and getting enough sleep. My diet have improved greatly - carbs are my enemy it seems - I do great on high fat, high protein.

I also need to get a blood test in a month or two and see how the Hydrocortisone/T3 combo is helping.

I have learned that too much HC = a big crash later in the day due to suppressed ACTH possibly.

Body temps are better on the HC, but still have some fluctuations going on.
T3 seemed to help a bit at first, but that is passing now. Some sites recommend increasing up to 75mg daily and then backing off after awhile. my doc doesn’t want to increase past 30mg.

56

Hardasnails wrote:

Purechance,
Have you checked your shbg?
When ever treating thyroid please address adrenals first through 24 hour cortisol saliva.
Using t3 directly works for a small percentage of people. Idenifying why your rt3 is elevated and working to reduce it at the root cause would be the appropriate approach.

Yeah - I have always had below range SHBG (even lower when I was on Arimidex), and I found I have above range Thyroid Binding Globulin and below range Transcortin.

I am working under the RT3 theory that RT3 creates more RT3 by competing for the ezyme needed to convert T4 to T3. so if I supplement T3 directly that will free up the ezyme to eliminate RT3 from my system leaving me with more enzyme to convert T4 to T3 once I stop the T3 supplement.

57

well, I got my most recent test results and !$#%!#. why can’t anything in life just be simple?

Here is the link to a google spreadsheet with all of my test results. Be warned, it is a lot of information, comments on various cells provides additional info.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Ah-GdYXIZwy4dHRpRVlGeU9IY0tkOEotaEtCTkc4Q0E&hl=en&authkey=CJuDwIAG

I was doing pretty darn good at work in December, January, and February. Good energy, able to concentrate, eating pretty good, confidence was up, exercising moderately, but then things started to fall apart again. Anxiety started increasing, uncontrollable emotions, weight gain (+10 lbs), energy loss, decreased libido, and the last two months have been downhill.

Causes: more than likely my E2 going from 13 to 42 during that time period - which could be driven in part by my collapse of my cortisol and pregnenolone levels.

I know that a certain amount of HC makes me crash later. HC suppresses your body from producing ACTH which produces Pregnenolone and Cortisol. The suppression of the system can last longer than the external HC.

If I took more cortisol I would be ok, but…
too much HC gives me headaches
too little can still suppress my system leading to a crash later
it is such a freaking delicate balancing act.

only good news is that my RT3 is doing great.

My next phone consultation with my doc is not until May 31st. I am experimenting around with my meds and dosages in a trial and error format between now and then to see what I can do.

I tried taking .5mg of Arimidex after getting my high E2 results, but it resulted in an immediate headache that lasted for 2 days.

I also increased my HC but that just reminded me that too much HC leads to too much suppression.
20mg HC daily = slight suppression, but low levels of cortisol
25-30mg HC daily = noticeable suppression, unsure what impact on cortisol levels
30mg+ HC = headaches.

also there is a theory that too low of cortisol at night causes the body to dump T from the muscles which is then converted to E2. If you have enough cortisol at night then your body can hold onto the T. With that in mind, I started taking 2.5mg and/or 5mg of HC at night. It didn’t disrupt my sleep in the least and I had some positive improvements for the first few days, but then started crashing through the day… so the night cortisol may be helping my E2 levels (or may not), but it seems to be crashing my already abysmal pregnenolone levels.

I really don’t know where to go from here.

I tried DHEA, tried Pregnenolone, tried HC, tried Armour (led to sky high RT3), tried T-creams, tried T-patches, tried Arimidex, tried countless supplements/vitamins, trying T-Cyp injections, trying HCG (maybe need to forget trying to boost cortisol by boosting HCG to 300iu EOD - may be contributing to my E2 issues).

the only thing I can think might work (besides cutting back on HCG) is to slowly wean off of the T3 while keeping an eye on my body temperatures - less free T3 might free up some of my cortisol to help manage aromatase of T to E2.

58

Side Note: This is my first time using google docs for this type of thing. If anyone notices anything that reveals personal details (i.e. last name, etc.) please send me a message right away so that I can fix it. You can’t be too careful in this day and age.

Thanks.

59

Hey man, I’ve had some drinks tonight so I don’t want to offer up too much advice as it will probably be wrong, but have you considered GHRP-6/cjc-1295 to increase your growth hormone? I would think dosing this before bed would cause your body to utilize less T, which might free up your cortisol and help with aromitization…

You would also get joint, injury repair, and muscle building benefits of it…

Worth looking into, its legal in the US and very cheap…

About 100 mcg of each before bed would be a pretty good dose and would be less than $1 per day…

60

well, I figured I’d check back in after my three month hiatus. I will try and post an update soon, but basically I am starting back over from ground zero yet again.

off of prescriptions, I have 145 Test, 17 Estradiol, 11 cortisol, 13 pregnenolone, etc. etc. etc.

current test results: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Ah-GdYXIZwy4dHRpRVlGeU9IY0tkOEotaEtCTkc4Q0E&hl=en&authkey=CJuDwIAG