Literally the push on drugs now is a joke. I went to the GP for help, he didn’t give a s*** didn’t even wanna listen to what I had tk say, he just went I’m gonna prescribe you with sertraline and then said have a nice day, I then went home and did my research on SSRIs and mainly sertraline and was put off straight away. I called my GP and said this isn’t really the route I want to take after doing my own research and he basically said if you don’t take them then we can’t help you, goodbye. This is why I’ve now lost all hope in the NHS, all they wanna do is push drugs and for CBT treatment I’m looking at the middle of next year before i can get my first appointment which is ridiculous. This is the reason I’ve taken it upon myself to try and find something potentially low or out of whack which I can adjust and hopefully improve my symptoms.
I did notice myself my free T seemed pretty low
0.316nmol/L (ref range 0.25 - 0.7) and wonder if that has any impact on the way I feel.
Just throwing this out there - there are other drugs besides SSRIs and benzos to treat anxiety that are far less addictive and have little to no side effects. OP, take a look at Buspirone.
With that being said, I agree you should exhaust all other options before jumping on any meds. Give Cognitive behavioral therapy a look. And as the post above me mentioned, have a talk with your urologist. Have you gotten your thyroid checked as well?
As of yet I haven’t, I’m waiting for a call back to get my Thyroid Values checked and also waiting for my Vitamin D results, I very rarely see sunlight due to working inside, plus I work 6 days a week. I take a Vitamin D Supplement daily (4000iu) however my levels could still be really low so I got these tested.
One thing I have noticed first thing in the morning. Apart from being really tired, I feel great 99% of the time, no anxiety, I feel ‘good’ within myself, however mid morning like 11ish onwards the intrusive thoughts start and generally I feel pretty run down, the anxiety starts to creep in and usually gets worse throughout the day, usually at it’s worse point when I’m in bed to the point sometimes I will literally be unable to sleep. Then the following day the cycle repeats. Great in the morning etc.
Perfect thankyou I shall look into those they sound great! Never heard of them before as this is all fairly new to me, not the anxiety itself but looking into it deeper is. Like j said in the OP it’s been the last year or so, I used to be a really Confident socialable person, nothing used to phase me or stop me, I could literally talk to anyone etc, now a days I’m avoiding all contact with anyone
I understand your train of thought, but SSRIs are relatively safe for the vast majority of people. Treating a mental health problem with hormones but saying ‘Screw SSRIs’ just seems backwards to me. At the end of the day we all have different trains of thought and the OP will have to digest and proceed.
Guys, also keep in mind the OP is in the UK / NHS. He’s stated he’s not looking into TRT specifically but more on a fact finding mission. Even if he WAS looking for an excuse to hop on TRT he would be hard pressed to get it due to NHS requirements.
Anything regarding the NHS is hard work, took me a 2 Month wait for an appointment with my GP which was literally a phone appointment, he didn’t care about what I was saying and just threw SSRIs at me, the NHS is a joke and absolute failure of a system - but yes ideally I’m not looking at getting on TRT, purely because I wasn’t always like this so I feel there is something that is causing it, I just need to find and exhaust each thing until I potentially find the cause, my Free T jumps out as being in the lower side and maybe that’s the issue, maybe not however, so I want to try and iron out any issues which show as not quite right and evaluate from there
I would have a lot to say about your last post but I agree, let’s leave it at that. We both said what we wanted to say, OP can make up his own mind at this point
Regarding your comment on my Free T being low I agree with you, but I’m not sure if my symptoms are similar to those with low Free T as my total T (albeit kinda low for my age group) isn’t considered low. I do however want to have kids soon, so TRT isn’t something I’m looking at personally, maybe in the future if needed but right now I would like to explore other avenues which would potentially raise my Free T (and my total T a bit too for the gains) but most importantly so see if it improves my mental state.
I’ve been on an antidepressant and benzodiazepine for years (depression and anxiety). While I’m not a fan of taking pills, these have allowed me to live a much happier and productive life. Unfortunately, there are side effects, yes - for example, with my clonazepam, if I forget to take my pill in the morning, my thoughts race so fast in my head that I can’t focus, I become extremely anxious over minor things, etc. I also have to take another medicine for my epilepsy which sucks (thankfully I have been seizure-free for five years now). Had to quit drinking and make sure I get sufficient sleep every night.
Total T is irrelevant when it comes to deriving the benefits of Testosterone, Free T is really all that matters.
To me, pretty much all of the symptoms you listed could be symptoms of low T. Then looking at your Free T and seeing it at the bottom of the range, I think at the very least it’s highly plausible a lot of those symtpoms could be alleviated by raising your Test levels.
You could do hCG concurrently with Test to preserve fertility but there’s no guarantee and a lot of men struggle with hCG. You could also freeze your sperm but again no guarantees. If kids are a high priority and you want them soon, I would stay away from TRT for now.
The only other thing in my experience that elevated my Free T was DHEA. Not over the counter DHEA, but pharma compounded, micronized and sustained release DHEA.
If you’re in the US, it should be easy to get a prescription for it. Empower makes those pills, those are the ones I used.
On the same protocol without changing anything else, 10mg/day of that DHEA took my Free T from 25ng/dL to 40ng/dL, which is a massive increase, slightly over 50%.
I don’t think it was a fluke, there is research showing that DHEA raises Free T without affecting Total T.
“These results demonstrate acute oral DHEA supplementation can elevate free testosterone levels in middle-aged men and prevent it from declining during HIIT”
They’re using 50mg in the study, but there is no standardization of DHEA formulations as far as I know, so it’s very possible that a pharma compounded micronized sustained release pill is going to be far stronger mg per mg than what they used in that study.
So I would start low, maybe 5mg/day. Also play with instant vs sustained release. I think SR will have stronger effects, but might also lead to a buildup of undesirable side effects if the dose is too high. I’d start with SR though.
I think that’s definitely worth a try. But again, if you’re in the US make sure you get the compounded version, not OTC. Any HRT/men’s clinic will prescribe DHEA like it’s candy. You can also change the prescription as many times as you want since it’s not a controlled substance.
That’s my worry, I don’t want to become dependent on them and with the other sides that come with them really do put me off personally, for me they are an absolute last resort option, of course everyone is different and has different opinions on things but my mum was on anti depressants for a short while many years ago and they seriously messed her up, she’s been off them now for years however they have completely altered her emotional state permanently, she now has no emotions what so ever, doesn’t feel happy or sad, just always blunt, unable to cry etc etc.
I think Balance My Hormones has compounded DHEA. It’s basically a men’s private clinic, they prescirbe Test, GH, neurosteroids, DHT cream, etc…
Your levels are top of the range however, so I don’t think supplementing DHEA would help. It might raise your Test but it might also lead to negative side effects.
You could try hCG monotherapy or AI (aromatase inhibitor) monotherapy, but I don’t think you’d want to do either of those long term.
When are you planning to have a kid? If we’re talking a few months, I’d just wait until your gf/wife gets pregnant and then get on TRT
Next year for sure, we should hopefully be moving into our house early next year and then gonna start. So it will probably be mid next year. I’ve seen stuff about people using Enclomaphine to raise lower levels, apparently it doesn’t have the sides that clomid does etc, is this true or worth doing?
I don’t know enough about enclomiphene or clomid to make a recommendation.
I haven’t seen any anecdotes of long term use, generally those people eventually move on to just taking exogenous Test.
If you’re planning to get your wife pregnant in 6 months or so, I’d wait personally. After she gets pregnant, I’d just get on TRT and skip enclo, clomid, mono hCG, mono AI therapy, etc…