I had prostate cancer at 35 and had it removed then radiation. No signs of cancer since so I started TRT about 6 weeks ago. I decided tonight to buy zinc and ashwaganda. I’m playing russian roulette a little bit I think because they could cause my PC to come back but I’m doing it anyway.
Just wondering if anyone else has tried testosterone boosting supplements with TRT? I guess for someone with no prostate cancer risk it’s not a big deal.
Generally, these supplements won’t do much even if you aren’t on T.
You might see a slight LH boost from ashwagandha before tolerance builds, but the evidence regarding herbal supplements boosting T significantly is limited at best.
Zinc will only really help with endogenous production if you’re deficient in it. It otherwise acts as a mild 5-ar inhibitor - preventing test from converting to DHT.
When you’re on TRT, your HPTA is shut down. There’s no point in trying to boost endogenous production.
So you’re risking cancer in order to get zero improvement? Man, at least smoking has the benefit of being enjoyable for the smoker.
Your HPTA is shut-down while on TRT so conventional / natural means to boost testosterone like Ashwaganda will not work. However you may get the other supposed benefits of Ashwaganda like reduced cortisol, feelings of anxiety & stress, and energy boost.
If you want to boost testosterone further you have a couple options:
You could start supplementing with Boron 9mg/d. Some people respond well and see a remarkable consistent decrease in SHBG, some don’t.
To reduce aromatase expression I would first suggest losing bodyfat, you want to be around 12-15% bodyfat ideally.
Lastly you can support the liver to help increase the clearance of Estrogen from the body. This may also help decrease SHBG, it’s common to see SHBG elevated when liver healthy is impaired. I’m personally trying NAC to improve liver health - there is some clinical data showing Testosterone & Fertility improved after NAC supplementation.
Hope it helps and good luck.
Unless it’s low already.
Ok thanks for the info. I just wasted $30 buying these but oh well I can just not take em. Do they have muscle building effects though?
I see the urologist next month I’ll just ask him to increase dosage not sure if he will though.
Just curious but what are your levels like and what dose does the doc have you on? I think upping the dose is a better fix than taking supplements to fill the gap.
Ashwaganda can help with reducing stress & anxiety.
Zinc is still important for the immune system and synthesis of neurotransmittors.
I’d say you still can get benefit from taking these supplements for general health.
Also completely agree with @roscoe88 don’t try to lower SHBG further if its already on the low end of the range.
I really get confused when I look at my lab results online. Everyone talks about being 100-1200 mine says 4.710 nmol/L (low) calculated free testosterone 0.119 nmol/L (low) calculated bioavailable testosterone 2.795 nmol/L (normal range). Maybe someone knows how to convert them I don’t?
The only reason I found out I had prostate cancer is I was lifting heavy weights not gaining any muscle thought I’d check my testosterone out sure enough it was low but also I had a psa (prostate cells) of 17 it’s supposed to be below 4. I might be dead if I didn’t check my testosterone levels because doctors don’t even think about checking for prostate cancer at my age.
I really don’t know what SHBG even is or how to lower it.
Someone said get my body fat down to 12-15% I would love that but I don’t think I’ve ever been below 25%. Maybe if I did 5 hours of cardio a day and ate crumbs, even then not sure. I’m also type 2 diabetic thus insulin resistant.
Are you using metformin or berberine?
Metformin but my diabetes is pretty stable I only take metformin once a day and I haven’t had any problems. I am at 6.4 AIC which is the high end of pre-diabetes even though I started out 6.7 AIC when I was told I have diabetes. Hoping with TRT and weight lifting I can get even lower. I’ve heard if berberine can’t remember is it prescribed or a supplement?
I’m reading that berberine lowers testosterone in women does it not do the same for men?
Forgot to answer your other question. I am on 200 mg every two weeks.
Berberine is the herb that’s available anywhere without a prescription and it has the exact same effect as metformin, minus the GI sides.
And whether or not a supplement lowers testosterone is sort of academic in your case.
What can I tell my urologist when I ask for a higher dosage, just that my energy is not great? I’m sure he will not care about me trying to gain muscle.
Your dose isn’t as much of a problem as the the injection frequency. Once every two weeks is pretty bad and will result—by design—in terrible trough levels. The setup you have is purposely bad and I cannot understand why such a protocol still exists in 2020. We can do the math pretty easily, yet almost no doctors bother to actually think about it.
Yeah I plan to ask for weekly dozes but I don’t really want to get into this again but I can’t inject myself not the stabbing or anything just getting it out of the vial. When I first started doing the injections I mentioned once per week and the receptionist was like NOBODY GETS TESTOSTERONE INJECTIONS EVERY WEEK! So it seems they don’t want to do it. Going to try to explain this to the urologist I see in him December if it doesn’t do any good I’ll look for some where else to do the injections but this is the only place I’ve found so far that will inject me.
I realize though it doesn’t really matter why I’m getting them every two weeks it’s not effective so I have to figure something out.
Not to be indelicate, but do you have a physical handicap that makes that task impossible? Because unless you only have one hand or some other major injury/handicap then getting it out of the vial is one of the easier things you’d do on any given day.
I just had trouble with getting it out I tried and tried I don’t see why I say I don’t want to get into it and then you want to get into it and then claim it’s because of some handicap. Not cool at all.
What one person thinks is easy another may not that works for almost anything in life and I don’t see why you decided to go down this road but it just shows your character. I’ve even heard of nurses having a similar issue. And to try to sugar coat it with “not to be indelicate” doesn’t do anything because it was totally unnecessary and out of line and I will not respond further to you in any fashion.
Hey snowflake, asking if you have a handicap is perfectly legitimate. If you had one arm then drawing from a vial would be considerably more difficult. If you suffer from a nerve disorder or have a bad shake it would make that task nearly impossible. So rather than assuming that you’re perfectly able-bodied I asked a relevant question.
You assumed I’m handicapped because I couldn’t do something you can. That’s wrong and you knew you were about to say something dickish with your disclaimer “not to be indelicate” you can’t cancel something out though by saying something like that “not to be rude but you’re ugly”.