-describe body and facial hair // very hairy everywhere
-describe where you carry fat and how changed // lower abs is where my largest fat deposit is and is impossible to get rid of. I’ve been at 11% BF before using very extreme low carb diets and hard exercise and i still had a spare tire while the rest of my was very lean. It was unsustainable and crashed.
-Rx and OTC drugs, any hair loss drugs or prostate drugs // have never been on any drugs other than TRT
-testes ache, ever, with a fever? // No
-how have morning wood and nocturnal erections changed // My entire life my erections have been week. And I’ve had little to no libido pretty much forever.
So my story begins. I have a ton of info. I’ve always been a fat kid with a bit of natural athleticism. I’ve pretty much always been depressed and almost nothing brings me joy. Because It’s hard for me to lose fat I’ve pretty much been obsessed with training and nutrition for the last 10 years. I’ve reached a relatively high level of fitness through shear force of will. Living like a monk the entire time. I found out I had low T when I was 19 y/o. I went on TRT when I was 21. I ended up injecting 100mg of T cyp 2xwk and was on armor thyroid as well. On TRT my numbers were really good but I literally felt nothing different and it was no easier to get lean. It was a bit easier to put on muscle mass. After 2 years I decided to come off of TRT because it wasn’t doing anything for me and I felt I as too young to be on TRT. I started learning how to eat, train and take care of myself much better; though on TRT my diet and training were very good but maybe too extreme. I came off of TRT with HCG, tomaxifin and arimidex. I felt no positive or negative symptoms during or after PCT.
My theory to why I didn’t feel any changes on TRT is because of hypothyroidism. My thyroid numbers aren’t horrible but I had a feeling my RT3 was high. So I tested it a year and a half ago and it was high normal. Around that time I was super depressed at very fat. I hadn’t trained in a long time. So I decided to take a smarter and long/slow approach to my health. over the past year and a half I slowly added exercise and changed my eating habits slowly instead of crash diets. I’ve lost about 40 lbs since then. I feel a bit better but I’m still depressed with no libido. I finally decided to seek out another doctor and establish a primary care doctor. He does advertise hormone replacement therapy so he is open to this sort of thing but after my first meeting I’m probably more knowledgeable than him but he does listen. He had me do my first round of blood tests which I just received but don’t have my follow up until next week. He also had me do a sleep study which I won’t know the results until the follow up. My most recent lab results look promising but are still somewhat puzzling. It looks like my effort have not been for naught. My T is in the mid range and its barely been above the low range number in the past. But still not where I want it. I guess my vit-D protocol has worked. I may need to back off a bit on the supplementation a bit, I’ve been taking 10000 IU/day for the past year. I want to get my T up even higher if it’s possible. My thyroid numbers look about the same as they always are but I want to get my RT3 tested again. I have a feeling a lot of my symptoms stem from RT3 induced hypothyroidism. I did do a the iodine protocol a few months ago. I felt no negative or positive side effects. I have not maintained a maintenance level of iodine like I should. I don’t have body temps because I’m not sure which thermo to get. My estrodiol is a bit high which is weird because my numbers in the past were very good and suggested im not an over aromatizer.
I’m not sure where to go from here. Why am I like this?
Nothing really jumps out at me except your vitamin D is really too high. Stop supplementing for a while if you are taking any vitamin D. After a certain point (somewhere between 30-50), more is not better and there are signals in some studies that higher values of vitamin D may increase risk of heart disease, prostate-, and pancreatic cancer.
Your hormones (T, free T, and estradiol) look perfectly fine. You definitely never needed TRT, so kudos on coming off. LOL on that T = 666 value. The problem does not lie with sex hormones.
Someone else might comment on your thyroid values.
Yea the vitamin D surprised me because I’ve taken vitamin D for years and my level was always low normal. So the past 6 months or so I’ve been using poliquins dosing recommendation and took 30,000 IU every three to four days. I also made sure to tan if I didn’t get much sun during the week. Seems to have worked. I’ll definitely cut down on the supplementation.
Next I want to see what my cortisol is doing. I’ve never done a 24h saliva test but my my morning blood levels are usually high. I think this is where the root cause of my issues are. High cortisol can lower testosterone and increase RT3. I’m not sure why my cortisol would be high. The only stress in my life is my negative self talk. =/
I’ve considered the anastrozole route, and was going to mention it to my doc at the follow up.
I’ve never had heart burn. My stools are pretty regular but they have not been solid the past few months which concerns me. I’ve been taking Udo’s probiotics for the past 6 months. I tried Polquin’s HCL protocol years ago and never experienced any kind of heart burn feeling even at the maximum dose. I was working with Krista Schaus at that time and she thought maybe I had a very strong lower esophageal sphincter preventing me from feeling the burn. She recommended a stomach acid string test which I never did. Honestly my stools were the best when I was in the military and I was eating like a viking king because I my training was very intense.
I never take any kind of pills or other drugs.
Yea I figured i’d stop taking vit-d for now and just keep tanning. Tanning has the added benefit of making my skin better and I just feel better after I tan.
Other than some kelp products here and there I don’t really have a maintenance level intake of iodine which I will remedy. I can’t even find iodized salt nowadays. My body temps are unknown. I still have no recommendations on a trusted thermos. Which one are you using KSman? I just don’t trust those store brands.
I think my lack of improvement of symptoms are caused by high rt3 levels. My tests from over a year ago showed high normal rt3 and high morning cortisol. Do you think an updated rt3 test and a 24hr salivary coritsol test is prudent? I can post my labs from over a year ago if it will help. Thanks.
So I just picked up some Anastrozole 1mg tabs from my doc. He said to take 1 every other week. How should I actually dose it? Should I cut it up into quarters and take a quarter twice a week?
He wants to test my T and E again in a month.
He also wanted to put me on a little Armor thyroid, but since I wanted to try some Anastrozole he said I should try that first for a month and see how I feel then try adding the armor. I’ve taken armor before when I was on T replacement and felt no effects. I think my RT3 is high but he didn’t feel it was necessary to test for it. I think on my own I’ll test my rT3 and get a 24hr salivary test done. If both those are showing high what would be the correct treatment?
Also I did a sleep study and we looked at the results. They are mixed. It doesn’t look like I have apnea; I don’t stop breathing more than normal, but I barely get any REM sleep at all. This could definitely be a major problem.
Any chance you do anything like smoke marijuana? Pot suppresses REM sleep. Since you don’t take any other meds, I don’t see else why your REM would be suppressed. (P.S. - I am a sleep technologist).
Nope I almost never smoke weed. It’s never been my thing. Downers like weed and alcohol do nothing for me. I’m already as depressed as I can be. I always enjoyed uppers but haven’t partaken in a long time nor ever with any regularity.
Someone recommended the Pzizz App combined with SleepPhones. A friend swears by it. I’ll give it a try. I’ve tried the Delta and alpha binural wave sounds in the past. No idea if they worked or not.
