This is really obvious and I’m suprised others aren’t working on this (it’s something that should be fixed/supported long-term so the earlier you study & start treating the better). I think I have lot of indications & confirmed this in practise thru many ways so if it’s any confort, i’ll do salivary cortisol when I have more money (gonna take a long time though). I don’t have any opinions on what caused it initially, what made it worse or if there is possibly something chronic/long-term condition prolonging it. I know when it turned real bad though and that was post-fin when i came off from the second run of creatine monohydrate, it was just horrible times.
I suspect that almost eveyone here has low free cortisol.
Cortisol is a catabolic hormone. If it was too high and our androgens were too low our body would break down very quickly.
So you would assume the body tries to create a balance between catabolic and anabolic hormones.
Adiol G may be a measure of androgen activity, if it is then you may be able to assume low adiol g would indirectly lead to low free or total cortisol to balance out the anabolic / catabolic effect.
If you had high free cortisol and low free androgens your body would break down at a rapid rate.
The low free cortisol explains
- Darkness under the eyes
- Brain fog
- Fatigue
- Low body temp
- Anxiety
- Digestion problems
- Joint pain
- Low appetite (not always)
And low androgen action pretty much explains all the other problems like libido etc.
I have low free cortisol and I am sure others do too. This is really worth testing.
I very much doubt anyone here has good
FT3
FT4
RT3
Transcorton
Siliva Free Cortisol.
My transcortin was in range, but not low in range more towards the top 1/4. JG tested his, he was the guy that recovered once and I remember his was over range.
So I think low free cortisol is responsible for half our problems and it is likely that it is a result of low androgen activity for some reason.
I’ve been with this idea on my mind for a couple of weeks now. That it is all related to cortisol. Low free cortisol that affects our capacity to benefit from our thyroid hormones.
For those who don’t follow my posts, i had two complete recoveries that didn’t last. One took 5 five months, the other lasted 3 months. On both times i had used prednisone (which is basically cortisone). On both times i felt my metabolism faster and on the second time i even had clear episodes of hiperthyroidism (my metabolism slowed down over time). Today i was searching the web and there is a lot of information linking a correct thyroid functioning to good levels of cortisol. And most of our symptoms can relate to hypothyroidism.
virginiahopkinstestkits.com/cortisolzava.html
I never tested free cortisol. Only the usual blood cortisol test and it came up normal.
Do not test your cortisol through blood tests. Best is a 24 hour urinary. 2nd best is saliva.
Thyroid hormones will not enter cells without sufficient cortisol. In addition, you will likely build up RT3. So you get hit double time.
Thyroid and Adrenals play a part in PFS, absolutely, but they really do not have a play in the prostate and sexual side effects.
Some good threads to read, regarding how I managed my thyroid and adrenals, and improved many of my symptoms…
musclechatroom.com/forum/showthread.php?20255-Healing-your-Adrenals-101&highlight=adrenals
musclechatroom.com/forum/showthread.php?19000-Successfully-cleared-my-Reverse-T3&highlight=reverse+t3
Thanks moonman! I ll read more about it before i post my conclusions. On my experience however, my libido and sexual side effects improved drastically when i was having hiperthyroid symptoms. I was even hyper sexual. Problem is, everytime i ejaculated it felt i was loosing a bit of the recovery. So it does point to something more than only a thyroid and cortisol problem. Thanks!
Whats the difference with measurements of cortisol through urine and saliva if it show’s a steady rate in the blood it’s still being produced? only common thing i see is low aldotesterone.
I say that from personal experience. All of my blood cortisol tests always came back high, even though my symptoms were consistant with low cortisol levels. Maybe it was just the fact that the needle/blood draw is a minor stressor, so it slightly spiked cortisol for a short burst. I then decided to do a 24 hour urinary cortisol test, because (1) It measured an entire day of adrenal function rather than just a one moment glipse (blood) or 4 moments glimpse (saliva) and (2) urinary is simple and there is no stressor like a needle involved that can screw results.
Since I started suggesting urinary > blood, I have gotten a lot of comments that others noticed the same results.
Dihydrotestosterone differentially modulates the cortisol response of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in male and female rhesus macaques, and restores circadian secretion of cortisol in females
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22088823
Siliva is the best as it measures current levels not excretion. If it bloods were high because it was a stressor then you would probably have elevated ACTH, I did not.
I took cortisol and it made me worse. Probably from further ruducing test.
Testes - Thyroid?
A little crazy but i need to post this:
I had a weird dream about this… Someone was telling me (in the dream), that after finasteride my body manages cortisol like a female body would do, and this is one of the reasons of my problems.
ok, so forget the part it was a dream. It does make sense… If we developed some degree of androgen insensitivity, nothing responds to testosterone anymore, including cortisol. Cortisol is involved in nearly every task in the body. Including sex, erections, arousal, etc.
This is weird. It seems to suggest taking estrogen increases total and free cortisol. As estrogen lowers test, this would create a very catabolic environment with the lower T and Higher CORT.
So seems strange estrogen administration could increase free cortisol???
Elevated free cortisol plasma levels in patients with prostatic carcinoma undergoing treatment with estrogens.
Clerico A, Minervini R, Del Chicca MG, Barsantini S, Fiorentini L.
Abstract
The total cortisol concentration (TCC), the percentage of free cortisol (%FC) and the apparent free plasma cortisol concentration (AFCC) have been determined in plasma samples of 9 patients affected by prostatic carcinoma undergoing treatment with estrogens measured by an equilibrium dialysis system and a radioimmunological method. The values found in this group of patients were compared to those obtained in 9 untreated control patients and in normal healthy persons. The mean TCC values found in treated patients were significantly higher than in the controls, both in basal condition (circadian rhythm) and after dynamic tests, while the mean %FC values were significantly lower than the controls except for the results obtained after an ACTH stimulation test. The mean AFCC values in treated patients were elevated both in basal condition and after the dexamethasone suppression test (DST), but the difference between the two groups of patients was statistically significant only after DST. This study demonstrates that patients with prostatic carcinoma undergoing treatment with estrogens can have markedly increased free plasma cortisol levels with an impairment of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis
Was reading this older thread and someone said this:
“That’s why I am convinced that, although we might or might not be androgen insensitive, we are NOT insensitive to the other hormones (e.g. pregnenolone, thyroid, and cortisol). Therefore, it’s worth trying to optimize all these hormones to reach a decent quality of life. And that’s exactly what I’m trying to achieve.”
Sorry for this naïve question, but what does it mean to be “androgen insensitive” in regards to PFS? Is this part of our brain broken?
I read the wiki page about androgen insensitivity, but it seems to be related to women mostly:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgen_i … y_syndrome
It means TRT should work but doesnt. No one knows why
I wonder if an area of our brain that used to be able to process neurochemicals was destroyed by propecia, and now all these neurochemicals are still being produced, but can’t be processed, and therefore they’re just polluting our brains. That’s why I was wondering about cortef as a way to manage the production of these chemicals and kind of keep the levels down.