Congrats 
your new testosterone level is indeed impressive. I wish E2 and DHEA-s tests were included. See E2 is a better mediator for libido and wellbeing than T itself in my personal case. Normally with T level as high as yours, E2 should be in good range yet with a very high cortisol and suspected gut issues, there’s a likelihood that E2 may turn out lowish (i.e. teens pg/ml value).
Keep it up.
Can you expand on what you did to heal your gut? I’m thinking of making homemade water kefir
Thanks!
Whoops, I did test for E2 and DHEA, just forgot to include it:
DHEAS: 12.3 umol/L (4.34-12.2)
E2: 96 pmol/L (<100)
Thoughts on the Estrogen? It’s at the very high end of the range… I personally don’t think the E2 test is that valuable unless it’s the highly sensitive test done by LC/MS method, I’m not sure what lab does it though in Australia. I personally don’t think my issues are hormonal at the moment, it’s likely the PTSD and sympathetic nervous system dominance, but interested to hear your thoughts.
The cortisol test was done on a day after I overstimulated my brain and nervous system. So it’s not representative of a normal day when I’m following my routine, but does give me a clear picture of what’s going wrong when I get stuck in that stressed overstimulated state (“stuck ON” see below)
Initially my gut was so messed up I had to go on a strict elimination diet. I followed the AIP (autoimmune protocol) diet for a couple months and then slowly reintroduced everything back in. The goal here was to remove any food that could possibly trigger a reaction or cause inflammation, to give my gut some time to heal itself. I would not recommend staying on a strict diet like this for very long however as you will kill off many species of bacteria and create food intolerances.
Over the past 6 months or so I have been doing the following:
Good luck man hope it helps
My regiment moving forward incase it helps anyone.
Goals: Regulate HPA axis, reduce cortisol and sympathetic nervous system dominance. Promote calmness and relaxation, increase parasympathetic nervous system activation. Reduce inflammation in body and brain. Increase tolerance to stress. Maximize bioavailable androgens.
Mindset: I strongly believe my body has the ability to heal itself. The body has evolved over millions of years, surviving generation after generation through the most dire circumstances. The body has such incredible intelligence. It’s working every day to achieve optimum health. There is no doctor that is as intelligent as my body. It’s job is to maintain health. My body is fantastic, it is amazing, I am occupying my body, it wants to heal, it wants to be healthy, and I have to help it.
Sleep: Focus on good high quality sleep every single night without fail. Sleep is the #1 priority in my recovery protocol. The body heals itself when we sleep. Two hours before bed eliminate artificial light and stimualtion from computers, TV, phones, etc… Spend time focusing on meditation and relaxation. Aim to sleep at 9.00-9.30PM - the time you fall asleep is more important than how long you sleep. Listen to Shawn Stevensons podcast with Richroll for more information. Sleep is the MOST important thing for recovery. You could do everything else I’ve listed here, but without good high quality sleep every night, you will not recover. I also have a sunrise mimicking alarm clock and get 15-30minutes of sunlight first thing in the morning to strengthen the circadian rhythm.
Diet: Strictly avoid all inflammatory foods. No gluten, dairy, refined processed foods, take-away, refined oils, vegetable oils, refined sugar, etc. Limit intake of pro-inflammatory omega 6 fatty acids, increase intake of omega 3s. Eat a wide variety of plants and fiber to optimize gut health and build a strong gut microbiome. Lots of whole plant food - fruits, vegetables, potato, beans, whole grains etc. Consume wild caught fish and grass fed beef. Eating at maintenance or in a calorie surplus. No cheat meals.
Stress + Stimulation: Eliminate all stress and focus on staying calm & relaxed. Meditate and practice deep breathing daily. Spend time out in nature. Significantly reduce stimulation in the form of phone, computer & TV. Avoid violent movies & computer games. Focus on being in that calm, relaxed, parasympathetic state as much as possible. This is the state our body heals in. Practice mindfulness. 1 hour per day meditation daily.
Psychology: Positive and optimisic outlook. I believe I will recover. I will recover. I also will be working psychologist (psychotherapy, CBT, etc) who specializes in trauma & PTSD.
Gratefulness & Gratitude: Reminding myself every day what I am grateful for in my life. I truly believe I am lucky even though I have PFS. My life could have been so much worse. I could have been born in Syria and beheaded by ISIS. Or born in Africa and starved to death at 3 years old. Or slaughtered by machine gun fire on the front wave of the D Day landings. I could be paraplegic and be bedridden for the rest of my life. I will always chose to be grateful and positive for everything in my life, it could have been so much worse. I will not compare myself to my friends or other people I see on social media, instead I will be grateful for what I do have. This is an opportunity for transformation, I think of all the positives that will come from my situation, I will be able to appreciate the smaller things in life so much more once recovered, I always chose to be positive with everything in life.
Exercise: I have delt with severe exercise intolerance for the past 2 years. Now that I have recovered my androgen levels I plan to introduce very slow, gentle, graded exercise to help build my bodies tolerance to stress. Ultimately I vision myself weightlifting and sprinting as I believe these forms of exercise will help to stabilise my endocrine system and androgen receptors. I also plan to walk daily and complete walks and hikes in nature. It’s very important in my opinion that you don’t push yourself however. If you feel worse after exercising, don’t fucking do it. Exercise can create a lot of inflammation and stress when your body is in a weak burdened state.
Motivation & Information: I highly recommend the Youtube channel Health Recovery for those going through a similar journey. James who runs the channel, spent I believe 8 years of his life suffering with severe chronic illness and recovered his health naturally through trial and error. How I recovered my androgen levels was purely by following his advice without supplements. I personally have downloaded every single one of his videos (using J Downloader) and listen when I’m bored on my iPod. He gives fantastic information for our situation and is a really great source of motivation.
Supplements: DO NOT LOOK FOR HEALTH IN SUPPLEMENTS. We are desperate, look for quick fixes and want to take a pill to recover. It doesn’t work like that. I believe supplements can aid the process, however, its the fundamental changes to your life and what your lifestyle is like a on a daily basis that is the most important aspect in recovery. Keep it simple, save your money and spend it on good food instead. Don’t go crazy OCD on this trying to find the perfect protocol, keep it simple. I am not recommending anyone to take anything, but I personally will be supplementing with the following:
Bonus Items:
Avoid:
I also plan to eat lots of cooked and then cooled potatoes to increase my consumption of resistant starches responsible for the production of the SCFA called Butyrate. Butyrate is a HDAC inhibitor and can be very helpful to reverse any epigenetic damage done by Finasteride. I also plan to complete a microbiome analysis to ensure I have the species of microbes present in my gut responsible for producing Butyrate, and if they’re absent look into a stool transplant. Butyrate also has many, many other benefits, and can help heal a damaged gut and heal the blood brain barrier, both of which can often be causes of brainfog.
I chose to be positive and optimistic. I feel strong, I am happy and motivated. I am healing. I will recover. I will not be active on this forum moving forward, however I will update here when I see progress and when I receive further blood work.
I have also just donated $1000 AUD to the PFS Foundation. If you are reading this and have money to donate, I highly encourage you do also. There are so many people out there suffering and we need as much research completed as possible.
@Sawproblemo @doomed80 @synetic @cblumel47 @MasterofPuppets @Fighting @WorriedGuy123 @Opus @basementdweller @zzz123 (Just tagging people who I’ve been in contact with in the past, I hope the information helps)
My journey is much more well documented on T Nation, see link below if you are interested. Although I was taking a SARM when I first crashed, I am confident I have PFS for the following reasons:
My blood work to give motivation for others.
October 2020:
October 2018:
And lastly, the most important thing is consistency. Don’t expect to make any progress if you make positive changes and then fall back into old habits a few weeks later. The body loves consistency. Here’s a good video by Health Recovery that elaborates further.
All the best everyone. Stay strong, keep your head up, keep pushing forward, and never fucking give up.
Thanks for this comprehensive and insightful post. It surely is inspiring and touches on many PFS facets and other critical uncharted territories. I see you’ve done your due diligence, kudos to you.
Your E2 and DHEA-s are both in great shape. Mind you, I come from a very low E2 (<60 pmol/L) and DHEA-s (~3ish) background so manipulating these two fellas did a number of things in my case. That being said, I no longer pay much attention to testing hormones and focus most of my attention on optimizing the gut. Believe it or not, it’s the true mediator for countless bodily processes. I couldn’t bypass the correlation between my gut and my mood. The leaky gut syndrome + increased inflammatory response is by far the best working hypothesis during my decade long odyssey to finding a cure. Gut is the factory of pleasure and happiness neurotransmitters (namely dopamine & Serotonin). The 100+ trillion gut dwellers and how they interact with each other and our body changes everything.
I totaly agree supplements can prove helpful in certain instances but they rarely provide a long term solution and in more ways than one can be counterproductive. A picture is worth a thousand words.
Best of luck in your healing journey 
Man if I could have all that money back from supplements and wasted Dr appointments and tests.
Id love to see what that figure would look like, its at least got 4 zeros attached.
Completely agree! Likewise, I am disgusted at the amount of money I have wasted on supplements, tests and doctors appointment. The past 6 months I took the opposite approach and consumed no supplements, however due to chronically elevated cortisol and CRP, some intervention is required and I am not willing to take pharmaceuticals. If the supplements help me stay more relaxed and help to improve my sleep quality, then its worth it imo.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Completely agree, gut health is so crucial to our overall health & wellbeing. From my research the #1 predictor of a healthy gut microbiome is the abundance & diversity of plant based foods and plant based fibres in your diet. Hence why I am predominantly vegan based.
All the best to you as well with your recovery.
Regarding the Butyrate comment in response to reversing epigenetic changes on our androgen receptors. I plan to take the natural approach with cold potatoes & chamomile tea. watch the video below from 1:37:04.
Again, importance of Butyrate mentioned at around 5.47.
Digging the positive attitude @Alex50 !
Keep in mind that many people who have recovered talk about fluctuations in their recovery. So be prepared for the occasional “one step forward, two steps back”. Don’t let that discourage you!
Hey @Alex50 thx so much for your detailed motivating story. Its really encouraging to see how much you improved.
I myself have improved a lot since my crash 10 moths ago. 2 things really disturbs me that still are here:
Thanks man.
Glad to hear you have improved a lot man!! Keep fighting and keep pushing forward, we will recover. I hope my story helps you on your journey in any way.
Yes, the testicular shrinkage is extremely disturbing to me as well. I have developed obsessive compulsive behavior where I constantly check the size & I panic when my balls are super tight, something I will have to work through with my psychologist.
To answer your question regarding muscle mass, I have only just started to implement weights again. I did a session on Sunday and actually felt pretty good after, which I’m really excited about!! I think you just need to be patient bro, you’re only 10 months in, improvements and changes to our body take a lot of time & patience. Don’t get down about yourself if you haven’t recovered any muscle mass, just keep your head high and stay consistent & the results will come slowly over time.
Good luck in your recovery bro
Does the type of potato matter?
Yes, white potato is best.
Here’s some more info on Butyrate from the book Fibre Fueled by Dr Will Bulsiewicz incase it helps anyone.
White potatoes are an excellent source of resistant starch. In one study, they increased SCFA levels more than inulin from chicory root. Here’s a tip: If you let your potatoes cool, the process of cooling creates more resistant starch. If you heat and cool repeatedly, you just keep turning it up.
Cold white potatoes! Also important point to make, when you cool the potatoes the GI reduces by like 40%. It essentially turns into a complex carb and is blood sugar friendly.
Hope it helps.
Thx man, I appreciate your motivating words. I feel you regarding the testicular size reaction, I have a similar reflex now, but i learned not to observe it, especially not when i feel its retracted. I just stick with the most important, that i still can get it up and ejactuate, even if its not the same like pre-fin anymore its enough to continue life.
Yea man, I’d need to be more patient regarding muscle improvement. I donno if maybe my free T levels are too low perhaps to build muscles? I have just a minimal free T levels.
I completely empathize with your situation man. I was an avid bodybuilder, absolutely loved hitting the weights hard, I trained 5-6 days a week. When I crashed I had finally built a great physique and was at a point where I was really happy with my body. I lost all of that overnight with PFS. I was so fucked up that I ended up losing all my muscle and putting on 10kg of pure fat.
Literally the number 1 thing In the world that I want to get back to doing is bodybuilding. I’ve been so patient for the past 2 years, and I’m so excited because I think my body is now in a position where I can actually tolerate exercise again.
If your T levels are low, of course you are going to struggle to put on muscle. It may just take some time however for your body to bounce back. Be patient before you decide to take TRT.
One thing that helped me through this was to not focus on the things I’ve lost or missing out on, this will only keep you in a spiral of depression. Instead, you need to be grateful for what you do have in your life. You could have been born with spina bifida and not even had the chance to walk or workout ever in your entire life. Or you could have been born with something as debilitating as down syndrome. Always chose to be grateful and positive for everything in your life. Never focus on the past and never ever focus on what you don’t have.
You are so right. I really appreciate to communicate on the forum with strong personalities like you, as one of the main reasons of this forum should be to cope easier with your suffer mates.
I’m also trying hard to not look back what I lost and only appreciate that i’m at a much better place than i was after crash for months. By now I can sleep deep and long, I have no brain fog, anxiety and depression is much lighter and not constant. I have minimal but again existing libido and as I said enough sexual function to live with. The fact that I’m so eager at this point to gain muscles back also proves that I improved a lot, back in spring muscle loss was the least of my worries considering I had such severe mental and sexual sides.
Nah, wont touch TRT nor any androgen supplements now for years to come, I believe I just stick with regular excersize (though our gyms in my country are closed since today due to covid 
) and i avoid any anti-androgen foods.
I wish you a good luck with excersizes at gym again! Imo its really great tool to improve mentally and physically from this hell
You have made so much progress and you have so much man. You can sleep. You have no brain fog. Your anxiety & depression is fading. You can get an erection. You have a roof over your head. You have fresh running water. You are safe from terror. You have an abundance of food. You have friends and family. You are not obliged to go to war. You still have it better than 95% of people who lived in the generations before us and better than many people on this forum. Always chose to think positive.
Just understand that your situation is temporary and you will recover. It’s very important that you believe you will recover. The mind is more powerful than any pharmaceutical drug out there. Positive and optimistic mindset is key.
Try not to stress out about the little things man. Just keep your head high, do good things every single day, be kind to yourself and your body, the results will come in time. Be patient and live in the present.
I wish you all the best.
