Giving it all I’ve got to beat this

Member Stories
#29

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.

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#30

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 :frowning: ) 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

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#31

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.

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#32

I appreciate Alex!
Wish you all the bests, keep with your great recovery! I’ll follow your posts

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#33

Watch this video bro.

Also I think I read on one of your previous posts that you’re eating a keto style diet. If your SHBG is skyhigh and free test consequently in the toilet, I would consider eating a carb heavy diet to reverse this. Watch the video I posted earlier regarding keto/carnivore diets & low free testosterone levels. Carbs are very important for testosterone optimisation.

All good bro, I hope it helps you or a future reader!!

#34

Thank you so much @Alex50 !
Yea I was on keto for too long and it could have caused me high SHBG indeed! I quit keto in august, so im since 3 months back to a carb rich diet. I hope this will accelerate my free T rise.

I’ll keep you updated
Bests to you

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#36

@Sawproblemo has inspired me to post updates, I also want to share my journey to track progress and share information on whats helped me to others.

After 2 years of CFS and Adrenal Fatigue, I have started cycling 20-30 minutes per day and feeling much better for it. Getting outside, moving the body, getting the heart pumping, is all very beneficial I think to recovery. I also take the dogs for long walks in nature and practice mindfulness.

I have also just started up a volleyball team with my mates. Team sports are great in my opinion, again the exercise is fantastic, but the mateship, fun and laughter is very good for the brain in my opinion, especially after experiencing severe trauma. My doctor said its one of the best things to help rewire the brain for PTSD.

I also aim to get 20-30 minutes direct sunlight per day. I believe this is great for overall health and endocrine function.

I hopefully plan to implement a consistent weightlifting regiment moving forward. Depends how my body reacts to more exercise, I have been very sensitive in the past and had severe exercise intolerance, but I now believe I am at a point where I can start going to the gym again which I’m really excited about.

Unfortunately I was unconsciously consuming 5ar inhibitors in the form of Curcumin, Zinc+P5P and EPA. I have noticed a considerable drop in my nocturnal and morning erections because of this.

I feel my best when I avoid technology, computers, TV, phones, etc.

I am positive, I am optimistic, I will recover.

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#37

Great attitude my friend! I know you will continue to improve.

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#39

P5P is a 5AR inhibitor? Source?

#40

I’m happy to be proven wrong on this. But from my research,to have a positive effect on 5ar, you want Pyrodoxine not Pyridoxal. Unfortunately Pyrodoxine supplementation has been associated with Neuropathy and nerve damage, so please be careful.

Needs more research, but there’s enough data out there to suggest that the active form of B6, Pyridoxal is likely a 5ar inhibitor, and that’s enough for me to steer clear.

Vitamin B6 potentiated the inhibitory effect of zinc

Pyridoxine hydrochloride significantly increased the activity of 5 alpha-R, 3 alpha- and 17 beta-HSD, but pyridoxal hydrochloride had an inhibitory influence on 5 alpha-R

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290694536_Inhibition_of_5_alpha-reductase_activity_of_zinc_potentiated_by_vitamin_B6_in_the_treatment_of_androgenetic_alopecia_and_role_of_N-acetyl-cysteine_in_chemotherapy-induced_alopecia_1

#41

Thank you for the links @Alex50 ! I’ll read up on this. I take P5P quite often, so this makes me think I should re-evaluate that.

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#42

Hey guys, controversial I know, but I am having major success with low dose fluoxetine (prozac) to treat my severe hypersensitivity / hyperarousal to stimulation and stress. Sleep has also improved substantially and I no longer feel the need to take all these supplements to get a good nights sleep. The effects were almost instant. I started at 10mg, but I plan to lower the dose to find the minimum effective amount required to elicit the effects I’m after. Low doses fluoxetine has a positive effect on neurosteroids and increases allopregnanlone without effecting serotonin. Before I couldn’t even look at a computer screen without feeling severely “wired”, now I have no issues, honestly the change after starting treatment with Fluoxetine has been amazing. I’m going to ideally drop the dose to somewhere like 1-2.5mg/d

I also have started Natural Desiccated Thyroid (T4 + T3) to treat my elevated TSH of 4.1. I also plan to start TRT with Progesterone very soon. Progesterone also increases allopregnanlone and will help with sleep.

After waiting over 2 years to try fix this naturally I want to try TRT and see how I feel with elevated androgens. If there is something out there that can help me, I want to try it. This is a decision I have come to after much thought and research. I am aware that PFSers often feel worse on TRT, however I am very lucky in the sense that I am not very sensitive to supplements, so I think the potential upside outweighs the risks. I feel like my body is in a good position to try TRT and may be more receptive to exogenous hormones after all of the healing I have done through diet & lifestyle over the past two years.

Furthermore, in my opinion the testosterone “normal” reference range is based on a sick unoptimised population and does not take into account receptor sensitivity to androgens. I don’t care if I’m considered “normal”, I want to get my free testosterone to around 1000 pmol/L (250-750) and see how I feel.

The TRT will be introduced 6 weeks after starting Fluoxetine / NDT.

I am not recommended anyone to do anything. This is what I have decided based upon my own research and to address my symptoms.

Open to any feedback and criticism. Anyway, this is my plan, I’ll update in a couple months with how I go.

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#44

Great to hear you are doing better, but be careful with fluoxetine is a potent endocrine disruptor, but I guess you know that.

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#45

Thanks for the heads up man. I’m aware that Fluoxetine is a poisonous drug, but honestly the improvement is incredible. Previously the only thing that would help were Benzodiazapines, I’d rather take the Fluoxetine than benzos. I’m hoping the improvements remain at low doses where Fluoxetine does not act as an Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor but rather increases Allopregnanlone. Will report back in a couple of months

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#46

Did it help with penile or testicular shrinkage? Or with libido maybe?

#47

No. The Fluoxetine is only helping with my issues with severe sensitivity to stimulation and stress. The best way to describe it was feeling wired / fried in the brain and overstimulated. It felt like my GABA was not working properly. Almost like the accelerator was stuck on without the break whenever I engaged in anything stimulatory (like computers, games, TV, socialising, etc).

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#48

Latest blood results below. I saw a fertility specialist before hopping on TRT, he wanted to run a hormone panel, and I wanted to share here.

Morning Cortisol: 281 nmol/L (110-550)
Total Testosterone: 37.9 nmol/L (8.0-27.8)
SHBG: 62 nmol/L (10-70)
Free Testosterone: 613 pmol/L (200-600)
FSH: 8 (1-8)
LH: Unfortunately the fertility doc didn’t check LH
Oestradiol: 101 pmol/L (<150)

146153334_201072115041334_83063975990424830_n
146153334_201072115041334_83063975990424830_n2048×630 118 KB

I still plan to hop on TRT, I want to get my Free T to 1000-1500 and see how I feel. Call me crazy, but I still have literally all the symptoms of low T, no doubt this is classic Post Finasteride Syndrome, receptor issues or androgen resistance. Treat the symptoms not a number on a piece of paper.

Hopefully I will be starting at 200mg/week Test next week! :slight_smile: Happy to update here if people are interested.

Also the low dose fluoxetine is working really well for my hypersensitivity to stimulation issues. I’m sleeping really well and have no issues socialising or being on the computer now. It’s like its fixed my GABA system entirely, I’m only taking 2.5mg per day, and plan to drop to 1.25mg per day soon.

Cheers

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#49

What have you been doing to get your free T that high? My Free T was in the toilet last time I checked. It has fluctuated though.

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#50

A fascination with pills as quick fixes is precisely what got us in trouble in the first place. The majority of talk here is about more pills, but as far as I know, there is not a single credible report of their producing success. They’ve been a tragic tail chase that induces a lot of psychological hope and despair as well as wasted time and money. I have a stock of them even larger than yours filling entire cabinet. So many thousands of money and years wasted on false hope.

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#51

Honestly man I have not been taking any supplements, haven’t been weight lifting much, have not been doing any of the classic “testosterone boosting” methods you see on the internet. Getting my T that high was purely down to lifestyle; good high quality sleep every night, healthy and low inflammatory diet (mostly plant based), eliminating stress, etc. In my opinion your testosterone levels are correlated to the overall health of your body. What I have learnt is the body doesn’t crave some vitamin complex or test booster, when the body is healthy it will do it on its own.

I may sound hypocritical when I say that I’m starting TRT next week. My justification is, I’m not putting up with feeling fatigued and zero sex drive, if there’s something out there that can help me I want to try it. I’m going to get my Free T up to 1000-1500 pmol/L and see how I feel, while I continue doing all the lifestyle changes that have allowed me to get my T so high naturally in the first place. Recovery is multi-faceted, we get desperate and look for quick fixes, lifestyle is always #1 IMO.

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