Toronto resident here also. How would one become a patient of his?
Just call. I went to pfs aware endo, michael Irwig, he did nothing to help. Please let us know how dr jarvi is, I’d make the trip if it is worthwhile
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I met with Dr. Jarvi, he’s a nice guy. I just emailed him personally, and then got a referral from my family doctor.
He’s open-minded about hormones if that’s the route you want to take. He offered to put me on TRT which I declined. I told him I was going to cycle DHEA prohormones which he totally supported and offered to monitor. He also offered to refer me to a psychiatrist who specialized in “male issues”.
I didn’t follow up but it was nice to have a doctor who listened
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Do you need a prescription for this or are they supplements?
How do you and Dr. Jarvi think they’ll help?
Just as a precaution, I know of one guy with PFS who recovered to a reasonable position only to crash himself with DHEA. It should probably be avoided.
Have you written about your experience with Dr. Irwig? If not, please do tell. I was considering a consultation with him because of his approach of treating PFS by boosting T levels way above normal range. Does he still recommend that?
DHEA uses another pathway to increase DHT than T to DHT conversion, but it also increases estrogen at a higher rate.
I’ve read if you have lower body fat around 8% to 12%, you’ll have less E conversion from DHEA.
I have no experience with it, just from what I read. Do you know if the person who crashed have an increase Estrogens?
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DHEA is unpredictable. I didn’t use DHEA, I used DHEA-reduced prohormones - androsterone and 4-andro.
Androsterone increases DHT through a different pathway than 5ar. It’s also a highly anxiolytic neurosteroid. It is great for sleep if anything
4-andro increases testosterone and estrogen. This can be helpful to keep things balanced because Androsterone lowers estrogen
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Where do you get it?
@basementdweller what supplements or methods did you use to increase androsterone and 4-andro?
How are you feeling on the treatment, have you noticed improvements?
He said he had low estrogen after using Arimidex. I don’t know the timeline on when he was using that and if it was related to his dhea use.
I guess it can depend on if his estrogens got too low. It’s complicated to figure out dosing and everything else. Not a simple solution.
There are many bodybuilding supplement companies that sell these. Androhard and r-andro are two androsterone products I know of.
My experience with androsterone - at a low dose, is typically a reduction in anxiety and improved sleep for a week or two. My libido and strength improves a lot when I stack it with 4 andro. Strangely my mental sides start to worsen after that point though, so I can only do short cycles
Most people cycle it for like 6-8 weeks with little issue. I’m not recommending any hormones, this is just my experience with them
Doesn’t R-Andro not exist anymore?
he doesn’t reccomend it. he basically tried to delay and delay during my appointment, asking me information about my symptoms I had given him months prior, in may. he tried to ask me if i’ve seen doctors i’ve seen that he shouldn’t have known about- (alan jacobs, who i have seen, rachel rubin who i have not seen, but did have a scheduled phone consultation with) only once i saw there were ten minutes left in the appointment, I said something along the lines of, "listen, I have seen many doctors, and none have been able to do anything. this includes psychologic and psychiatric help as well. all I want from you is a path forward, whether it is something diagnostic (i said i preferred this, eg. spinal tap to measure neurosteroids, skin sample from penis to measure androgen receptor density, nerve sensitivity testing,)or a treatment. at this point he said “do you want trt?” I said i’d prefer it to leaving with nothing, and he left our appointment, sent in the nurse, and gave me a shot right there. ultimately, he said this doesn’t work for most people but he had nothing else to reccomend.
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@Cman Wow. Sorry to hear, mate. So he was just stalling? Most of these docs are thieves, aren’t they. They know they can’t do anything for you but they tell you only after they take your money.
So did you try the TRT for a longer period? I think I want to try that next. My logic is that if Tribulus, which raises T, works a little bit, then TRT should work even better.
I think I mixed up Irwig and Jacobs. I think it’s Jacobs who does the high dose TRT. What did he recommend when you saw him?
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Jacibs just reccomended clomid and anastrazole, and even prescribed liothyronine. None of it did anything, although i avoided the anastrazole and havent tried it.
The trt shots if i’m being honest, I didn’t feel sny different at all. Going to try not taking my shot this time and see if i notice mysekf getting worse. I dont want to be on it if i don’t notice any effects.
Any update on dr jarvis?
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I haven’t seen him or anyone else yet. I will update when I do.
The sad reality is that nobody has come up with a treatment that works for PFS. Maybe a treatment helps one or two guys, but I haven’t seen anything that works consistently in the long time I’ve been here.
Irwig is not a thief. In fact he is one of the first people to have written up a case study of PFS patients, if not the first. He has repeatedly said that he doesn’t know of any treatment for PFS and he’s a conservative doctor so I don’t think he likes to experiment. Jacobs and Goldstein are more open to experimental treatments with hormone therapies. I’m not sure why these doctors see PFS patients, but Irwig has tremendous integrity.
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I think he walks a line between putting out a study acknowledging that there are real consistent effects of finasteride, while also not trying to treat or explain it in a way that would deem him a quack in the eyes of the general medical community. I think its half assed, but also the first step toward getting the public to acknowledge this without writing the doctor off as crazy. That said, his attitude was not exactly helpful from a patient’s perspective. I’m just angry at merck, myself, and the prescribing doctor.
On the other hand, Dr. Jacobs seemed to pretend he knew everything that was going on and to be honest, didn’t seem to really know much. He literally pulled out a pocket calculator to calculate some ratio of thyroid hormone from a bloodwork test he ordered, and said I was at 18 instead of 20 and prescribed liothyronine. It’s just frustrating to try and find a way to be alive right now. He said there were no negative effects from anastrazole, when I have seen a lot of them documented here. He also couldn’t help with anything evaluation-wise. I just wish someone would try and make a diagnostic measure for those who have this disease- It would make the pathway for a cure, compensation, and prevention about 1000x more likely.
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