Sorry for my late response, sp. I’m planning to stop right now (last dose on 8/17, 5 months total), as I am scared of the worsening I talked about in my previous post. I started clomid because I was scared of the downhill trend I had had for 5 months after stopping fin. If clomid can’t change this trend, I think it’s useless to stay on it.
I will report later on how I am doing.
[Size=4]Help![/size]
In the past few days, I’ve been increasingly developing skin rash on my forehead, my fingers, and my arms. It looks like this:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.allhealthsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/skin-rashes.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.allhealthsite.com/skin-rashes.html&usg=__iM_4z5IEhAWR3eVxb_hG_jqhOhY=&h=219&w=314&sz=17&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=VwmdXdYcWP5FtM:&tbnh=137&tbnw=204&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dskin%2Brash%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1279%26bih%3D773%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=306&ei=FohxTMjFJcKB8gbV0v3eCg&oei=FohxTMjFJcKB8gbV0v3eCg&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0&tx=108&ty=37
I don’t think it’s acne, because it doesn’t have any fat inside. It itches like crazy though.
This skin rash has started when I reduced the clomid intake, before stopping it completely 5 days ago. Tomorrow morning I’m going to my doctor (my GP). What can it be?? Thyroid? Super high cortisol? Any idea? Please let me know as soon as possible, so I can talk about it to my doctor.
m - im not sure what this is - but hopefully your GP will. perhaps they can do a biopsy.
but remember as i have told you in pvt messages - you and you alone on this forum have the power to do something about this situation for all of us. if you want some attention shed on our situation, if you want any research to get launched, if you want to things to move at a faster pace, if you want this game to stop being played - you can do more then any of us can.
The skin rash was nothing related to hormones, and it went away. I took a blood test at the end of my clomid treatment (1 week off clomid). My sex hormones look wonderful (high T and free T, out of range high DHT, low E, low prolactin). But, for the first time, I had a full thyroid panel, which I believe may show something interesting:
TSH 0.83 (0.50-5.00)
T4 Total 7.66 (5.10-14.10)
T3 Free 3.2 (2.4-4.2)
T3 Uptake 37% (28-41)
Reverse T3 339 (90-350)
In particular, my RT3 looks pretty high (despite low TSH), which may point to the “hidden” hypothyroidism like the one that JN has, although mine is a milder form. My alternative doctor suggested me to start taking T3 (Cytomel) 5 mcg 1-2 each day, and also to take a Chelex Challenge urine test for heavy metal toxicity. Any thought?
Man it looks like u r hypothyroid as well,u should post ur results in the thyroid thread
go for the copper test, people seem fixed on this so may as well investigate.
here is a post on thyroid treatment:
I had my copper tested in July. It was in the 50th percentile (I don’t know why but the result was expressed in percentiles…), so perfectly normal. The copper theory may be more valid for those who have high E2, but mine is low.
Time for an update. I have been 5 weeks off clomid and I have to say that, beside the sexual sides, I feel very good. My anxiety faded away completely, I am full of energy (I can play soccer for hours), I sleep like a baby, and I can feel emotions again (not as strong as pre-fin, but I feel them enough to be happy). These improvements came within 10 days after my last clomid dose and appear to have stuck. Note that anxiety is an official side of clomid, and I have experienced it only on clomid and never before, so that doesn’t really count as improvement. But the sleeping does count, because my sleep has been really poor since fin and now it’s fantastic.
Sexually it’s still a huge rollercoaster, as usual. From almost impotent with a shrivelled penis to perfectly functional, with sex drive, throbbing erections, pleasurable nocturnal erections (as opposed to pleasure free), I would say 90% pre-fin. Absolutely crazy.
I had some heavy metal and mineral exams (chelate challenge 6h urine panel) that show that I have high level of mercury and aluminum. So, I’ll start a 6-week chelation treatment. My minerals are more screwed up: my sodium/potassium ratio is 0.2, which other posts indicate as very low, I’m also deficient in Calcium. I have mid-low copper and mid-high zinc, but, again, this is a urine test, so I’m not sure how it relates with the composition of my body. I will take a blood test for sodium and potassium, because they are the most worrisome minerals for me.
Also, since I’ve stopped clomid, I am on a “soft raw food diet”: at grocery stores I buy only raw food (fruit, veggies, nuts, seeds), but when I eat out, I eat normal food. This happens ~5 times a week. Although this is not a raw food diet, I can say that I eat really healthy.
The only things I’m on are:
5 mcg a day of T3
chelate pills
Time for another update:
As I said in my previous post, everything was going all right (except for sexual issues). Beside low libido and sensitivity, I was having a good life. Tons of energy, no mental sides, and decent sexual functionality (response to porn, erections, etc…). Unfortunately, at the beginning of October I had an accident and I needed surgery. Obviously, I had to take a lot of antibiotics after surgery. That literally ended my 1.5 months of feeling good. Anxiety came back really bad and sexual sides got worse. Recently, I had to take a lot more antibiotics. This second round of antibiotics dramatically worsened my sexual sides, in terms of shrinkage, libido, semen quality, nocturnal erections, and sensitivity.
I would say that I’m probably at my worst ever, which really doesn’t make sense to me. I have been off the antibiotics for a week, but still have no improvement.
I’m pretty sure that this mess is caused by antibiotics, but I’m not sure if it is an adrenal glands crash or a further desensitization of the androgen receptors.
Very interesting that anti’s made you feel worse, I seem to remember ppl feeling better when they were taking anti’s…
Are you know taking probiotics?
I actually felt very good when I was taking antibiotics at the hospital (via IV). It felt like I was injecting some magic potion directly into my penis – awesome spontaneous, nocturnal, and other erections, but the insensitivity was still there. I started feeling awful when I started taking oral antibiotics at home.
Well, I’ve been taking probiotics together with the antibiotics, in order to avoid diarrhea. After the antibiotics treatment, I kept taking probiotics for 2 days, and then stopped.
what antibiotics were you taking?
Iv antibiotics a potential treatment? Did the results taper on the iv antibiotics, how long were you on them for?
I wonder if the pfs doctors know about the success had with some types of antibiotics?
Seems I’ve read stories on here where oral antibiotics were taken and a brief recovery was seen in many aspects of PFS. It usually involved quinolones like Cipro given for prostatitis. Unfortunately it doesn’t appear to last.
whats going on with you lately? did the T3 have any improvement with removing the excess RT3? is that what you were trying for? did you do any cortisol related testing? …just wondering, based on your post in my thread if these things were workign for you or if you tried it or tested things yet…
I didn’t have high RT3 (confirmed by a blood test) because I had high cortisol prior to starting the treatment (confirmed by a saliva test). A month ago, I added T3 to my pregnenolone-only regimen with intermittent success. It’s sooo hard to find the right balance of T3 and pregnenolone. If I get the right balance, I have good energy and motivation (decent, but less than pre-fin); if I take too little T3, then I have my old high cortisol symptoms (racing heart and insomnia); if I accidentally take too much T3, then it consumes all my cortisol and I end up with low cortisol symptoms (fatigue, sleepiness, too low heart rate).
When I find the right dosage, I’ll go to my doctor and discuss the next steps, which, I think, are going to consist of switching T3 with T4.
Why are you taking T3?
Good question, since it was not low and my RT3 was not high.
I’m taking it because I am trying to increase my metabolism in order to get to the same energy and motivation levels I had pre-fin. In other words, my doctor and I are working to send my cortisol and my T3 to the upper end of their range. This idea works decently well. The problem, as I said, is that T3 is very hard to dose, because too much “eats” my cortisol, while too little causes high cortisol. Furthermore, taking T3 increases the pace by which adrenals convert pregnenolone to cortisol, which messes everything up.
Many people around here think that taking T3 has the only goal of decreasing RT3, but it’s not true. In my experience, T3 will give you energy, provided that you have appropriately high cortisol.
any updates on your story?
