Dr. Jacobs prescribed me testim and an increased my synthroid dosage. He said if things were not better on the increased synthroid after two weeks to go ahead and start testim. Nothing improved after two weeks on the increased dosage of sythroid. I have been on the testim for a few days now and have noticed an increased feeling of well being and energy, along with better cognitive function. This morning I did have a semi-hard morning erection which is the first in a long time. I will give the treatment some time to work to see if there is any change in low libido and erectile dysfunction because I haven’t noticed any immediate improvement. Testim is really expensive too, I dont know if I can afford to be on it long term.
why don’t u have him put u on cytomel alone,this will probably work much better.
After being on testim for over a month I haven’t really noticed any significant changes. My body is a little more leaner and I do occasionally get morning erections, where as before they were virtually non existent. I recently got blood work done and below are my numbers.
TSH 0.869 uIU/mL 0.450-4.500
Estradiol 32 pg/mL 7.6-42.6
SHBG 76.8 nmol/L 14.5-48.4
Total Test 601 ng/dL 280-800
Bioavailable Testosterone 11.3% 9-46
Bioavailable Testosterone 67.9 ng/dL 40-250
Despite decent Total Testosterone values, your SHBG is ridiculously over the range and is likely binding up your Free/Bioavailable Testosterone – this is probably why you aren’t experiencing much, if any improvement from Testim treatment.
Additionally, your Estradiol at 32 pg/mL 7.6-42.6 is starting to approach the upper limit – elevated estrogen negatively affects men’s sexual function, amongst other issues such as causing gynecomastia. I recall Dr. Shippen likes to keep E2 around 20 pg/ml if possible.
What did your doctor say about your out of range SHBG? I understand that Dr. Shippen treats elevated SHBG with low doses of Danazol, you should discuss this with your doctor or consider seeing Shippen himself if your doc refuses to treat this.
Thanks for responding mew. My SHBG levels on my previous bloodwork were high as well(61.4 at same lab) and this concerned Dr. Jacobs. We didn’t really talk about how to go about lowering this, but I will ask him about danazol the next time I speak with him, along with other treatments that he thinks can alleviate this problem. He did say that people who are starving or are alcoholics can have high SHBG, but neither of those problems apply to me becuase I have a pretty good diet and only drink a couple of times a month. I’m assuming he thought that the androgen therapy would help lower SHBG levels, but unfortunately that didn’t occur. I looked on Dr. Goldstein’s site and it looks like androgen therapy is one way he goes about addressing the problem of high SHBG.
Dr. Jacobs has also talked about the possibility of having me going on an aromatase inhibitor. I had blood tests in June before I saw him and my level was 49 pg/mL(range 10-50). He has changed my thyroid medication dosage and put me on testim, so I am guessing he may try lowering this next. He did talk about how high estrogen levels can raise SHBG, so by going on aromatase inhibitor this could hopefully lower my SHBG levels as well.
I had a follow up consultation with Dr. Jacobs today. I basically told him that I haven’t noticed much of a difference with regard to the main problem of low libido and erectile dysfunction even after increasing the testim to two tubes a day. He decided to put me on the injectable testosterone, and I will follow up with him in a few months.
I am kind of wondering if this will work after being on the testim for three months and not noticing much of an improvement. I asked him about proviron, and he wasn’t familiar with the drug. He looked it up online while I was on the phone with him and said that he would stay away from the drug.
However, recent evidence suggests that it is the liver’s production of fats that reduces SHBG levels,[2][3] not any direct effect of insulin and specific genetic mechanisms have been found that do this.
I recently requested old labs from the endocrinologist I used to go to when I was living in another state. Below are the results of my thyroid tests one month after being off propecia back in 08. I remember pre fin when my numbers were hypo along with having a number of hypo symptoms(especially puffy face and weight gain) and still my libido and sexual function was waaay better than it is now.
TSH 0.50 uIU/ml 0.30-3.00
Free T3 4.0 pg/ml 1.5-4.1
Free T4 1.72 ng/dl 0.80-2.00
Total T3 117.0 ng/dl 65.0-185.0
T3 Uptake 30.1 % 25.0-40.0
Total T4 9.1 ug/dl 4.5-12.5
FTI 2.74 1.13-5.00
I eneded up making the decision not to go on injectable testosterone. After reading a number of postings on here and having been on testim for awhile I made the decision that more testosterone is probably not the answer to this complex problem. I tend to side with Awor when he says it doesn’t matter how many volts we apply, the lights are off. We are still in the early innings of this game, but I am far enough along to know that at least for me higher androgen levels are not a solution.
Shortly after going off testim I was feeling pretty bad and made an appointment with a urologist, i told him my situation and he reccomended staying off the testosterone. He came off to me as being another doctor who thought it was “all in your head” but he did read some of Jacobs blog postings I brought with me and was a cool guy and willing to listen. He said it was interesting but still conjecture. He was willing to prescribe me arimidex and I went on it for about a month and after noticing no difference I decided to discontinue the medication. My bloodwork while on arimidex is below, I have no clue why he only ran those particular tests for my thyroid when I asked him to test thyroid function.
Right now all I am on is synthroid and plan on meeting with Dr. Jacobs in the next couple of months. This problem can really mess with your mind, and even though its really cliche we got to stay positive.
Thyroxine 9.8 ug/dl 4.5-12.0
T3 111 ng/dl 83-200
SHBG 48.9 nmol/l 14.5-48.4
Testosterone 804.4 ng/dl 280-800
Free Test pg/ml 9.3-26.5
hey adam
how r u feeling now off of Testim. Did your balls shrink while on Testim? I was on Androgel and found it extremely hard to get off. I still think Androgel caused me more harm than the good. There is some reason body is keeping TT low( to keep E2 low). Androgel cused alot of E problem for me and I was lucky that did not get Gyno but got some fat in my chest.
Hey Adam,
Your missing the actual number for your Free Testosterone. You have only posted the range. Maybe you can look back at your bloodwork and post that. There are good number of us, that have very low free testosterone; so that is important.
Hey spstriken,
I’m feeling pretty good now that I am off the testim, that first week was pretty rough though. I still have the persistent erectile dysfunction and low libido, which was slightly better while on the testim. The testim did not even bring me close to where I was pre fin so I made the decision to discontinue. And yes my balls did shrink while on testim, prior to it they were saggy. Sorry to hear that your experience with exogenous test did not go well. I’m glad I tried going on testim and arimidex as well, but at least for me and it sounds like you as well, it offers us no solution. It’s probably likely that Fin altered our epigentic network somehow and it doesn’t seem as though testim can reverse this.
Hey Boston, sorry Free Test wasn’t entered, it was 16.0
Not great, but not too terrible. My last two Free T tests were 7.9 and 8.0. I’d say you’d probably want to be in the 20’s to start feeling right, or so I’ve heard. Also, some people who respond poorly to Testim do really well with Androgel, and vice-versa.