I didn’t do DHT, not sure what I was thinking on that one.
That’s the second highest shbg I’ve been able to find of anyone on the Internet, lol. Hopefully I’m not dying of liver disease or something.
I’d say you definitely need to do something about that shbg. You effectively have low testosterone. At least maybe go low carb and eliminate caffeine, test it again in a couple weeks.
Low carb supposedly makes it worse from what I’ve read anyways. I’m thinking about low’ish dose testosterone replacement. 80-100mg/week to see how I do for a few weeks.
In the back of my mind I’m hoping that’s the issue and not “PFS” after all. That would be awesome, but I don’t really know how it’ll go.
I’m about to find out though
Ah ok, cool. A lot of posts on reddit I saw talking about high SHBG were in a Keto diet section so I thought it was the opposite of that
Haven’t really updated much lately
I’ve been taking the supplements I was told to, primarily boron is probably the only one that has any chance of doing anything. I feel a little different but not sure how to explain it and I’m not sure it’s real or not. I also took 60mg of testosterone and ale HCG on Wednesday. I was originally going to go straight to TRT but I’m considering trying to see if the supplements actually work so I can avoid or at least delay the whole dependency on TRT thing
Sex wise nothing much has changed except I was able to actually get the job done this morning. That’s first morning success in a really, really long time. Whether it’s related to Boron or just a nice coincidence, I have no idea.
We’ll see how it goes. I’m going to try for 3 weeks of just the boron/magnesium supplements to see what happens to see if there are any significant improvements or not
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Not a ton to update on but I am def not worse.
I’ve been taking the boron, dhea and magnesium as I was told. I skipped the zinc since I’ve read it can lower estrogen and mine is already on the low end and my symptoms pretty much match other people’s that just have low e. So, didn’t want to risk lowering it further.
Anyways. Sensation seems to be a little better. I haven’t had an issue getting done in the last few days, though I’ve been sticking with every other day, so that always helps.
I don’t know if it’s placebo yet or not but between the morning success, no issues in a few days and what I think is increased sensation, I’m feeling pretty decent. I just hope it doesn’t come crashing down but I guess we’ll see
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The improvements I was seeing seem to be about 50% gone. It’s been over a week since I took any HCG so I suspect it’s related to that
Lack of sensation is coming back
Difficulty orgasming is back
Dry skin is back. I bent my toe too far earlier and my skin split from being so dry
Super chapped lips are back. It’s hot and humid here this time of year so I shouldn’t have chapped lips.
These are all common issues with low E2
I’ve continued with the boron and dhea but don’t have a lot of faith that they will help. Going to give it another week or so then I’m about done with the supplements route and going to the real stuff.
Early this week was the worst I’ve felt in a while. I’m assuming the bit of hormones I took a week or two before were out of my system by then.
Numbness, ED, no orgasm, etc was all back
I decided to try more test e and HCG on Tuesday. I was miserable going back to baseline so I said what the hell.
It’s now day 3 after doing that, I’m starting to feel better again, so we’ll see how it goes. So far more erections and sensitivity seems better. I’ll give it a try tonight and see if things are working better yet or not!
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And that was the closest to normal feeling sex that I can remember.
I’m continuing with test/hcg whether the doc will give it to me or not. Very good stuff. It’s insane how different I can feel over just a few days with these additions…
And with that, it’s time for some sleep!
Not a lot new… I’m still back and forth a bit with how I feel. I felt good whatever day I wrote the last post but Monday or Tuesday turned into a marathon and had some numbness again.
I have another consult with a different doctor on Monday to see if they agree with the previous doc that decided to not prescribe TRT (yet) since my total T is decent but my my free T is low/SHB high (related, obviously)
My understanding is that “if” SHBG went down, my body would begin using up all the test that is basically stored in SHBG (i.e. that’s why I have a high total T), which would then pretty quickly and significantly lower my total T.
That makes me think I’m going to need more testosterone one way or another. I think it’s going to take a decent dose of test for a month or two for me to get real symptom relief. Increasing free T and Estradiol are my primary goals right now. The symptoms and reactions I’ve had to different things I’ve tried (Proviron specifically) match really, really well to low E / low free T, so I feel like there might be light at the end of the tunnel after all
I also am starting to question whether my issue is actually typical “PFS” or “just” some screwed up HPTA hormones that may or may not be related to taking FIN.
I’m hoping just some too high SHBG/too low free T, because that’s a WHOLE lot easier to treat than PFS is at this point. I’ll gladly take a shot or two of test a week for the rest of my life if it makes me feel back to normal.
I have not been good about updating my “diary” over here lately but I’ll try to remember some updates.
I had another appt. with a doc that specializes in testosterone replacement and he found my free test was extremely low and my SHBG was absurdly high, which matches the symptoms I’ve had for a while now. My estradiol was also quite low.
He’s starting me on 140mg/week of test + HCG to keep my fertility since we’d like to start trying in about a year. I actually started a little over a week ago. I have been more “in to” sex the last few days, tons of morning wood and erections strong enough to make me wonder if I’d forgotten that I had taken Cialis or something (I hadn’t). Whether it’s all placebo or if I really did just need more test, I’m not sure yet
Like I said in the last post, I’m starting to wonder if traditional PFS is what I even had. I got so fixated on this idea that I wasn’t interested in looking at much else. The few things that I did try, like Proviron for example, affected me negatively due to my Estradiol already being low (IMO anyways). The best I felt through all of this was when I took HCG consistently for a month, which in hindsight makes sense sine it would increase both test and E2, which is what I need. I was afraid of continuing taking it because I kept seeing all these posts about E2 getting too high which scared me away from it (which really sucks considering I’ll probably feel BETTER with more E2)
We’ll see. It will take months to see if TRT is really all I need. I hope it is. I’m hoping within the next month or so I’ll at least feel confident whether I’m moving in the right direction or not.
I will try to remember to post updates from time to time on how things are going.
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Sorry my previous question sounded like I didn’t read your post but I meant what type of specialty is the doctor, like what kind of doctor would I search for to find the same one? I get that they specialize in T replacement but is there a specific title?
Try defy medical if you want to go that route, they do telemedicine so you don’t have to go to FL to see them from most states
I’m not sure what they are called other than hormone replacement or testosterone replacement, etc.
I’ve been continuing with 140mg/week of testosterone via daily subcutaneous injections. I feel better but not perfect, though the advice from the doc was to continue to at least 4-6 weeks before I judge anything as my body would be adjusting for that long and I’d probably have some ups and downs. I suspect I will need more than 140mg/week based on some other guys I have talked to with similar high SHBG numbers as well as possibly Danazol to help bring that SHBG down.
One day last week, maybe Saturday, I felt pretty bad… genital sensitivity was really bad, the worst it’s been in a while. I looked back through my notes and realized I had missed 2 days of injections a few days prior due to a lot of traveling I had going on, so I hope it was just due to that. Once I resumed, I was back to feeling good in a day or two
Overall I feel good, I felt really good yesterday but I’m tired today for whatever reason.
Sex wise I’m 3/3 in the last 4 days and zero marathons, so that’s pretty good for me. That isn’t enough to say I’m 100% better or anything but it’s certainly not like I’m going downhill right now either.
The more I look at blood tests the more I wonder if my issue was really from high SHBG / low free T / low Estradiol all along. I have no way of knowing whether fin/dut caused it or not, but we’ll see how treatment goes. I certainly wouldn’t be the first person to have high SHBG after taking fin or dut.
I wish I had blood tests from before any of this started… my sex drive a few months before I stopped taking dut (which is roughly when this all started) was off the charts for me and had been increasing over the year or so prior. Like, 2-3x a day wasn’t enough, which isn’t really what I’m used to. It’s bizarre to think back about. I just hope I can get back to that point.
Anyways–just trying to keep this somewhat updated. I saw some exciting things in the Science section of the forum regarding some new theories between PFS/PSSD. Very interesting stuff.
Damn, it’s been a month already? I am going to copy/paste this from another post just to keep all of my story in one place.
I’ve been taking 150mg/week of testosterone for the last 6 or 8 weeks consistently and the last week or so I’ve improved noticeably. I have been able to have morning sex, and even QUICK morning sex at that (at my worst it was next to impossible for me to get finished in the morning no matter what–didnt matter how long it had been or how much I needed, it was not happening. It’s been a good 7 months since it’s worked in the morning, and that one time was a fluke)
And I’ve been able to have normal, quick’ish sex a few days in a row. I’ve gone from having to really try and really concentrate in order to “finish” to now sometimes I’m having to try to stop it from happening so quick instead, which is really, really nice. I know quick isn’t the word most guys would want associated with their sex sessions, but trust me, after dealing with anorgasmia I am THRILLED to be quick sometimes, haha. So is she.
I’m switching over to a new testosterone cream (NOT gel) that most people seem to love, so we will see how that goes. I’m tired of giving myself shots 3x a week and a lot of people are getting better results from the cream than even injections. More DHT, less estrogen
Anyways–that’s the short version of what’s been going on for me. Testosterone HAS helped, but I think I really need a higher dose given how high my SHBG is and it took every bit of 6 or 7 weeks before I really was starting to feel better. I am still not 100% but hope with the increase in levels the cream should give me that I will keep improving over the next month or two.
Also, I’m getting married in a week so I’m glad to be feeling a little better before that…
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It’s been another month… I switched to 20% (200mg/ml) testosterone cream about a month ago now. So far I’m not super impressed with it, however, I’m still doing better than I was before TRT. I was good sex wise probably 10 or 12 days in a row recently (honeymoon, haha) but I felt like I was slowly going back to how I used to feel more and more each day. It takes about 4 weeks for all of the testosterone I was injecting to be gone so I have a feeling my levels are too low right now and I’m not using enough cream.
The last week I did injections was the best I have felt in a really long time in more ways than just sex. I finally felt normal, less anxiety, less give a shit about what other people think, etc. Typical higher T feelings.
So, I haven’t decided what to do. I’d rather use cream as I don’t love having to inject myself 3x a week but if I have to switch back, I will. I have some more blood tests coming up soon so I may stay with cream for now and see how those come back.
My no-evidence-at-all-but-I-believe-it-anyways theory is my E2 has gone down too much due to using the cream. It tends to aromatize less for whatever reason. My E2 was too low to begin with before TRT, so in the back of my mind I’m wondering if that slowly dropping off is the reason I feel bad again. I’m back to aching all the time, dry skin, etc. Typical stuff.
Anyways. I haven’t kept up with this forum lately but hopefully things are going well and progress is being made.
Just stick with injections your so lucky you even respond to TRT man I wish I was in the same position as you. I heard the cream isn’t nearly as effective. There’s painless ways you can inject there’s videos on YouTube. The way I did it was by doing a quad injection (aspirate needle) press down separate the skin with your fingers and inject, it also helps to have your leg freely hanging off a bed or chair and balance your body weight on the opposite side and don’t put pressure on the injection leg. Good to see your a responder to T replacement many of us aren’t as lucky.
Yeah I’ve been fortunate… I still believe there are multiple conditions that finasteride can cause, one of them is super high SHBG which effectively means low free T no matter how much T your body is producing. Fortunately that form of PFS is easy to overcome if you take enough testosterone. There seem to be much worse versions of PFS (for lack of a better way to say it) that don’t respond as well or at all to just about anything.
So the cream you’re thinking of is probably the old Androgel, which is total crap. It’s like < 2% testosterone and alcohol based and doesn’t absorb very well. At best it will get guys total T to mid range, which just isn’t enough for most people.
The new stuff I’m using is made by a compounding pharmacy and is a 20% cream that isn’t alcohol based… so you can apply it anywhere. My total T is off the charts right now (literally, the results just say > 1500, haha), free T is up there too. It works 100%. It is not comparable to the old gel junk at all.
I apply it to my balls, lol… the skin there is super thin and has lots of blood flow so it absorbs well there, and you get a little extra bump of DHT doing it that way so guys love it
Before cream I was doing shallow IM injections in my delts and it was totally fine, barely ever hurt… I just kept reading about how awesome this stuff is so figured I would try it. I’d be totally fine with either at this point.
And time for a quick update. There’s not a ton to say though.
I got my latest blood results back and my total T is quite high (over 1500 which is as high as this version of the test goes). Free T is just over the high end of normal, which is what I wanted, SHBG is still high but not as ridiculous (was 150, down to 90). E2 is “high” but in proportion to my T it’s about where it needs to be.
Overall I feel much better than I used to but not as good as I did towards the end of doing injections. I’m not sure if my dose is too low or too high right now honestly. I’m debating a change to see what happens but haven’t decided which way to go yet… most people start at 200mg/day of this creme while I’m at 150mg/day, but my total T already being that high makes me wonder if I’m just sensitive to it and should try going the other way
I’ve basically had sex every day for a month without any major issues. No marathons, though sensitivity has gone down a little bit. It peaked when I was on injections and went down a little bit on creme… that’s one reason I’m considering a change to how much I’m using.
Anyways. I’ll try to continue to update. I don’t read this forum much anymore as I’ve been feeling a lot better so I don’t think about it as much.
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