Hey man - your consistency throughout all of this is a complete inspiration. We crashed around the same time…. But I haven’t made the same progress you have. Do you mind sharing your T boosting protocol?
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There are many ways but my personal approach was first cycling Tribulus Terrestris 500mg, Horny Goat Weed 500mg and Tongkat Ali 250mg (It felt very strong to me).
Those did seem to increase androgen but were dose dependant so I chose a more persistent solution and went through an HCG course, at only 300iu 3x a week so I don’t have to take an anti-aromatase or exogenous T. I did 9 months. My balls grew in size and T went to 1209. It seems to stick, my T is still above 1000. I used Boron to reduce SHBG and increase free T. I tried various doses with blood tests after each one and it did lowers SHBG in my body substantially. Effective dosage was 6mg a day for minimal effect, 12mg for overwhelming effect I couldn’t hold for long (I had Free T 230% above max range) and a sustainable dose was 8mg. Doing those things made me sicker, with more brainfog, demotivation and sexual sides but after stopping all those symptoms were lesser than before I went through this.
IMO, I was flooding my AR with more free androgen and I was doing it in the hope that my body would desensitize them. I can’t know if that’s what happened, I have no way to tell, but I believe it did because I’m better. So now I’m working at rebooting 5ar using Butea Superba 500mg. So far I get results I’m satisfied with. It seems to target more specifically my PFS symptoms, mostly for good but sometime it exacerbates them. I keep at it because it enables me to taper my benzo addiction without insomnia or withdrawal symptoms. If I can sleep naturally, I would no longer have benzo induced brainfog. That’d be a plus in my life !
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Well I overshot Butea Superba. I strongly suspect it increases both 5ar and DHT. While using it, I managed to rapidly decrease benzodiazepine by half without withdrawal symptoms (no insomnia or anxiety). On the contrary, I would take naps in the afternoon and feel completely relax and empty-headed. It had both a calming effect on me and an androgenic effect. I was good for a while and then ended up with strong PFS symptoms like muscle weakness, speech slur, cognitive problems and heavy brainfog (not to mention zero sex-drive and lack of genital sensitivity, both of which had disappeared before). It was like traveling back through time to when I was really sick. It seems this herbal extract plays right along the PFS axis.
I stopped taking it 19 days ago and my condition got gradually better although after a week I started to have benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms even though I kept benzos leveled (insomnia, muscle spasm, anxiety). This also went away and I’m doing good now. I was doing good for many years but wanted to try Butea Superba to reduce benzodiazepine, which I did with success.
I got my blood tested two days ago and compared the results to the ones 3 weeks after my initial PFS crash 7 years ago. My total testosterone is now more than twice what it was after crashing. It went from 513 to currently1082. I’m waiting for my DHT results. After crashing my sleep was 3 hours of actual sleep plus 5 hours of anxious turning around between shallow dreams and reality. It’s now 8 hours of straight sleep, barely waking up to turn around a few times. I think we can say sleep is at least 2 or 3 times better. I also decreased sleeping drugs by a factor of 4 or 5. Sex-drive is normal but not as high as before PFS, with normal sensitivity and erections.Considering I have twice the testosterone I did before I think we can come up with at least a 95% recovery with maximum 5% of symptoms remaining, mainly the need for a small dose of benzos to sleep well and avoid anxiety. Percentages like these are subjective but I calculated 4 times less sleeping drugs multiplied by at least 2 times better sleep = 8, multiplied by twice the testosterone = 16 times less reactive to androgen. 1/16= 0.0625 so roughly 5% remaining and 95% recovered (again, this is just to give an idea, it’s not a real figure.)
Before I tried this herb, the only reminder of PFS I had was the need for drugs to sleep. Sex was fine. I thought I was 98% recovered but I now realize it’s still there and it comes back if I take pro-androgen supplements. If I don’t, it’s lurking bellow the surface without any serious effects on my life. I can’t take androgenic supplements like my non-PFS friends without having some PFS symptoms coming back (but never as bad as my initial crash).
I documented my whole journey on this forum. I think this post will put into context what “recovery” looks like for me.
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Glad to hear you were able to cut the benzodiazepines further, seems like you’re still making progress after all these years. Congrats on what you’ve accomplished.
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Thanks Henchman !
I’m still pushing on my AR while taking breaks in between to recover from high androgen. Each time I do I get sicker and then, when androgen eventually go down to normal levels, all symptoms have further decreased compared to before. You can call that a sick way to try and recover.
I just got my DHT results. It’s slightly above average for a young man 18-30yo but 50% above average and slightly above maximum range for a man 50-65yo (I’m 57yo). It’s what I had 7 years ago when I crashed, so no change in DHT but a big difference on how I can tolerate it.
DHT was lower when my T was at 1209 two years ago and I didn’t crash as bad then as I just did. An AI query tells me it shows I now have robust 5ar activity with high T conversion. Can we trust AIs yet ?
SHBG is high whenever androgen are high unless I lower it with Boron. I documented 5 months of testing SHBG each month with various doses of boron and in my case lower levels of SHBG seems to relate to higher doses of Boron, resulting in higher free T. 8mg of Boron is my highest tolerable dose. More than that and I eventually can’t stand it.
Anyway, I stopped Butea Superba a month ago and as my androgen are going down to more normal levels my sex drive is going up and so is sensitivity and depth of felt orgasm. Having raised my androgen multiple times in the last 3 years, it’s been my experience that the higher my androgen, the more symptoms I get (particularly sexual ones). It seems to show that too much androgen shuts down my response to it. When androgen go down, so do the symptoms. Each push against my AR sensitivity seems to yield greater well being when androgen come down to more normal levels. It seem to support the theory of using androgen supplementation therapy to fight androgen deprivation therapy (fin). It’s anecdotal of course and I do get sicker before getting better. It could also just be time passing by. I wish I had the tools to properly measure the differences.
I will stop fooling around with pro-androgen substances when I have normal sleep without benzos as well as a normal sexuality. I’m almost there.
I’ll keep documenting my journey. Who knows ? It might be useful.
I always said there was hope and I still believe so. Don’t give up guys !