Still in a holding pattern for the moment, just slow improvements a little at a time. Either way, going to put my mind at ease and focus on other things at the moment. I’ll revise this post if I’m still having problems by the end of 3 months off. Best of luck and good wishes to all of you!
Just figured I’d update with some blood tests - feeling much better in the last few weeks. Still not close to 100% though, hoping for continued recovery.
Bloods 3/11/16:
Total T: 409 ng/dl (348-1197)
Free T: 11.2 pg/ml (9.3-26.5)
Cortisol: 25.3 (Out of range high, 25 is the high end)
Prolactin: 7.8
Bloods 3/31/16:
Total T: 463 ng/dl (348-1197)
Free T: 12.8 ng/dl (9.3-26.5)
Estradiol: 14.5 pg/ml (7.6-42.6)
DHEA-S: 365.1 ug/dl (14.3-530.5)
I’m hoping these increased T levels in the last few weeks correspond with me feeling better, with obviously still a bit of a ways to go, but I’m hopeful. Anyone have any advice on these bloods?
If you have not started VitD3 already, start it please.
Stop all kinds of Gluten. I am sure if you follow this then you can have easy life.
This is secret of my recovery.
I’ve been doing a pretty solid diet - probably gonna go full paleo soon. I am taking Vitamin D3, up to 4000 IU depending on the day (it’s been pretty sunny here lately and I try to get out when it is). Thanks for the advice! My mental sides are really starting to die down, just waiting on the sexual ones to come around (and they seem to have a little bit today…random erection, and that made me happier than it should have haha). How are you doing now?
free t is pretty low for a young guy… Hope it keeps going up.
Yeah - that was supposed to be pg/mL instead of ng…but yeah I’m hoping it still keeps going up. Like I said I’ve been feeling substantially better over the last week-week and a half, and been kinda yo-yoing back and forth between good and bad days before that, so I’m hoping I’m beginning to stabilize. Sleep has gotten a lot better and I can pretty much exercise again to my full extent, so I’m sure that’s helping. I’ll probably get another round of bloods in a few weeks.
Bloods 4/14:
LH: 3.7 mIU/mL (1.7-8.6)
FSH: 11.4 mIU/mL (1.5-12.4)
SHBG: 25.3 nmol/L (16.5-55.9)
LH and FSH were a lot higher than I expected them to be given how I feel, so I’m gonna take that as a win…is FSH too high possibly?
I don’t know much about SHBG personally, but I’m guessing that I’m in the lower part of the is good?
Awaiting a Test/Est/DHEA test result coming up too. Doc has me on strict blood testing schedules to be sure things are still trending it right direction.
Thanks again for any inputs you guys have, you know it better than I do!
It is still early days for you. Just keep healthy and keep waiting.
It seems only a small percent of people get in trouble on Saw P. Why do you think it hit you? Have you had any other health problems in your life? Do any family members have physical or mental health problems?
Thanks for the reassurance man, I’ve honestly felt the best I’ve felt so far the last few days (sexual sides are still kinda rough but everything else is doing well). Who knows how long this will last because I’ve been in a zig zag up and down pattern this whole experience. But each time I’m back up seems to be better than before, and the lows are not near as low. Finally seem to be putting on muscle mass again from working out. Still seem to not sweat near as much as I used to though.
Outside of athletic injuries, and gastro problems from a bad gallbladder (had it removed), I’ve had s very healthy life. My family really has no health problems that run in the family, outside of high blood pressure and anxiety on one side of the family. I’ve never had really bad anxiety until this episode, and even that has seemed to come back to normal lately.
To answer your question, I’m not really sure why Saw P hit me…low T/hypogonadism is almost unheard of in my family after talking to my dad about this situation, and he’s taken Saw P since his early 40’s with no problem what so ever (he’s 65 now). So I’m not real sure why I would get hit so hard by it. I was still on it when I had my gallbladder surgery so I don’t know if that caused any interaction problems? I wouldn’t think so though, but who knows. I definitely didn’t expect to have high range FSH and normal LH, because my symptoms almost mimicked Terp03’s (eye floaters, were the only two Saw P stories with that, that I’ve found) for awhile, but I’ve made a lot more progress on my symptoms than he seemed to, so I’m hoping that is good news. Plus I know he had pre existing low T from long term Paxil use, which I didn’t…outside of that our initial symptoms after quitting are pretty much the same.
Sounds you are heading in the right direction.
I think so too - I still have a little ways to go, but trending in the right direction has to be a good sign.
Got my bloods back, T and Free T were essentially the same, maybe raised 20 ng/dl and 1.5 pg/ml respectively. Only one that stood out to me this time was DHT.
DHT: 30 ng/dL (Range: 30-85 ng/dL)
So essentially I’m still right on the bottom of the range of DHT. Could be why I’m still feeling a bit off.
your free T is pretty low so I guess low DHT is normal considering.
Doc ordered LH and FSH again to confirm values:
LH: 5.9 mIU/mL (1.7-8.6)
FSH: 11.9 mIU/mL (1.5-12.4)
Obviously I’m thrilled that LH went up but FSH went up a bit and is high range. Feeling better though, so that’s all I have to report.
Thought I owed it to this board to put a close to my topic on here. Although I may not agree with a lot of people’s thinking on this board, it did a lot for me when I was at my worst, and showed me what was causing my problem when I had no idea what was going on and the medical system as I know it failed me. When I found this board originally, I found it and there were a few cases of saw palmetto sufferers…very few who had made full recoveries, or if there were some who were liveable again, it took years. I came back to post this to make sure anyone who was in my spot 16 months ago can see my story as a glimmer of hope. It’s all over…
…I’m healed.
My log of everything I did is on Swole Source - same username, under the title “My journey to the promised land”. I’ll do my best to answer PMs on here, I’m back to being fairly busy in both my personal and my professional life.
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Thanks for the update. I read though your thread and it seems you did many treatments.
Could you tell us which treatments helped you the most?
Just sticking to a recovery protocol for the amount of time I have, really. I cycled herbs and ate paleo with carb backloading ala Cdnuts, and used the DHT prohormone cycles too. 4 cycles up until now. Also used 5a-DHP as well as from time to time, and one cycle I used 4-DHEA (Super 4 Andro Rx from Iron Mag Labs). I think just finding something that works for you in some capacity and sticking with it is the key to this. Holistic healing, reducing stress, moving on with life…those kind of things. I know that’s not much help from a treatment capacity, but yeah…that’s really what I did.
Hey PVDL,
Another story about recovery via homebrew to perk up your lousy day twiddling thumbs and waiting for that next big scientific breakthrough.
Regards,
Bizzbee
He’s cured
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