Mine were low then they climbed to within normal range over the course of 6 months after cessation. I didn’t improve at all. I gave it another few months before trying trt I became much worse within 48 hours
If someone is low in VitD he should start vit D. Telling someone not to take VitD who is deficient in Vit D is disastrous. what is the alternate to raise your vitD if you don’t take it and your body is not making?
I was not able to walk, hold solid object like hammer or screw driver. Even driving the car was difficult, because steering was feeling like made of iron. Opening doors using door knob was also a challenge for me. I was just confined to my house and crying all the time.It all improved within weeks or months after starting VitD3. When I read posts of idiots who advise against VitD, it makes me think they know nothing because maybe their symptoms are very mild. Vit D3 is not a cure but you have no choice if your muscles and bones are melting.
If you get worse after pouring mega doses of VitD3 then stop blaming VitD.
People can die after eating teaspoonful salts or by drinking gallons of water or by eating sugar in large quantity. Stop spreading fear. I have been in this mess for the last 11 years and I know what I am talking about. Without VitD I would be dead today. I can go to work today, I can go to jog today, I can go to shopping today, I can laugh again today, I can do everything today. You should accept like many other things your body is not making VitD now. There is no solution, you will have to take it, like you take food to live.
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Wow glad you found something to make you functional. I’m curious if you have tried going without Vitamin D since starting supplementing with it and if things got worse.
My symptoms are not as extreme as yours were. It’s mostly just the sexual symptoms that bother me at this point. Did you see any improvement in sexual sides with Vitamin D?
I have posted many times that my condition is dependent on Vit D level. If I stop taking VitD I slowly become worse and worse. Everything goes back to the level where I was before starting VitD. T level goes down, erections disappear, muscles go down, bone goes down, sleep goes down everything goes down. I start feeling pain everywhere in my body.
What dose and how often do you take it?
Try to be both civil and objective. Everyone here is suffering, and sadly has capacity for more suffering. You have an opportunity to present your view and experience in a way that is non confrontational and considerate, please try that.
The forum has a long history of people saying that they felt better after eating something and then someone saying that they tried eating a 10kg of it every day until they crashed.
Because of this its worth pointing out that many Internet experts will tell others exactly what they should or shouldn’t be doing. As I said in my post, other people aren’t reliable when it comes to handing out dosing advice.
@Demon attributes significant worsening of his condition to using high dose vitamin D. Other people have tried similar without ill effect. So while it may well be helpful to supplement, it’s not possible for you or I to say what a safe dose is for another person. By all means take views and opinions onboard, but be aware of the variability of results from the same substances and doses is the thing I hoped people would take away from my post.
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I’ll share my experience. I was in your situation with hypogonadal levels of T. I hopped on HCG for 3 months, let my body stabize did my best to change my lifestyle, reduce stress, focus on improving sleep. And once I got off HCG my testosterone slowly but surely came back, I’m now at 930ng/dl.
I think I’ve seen someone else who recovered from PFS using HCG for 6 months on the Ray Peat forum.
Hope you figure it out
the same ol debate
androgen supplementation massively helps some people with this, doesnt seem to help others. nobody knows why
those who it doesn’t help speculate that those who it did are “simply hypogonadal” and dont have pfs and try to underplay its potential to help people. Its confirmation bias in its purest form
In this case, this man has very low testosterone and my non-expert opinion would be that he would likely benefit from boosting it
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Yes but Demon’s dosing for vitamin D was absurd. I dont even know how can you get that amount of vit D at one time. Demon took 50.000IU. I think even every healthty person would have had negative reaction on that kind of amount. 2000-4000IU would be the dosing max.
My situation is nearly the same as OP has. So Im low on everything. Lowish/mid total testo, free testo, LH, DHT, Cortisol and very low E2 at around 10pg/ml but high SHBG! And actually now that I thought it, my SHBG has rised because of the low carb diet. And free testo is low also because of the low carbs? My estrogen has dropped little by little over these years (after letrozol crash), around 3 years of suffering done at the moment. I have an appointment in two weeks to start TRT or/and HCG. Now that you reported your situation with HCG I think i might consider about HCG alone. Or what do you think should I go TRT with HCG or HCG alone? Maybe in 1-2 months I have something to report on what effect this all have had.
Here’s the thread regarding HCG. If you do go down this route, just be careful not to overdose, my endo initially put me on like 4500 IU per week and my Estrogen was through the roof. You want to go low and slow, 250-500 IU 3x per week and adjust as needed. Good luck
Completely agree, everyones situation and circumstance is different, but we are all in this togther and need to do our best to lift eachother up and stay positive. Unfortunately, even though my androgens are back to the high end of the reference range, I am still dealing with zero libido, testicular atrophy, symptoms of low allopregnanlone (anxiety, wired, extremely low tolerance to stress and hypersensitivity to stimulation, etc). Although my progress and recovery is in a positive upward direction, I am very grateful for how far I have come. I have just started playing volleyball with my friends after 2 years of CFS and depression 
It does get better, its just very slow and takes time. Hang in there.
You can do that in a single tablet from a bottle that doesn’t need a prescription. It’s not stupid to tell people to be cautious and to look at what’s been advised, who is advising and what happened before.
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Actually you are right! I just checked and there are pills with 50.000IU available online, holy f…k! Here in Finland we only have 4000IU pills and thats a max…
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Finfina
clicks fingers ah!
Interesting. I wonder if someone like me would respond well to TRT considering my T is low and it’s mostly just the stubborn sexual sides that I’m suffering from. I’m hesitant though because I’d rather not commit for a lifetime and be dependent on it. Is the consensus that HcG should be tried first?
Most would probably agree that this is the safer approach.
I never advised anyone in any post to take 50,000 IU. If some one is doing that without his doctor’s advice then he is doing that on his own risk. If someone with normal dose of 4000 IU or 5000 IU does not feel well then he should see a doctor for further investigation instead of coming to the forum and spreading fear. I keep my dose 5000 to 6000 usually. Only sometimes when I feel bad (when my muscles and bones are hurting a lot or belly is too big) then I take 9000 or 10,000 IU but then go back to my routine dose of 5000 .
It is idiotic to advise someone not to take VitD if he is low in vitamin D especially after confirmation from his blood work.Everyone here with PFS is low in Vtiamin D. Without vitamin D there is no way to make your bones absorb calcium. With low vitmain D very soon BMD(bone mineral density) will go low. Hip bone will be first to fracture.
Good luck with your self diagnosis/treatment. I dont know how low vitaminD can be fixed without taking it orally.
Finally I am sure one day everyone here would acknowledge that VitD3 is the best treatment for PFS. Our body (liver) is not making VitD (maybe other steroids as well but we don’t know).
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Saw an endocrinologist and he wants more tests done but it sounds like if my T comes out low again he wants to put me on Clomid. I didn’t mention HcG yet but I wonder what anyone’s thoughts on that is. I’ve only briefly looked into people’s experience with Clomid.
Endo wanted 2 consecutive days of tests done between 8 and 9 AM because that’s when T is highest. Here are the two days of test results of the labs he wanted, over 2 months from last test, taken in the morning this time.
Total T (ng/dL): 843, 614 (300-1080)
% Free T(%): 1.9, 1.8 (1.6-2.9)
T Free(pg/mL): 161, 113 (47-244)
Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (nmol/L): 38, 37 (11-80)
And here are tests from November again, taken midday:
Total T: 272 ng/dL (280-800)
Estradiol: 18 pg/mL (14-60)
TSH: .99 mIU/mL (.27-3.5)
Vitamin D: 28 ng/mL (30-80)
FSH: 4.7 mIU/mL (1.4-18.1)
LH: 3.1 mIU/mL (1.5-9.3)
Prolactin: 10.3 ng/mL (2.1-18.0)
Since my Testosterone is in range in the morning I’m worried he is not going to treat me and I’ll be on my own. It’s disheartening to know that my T is in range, at least in the AM. I thought since I have all the symptoms for hypogonadism, low T was it and I could have a case to get on HcG. I might try seeing a urologist. If anyone has any suggestions or insight I’d love to hear.
Best