Pretty much what i concluded from wikipedia. Flaxseed contains the highest amount of phytoestrogen, even higher than soy
1 Like
Almost forgot: avoid green tea!!
Thank you for the advice
1 Like
What hurt us was not beta-sisterol, but protodioscin. In our situation, substances that increase the sensitivity of the androgen receptor can be more harmful than all the foods you mentioned earlier, including flax and soybeans.
@awor @axolotl
3 Likes
Having said that, nobody with PFS should take tribulus terrestris! I’d support to lock any post who claims improvements with it.
3 Likes
So i just been to a private urologist professor. He said my balls ,prostate and penis is fine, that my testicular shrinkage accompained by pain every morning was just “psycic”.
After analyzing my blood work (low free T, high E2 and SHBG, yet normal Total T) he said i had a fine hardver, but needed the proper software with it (free T’s, lower E2). He also suggested aromatize inhibitor supplement if i wanted to accelerate my E2 decrease. (NEVER IN ATHOUSAND YEARS I TOUCH AI’s)
Back to the endocrinologist professor next week!
2 Likes
Heyy all,
Its been 3 months that I’ve crashed on tribulus to a more severe PFS sympthoms, and 4,5 months I had my crash on fin.
I wanted to give you an update how i am doing, what has changed for the better or worse since.
So here is what I had after tribulus crash:
- chronic fatigue
- penile and testicular shrinkage
- testicular pain
- no sex drive (my least worry)
- burning skin sensation
- hair loss / thinning
- body hair loss
- slowed and weaker beard growth
- horrible digestion (slow and bad stomach, almost never have stool)
- muscle wastage
- easy weight gain
- facial swelling, puffiness
- dry skin on hands palm
- tinnitus sensation
Now here is what has resolved, stayed the same or worsened:
- chronic fatigue (STAYED)
- depression (IMPROVED A LOT, CAN BE HAPPY SOMETIMES NOW)
- penile and testicular shrinkage (PENILE SIZE AND WEIGHT IMPROVED A LOT, HOWEVER TESTICULAR SIZE KEPT SMALLER)
- testicular pain (RESOLVED, REAPPEARS VERY RARELY NOW)
- no sex drive (IMPROVED, I GET DESIRE TIME TO TIME AGAIN)
- burning skin sensation (COMPLETELY RESOLVED)
- hair loss / thinning (STAYED THE SAME, TELOGEN EFFLUVIUM CAUSED BY CRASH DIET AND SEVERE STRESS ON PFS)
- dry hair (STAYED)
- body hair loss (SLOWED DOWN)
- slowed and weaker beard growth (IMPROVED TO ALMOST PRE-FIN)
- horrible digestion (slow and bad stomach, almost never have stool) (IMPROVED, THOUGH STILL GET STOMACH GROWLING SOMETIMES AFTER EATING)
- muscle wastage (STAYED THE SAME, YET I HAVENT GONE TO GYM SINCE FEBRUARYY DUE TO CORONAVIRUS)
- easy weight gain (I CONTROL MY WEIGHT FINE WITH KETO DIET)
- facial swelling, puffiness (GONE, BACK TO LEAN, MASCULIN FACE NOW)
- dry skin on hands palm (IMPROVED)
- tinnitus sensation (GONE, RETURNS VERY FEW TIME)
So as you see, fortunately I made a a lot of improvements within 3 months.
Energy:
My major concern keeps to be chronic fatigue. At latest from the early afternoons I get very sleepy every day, no matter what i’ve done the day before or how much I’ve slept, its just not the energy I had pre-fin. Having said that, with my low energy I have much less motivation or joy to do things.
Muscles:
Feels weaker, and despite doing cardio like 3x a week, I dont really feel muscle gain in legs. I have general muscle mass loss since my fin crash, but i also ceased going to gym due to covid since January. If I see my estrogens decline to normal, I’ll start to raise my carbs intake and with it I will return to weight lifting again.
Sexual sides:
As of the improvements though, my imrpovements of my sexual sides give me the most hope. My penile tissue and weight just seems much nicer since a month or so, not dry and flaccid anymore. My testicles kept being lost in size, but i noticed, they shrink severely before stools. Now I want to ask if anyone has it similar? But fortunately they regain their natural hanging position after, so it doesnt bother me. The biggest jackpot is, that i have sexual desire sometimes, and can get like a 60% spontaneous erection compared to pre-fin.
Digestion:
I believe my digestion improved compared to the weeks after my tribulus crash. Meaning I have regular healthy stools, and no unecessary fat deposition, no bloating after meals. Yet I cant really tell how efficient my fat burning is, because I’m on keto diet since the crash, and i can only tell it is efficient when I return to a carb unrestricted diet.
Hair:
I lost tonnes of scalp hair all over (telogen effluvium), as well as have less dense eyebrows and pubic hair now. Yet I dont worry about it anymore cause I’m sure its reversible, since I suspect the
- crash diet I made (sudden keto diet with very low daily calorie intake)
- 10 kg (I was 80 kg) muscle and general weight loss within 1 month,
- severe mental stress on the fin and trib crash
- sudden hormonal changes (high e2, low free T’s)
which my body went through. I also got very dry and brittle hair since crash. But since these seems to have stabilized by now, they might regrow within 6-12 months. My beard already kicked back to pre-fin level, which tells me my DHT functions again normally, along my improved sexual sides this may indicate it as well.
Skin:
My skin issue was visible on 2 places so far on my body: At my hand’s palms, and my penile tissue. Now penile tissues dryness has been totally gone, (while its weight increased too) and I would say my hands palms also improved like 50%, got back more moisture. So again more tissues, where I can feel DHT is restarting to work again. My hands btw tend to become dryer towards the evenings, giving me a sensation if my hands were dirty, I can see the wrinkles a little bit white, but on the next morning they always fully healthy again. So I wonder if its also caused by tonnes of hand washings due to covid.
I’ve changed a lot compared to myself in January, I became from a muscular, long dark haired energetic youthful looking stud to a skinny, short unhealthy haired, and weak looking aging guy. But having said all of my improvements i would summerize like I found hope that I’m improving from this nightmare. Especially my sexual sides improvements gave me hope, that also energy and other sides could improve by the time too. If you like to ask me what have I done that I’ve made so great improvements, I would say I dont know if any of my practices helped, but I’ve done the followings:
- keto diet (only with meat and cruciferous veggies)
- regular cardio excersize (30min at most / day) on empty stomach
- intermittent fasting (14-18 hours fasting every day)
- avoiding PFS forum for most of time (only looked for nutritions what to eat, or not to eat, because peoples symptoms complaints made me often depressed and started myself to have their symptoms as a placebo like tinnitus or skin burning sensation)
- trust I gained in my body after I’ve seen sexual sides improvement
- joy that my brain fully functions (no brain fog, only lack of motivation to do things and chronic fatigue)
- supplements: i take only 1 multivit pill every day withount Zinc, 1 probiotics every day, 2 digestive enzyme supps woth every meal, zero carb protein shake after cardio. I also eat half bar of dark chocolate every day, for minimal amount of resveratrol.
Note: I followed many diet and lifestyle suggestions from @Ozeph
I had my last blood results on May 8th, see my post above in this story. I will take my next on June 26th, I will let all of you know if improved physical and mental state is reflected in anyways in my blood picture.
1 Like
Hey my merck-hater mates! I have my blood test results:
TSH 1,780 (0,550 - 4,780)
FT4 17,12 pmol/l (11,50 - 22,7)
FT3 4,25 pmol/L (3,50 - 6,50)
FSH 6,8 IU/L (1,4 - 18,1)
LH 3,9 IU/L (1,5 - 9,3) lowish
Estrogen 99,4 pmol/l (0,0 - 146,1)
Progeszteron 1,20 nmol/l (0,89 - 3,88)
Testosterone 20,660 nmol/l (5,720 - 26,140)
Free Testosterone 1,30% (1,53 - 2,88) LOW
Free Testosterone concentration 0,269 nmol/l (0,198 - 0,619)
Bioative testosterone conc. 7,290 nmol/l (4,360 - 14,300)
Bioactive testosterone % 35,3% (35,0 - 66,3) LOW
SHBG 54,3 nmol/l (17,3 - 65,8)
DHEA-S 8,07 umol/l (0,94 - 15,44)
Cortisol 470,6 nmol/L (118.6 - 618.0)
Vit D 56,7 nmol/l
I’ve done further tests on red and white blood cells too.
Red blood cells 4,3 T/L - 4,5 5,9 LOW
White blood cells 5,6 G/L - 4,4 11,3
So its a big relieve! I have progress on almost every value, especially by raising T and lowering estrogens. I was supplementing iron, so i managed to raise my blood count. I managed to balance my hormones resulting a better T/E2 ratio. Still, my free T’s are low, yet i managed to raised it, by lowering SHBG. Cortisol levels also lower which reflect my mental progress (posted above) as well,less depression, no stress.
I’m thankful for your thoughts on my blood results, what should i do to progress further, especially how to raise my free T’s. Thanks!
I took a crap brand of tribulus as well, took one pill and it gave me nut pain and then at night I had severe depression/emptiness like I’ve never felt before. Emailed the manufacturer and they confirmed it almost certainly had beta-sitosterol.
Edit: Saponins don’t matter, it’s about the protodioscin content and filtering out the beta-sitisterol and all other estrogenic compounds.
2 Likes