Question about boosting testosterone

[sdavids5670]

I've got a health issue that I'm sure is not new to this forum so I'm hoping that I can get some useful advice / guidance. First I'll give some background. I recently had an annual physical and, on a hunch, I asked my Dr. to order a testosterone test on my blood sample. It came back at 365 ng / dL. The blood was drawn in the morning 3 hours after I woke up. I should mention that I'm a 37 year old male. So naturally, 365 is just a number to me. Although I did notice that it was in the bottom 20% of the normal range listed on the test result sheet (241 to 860). I've since done quite a bit of searching on the web and most of the discussions / articles / research findings, etc, regard 300 ng as the low end of normal. So that would put me at about the bottom 10% of the normal range. The reason why I asked my Dr to order the test to begin with is that I've experience several symptoms of low testosterone. If I were to rate symptoms from 1 to 10, (1 = does not apply to me and 10 = absolutely applies to me), I'd say that there are at least 4 symptoms that score 8 or higher. For example, in the last 3 years I've lost about 18 lbs of lean weight. While life changes have reduced the amount of weightlifting I've done, I've never had that kind of loss of lean weight in that compressed a timeframe (given that I still lift 3 to 4 days per week). More telling is the fact that I find it much harder than it used to be to put lean weight back on. And my strength is down about 30% across the board in all areas in the same timeframe. And I find the strength difficult to get back as well. I've also experience depression, extremely low libido (almost non-existent), difficulty maintaining an erection during intercourse, loss of endurance (running, biking, etc), and I've become quite a bit more passive in the last year or so.

According to several citations I've seen on the Internet, a male with a level below 300 should consider hormone replacement therapy and a male between 300 and 400, WITH SYMPTOMS, should consider hormone replacement therapy. I fall squarely into the 2nd group.

So here are my questions. Should I go down the hormone replacement therapy route? From what I've read, it's a pretty safe bet in males and the upsides outweight the side effects. Or should I try to boost my testosterone naturally first? And if I go the natural route, how long should I wait it out? 3 months? 6 months? At the end of the day, regardless of the route I take, what level should I shoot for to consider it a successful effort? 500 ng? 600 ng? Where should I be at 37 years of age? Or should I base it entirely on how I feel? Since I have no earlier baselines, I have no idea where I used to be and how far I've dropped. The bottom line is that I don't feel like myself anymore and it's been that way for at least 12 to 18 months. I'm newly married and I recently became a father and right now I feel more like my wife's neutered cat than I feel like a human male and I owe it to myself, my wife, and my daughter to get back to normal so that I can be the husband, father, and man that I need to be in their lives.

[bbh90]

i would discuss different options with your doctor

and the fact is there is no natural test booster that is gonna bring you back to were you want to be

i would definetly consider HRT and do some research and see if its what you want to do

no guy should have to suffer from low test and HRT is a path a lot of men take i would put some serious consideration into it do the research weight out the posatives from the negatives and decide what you would like to do

[Amino89]

i would discuss different options with your doctor

and the fact is there is no natural test booster that is gonna bring you back to were you want to be

i would definetly consider HRT and do some research and see if its what you want to do

no guy should have to suffer from low test and HRT is a path a lot of men take i would put some serious consideration into it do the research weight out the posatives from the negatives and decide what you would like to do

x2 great advice!

[strength77]

I've got a health issue that I'm sure is not new to this forum so I'm hoping that I can get some useful advice / guidance. First I'll give some background. I recently had an annual physical and, on a hunch, I asked my Dr. to order a testosterone test on my blood sample. It came back at 365 ng / dL. The blood was drawn in the morning 3 hours after I woke up. I should mention that I'm a 37 year old male. So naturally, 365 is just a number to me. Although I did notice that it was in the bottom 20% of the normal range listed on the test result sheet (241 to 860). I've since done quite a bit of searching on the web and most of the discussions / articles / research findings, etc, regard 300 ng as the low end of normal. So that would put me at about the bottom 10% of the normal range. The reason why I asked my Dr to order the test to begin with is that I've experience several symptoms of low testosterone. If I were to rate symptoms from 1 to 10, (1 = does not apply to me and 10 = absolutely applies to me), I'd say that there are at least 4 symptoms that score 8 or higher. For example, in the last 3 years I've lost about 18 lbs of lean weight. While life changes have reduced the amount of weightlifting I've done, I've never had that kind of loss of lean weight in that compressed a timeframe (given that I still lift 3 to 4 days per week). More telling is the fact that I find it much harder than it used to be to put lean weight back on. And my strength is down about 30% across the board in all areas in the same timeframe. And I find the strength difficult to get back as well. I've also experience depression, extremely low libido (almost non-existent), difficulty maintaining an erection during intercourse, loss of endurance (running, biking, etc), and I've become quite a bit more passive in the last year or so.

According to several citations I've seen on the Internet, a male with a level below 300 should consider hormone replacement therapy and a male between 300 and 400, WITH SYMPTOMS, should consider hormone replacement therapy. I fall squarely into the 2nd group.

So here are my questions. Should I go down the hormone replacement therapy route? From what I've read, it's a pretty safe bet in males and the upsides outweight the side effects. Or should I try to boost my testosterone naturally first? And if I go the natural route, how long should I wait it out? 3 months? 6 months? At the end of the day, regardless of the route I take, what level should I shoot for to consider it a successful effort? 500 ng? 600 ng? Where should I be at 37 years of age? Or should I base it entirely on how I feel? Since I have no earlier baselines, I have no idea where I used to be and how far I've dropped. The bottom line is that I don't feel like myself anymore and it's been that way for at least 12 to 18 months. I'm newly married and I recently became a father and right now I feel more like my wife's neutered cat than I feel like a human male and I owe it to myself, my wife, and my daughter to get back to normal so that I can be the husband, father, and man that I need to be in their lives.

You need to go over the to HRT forum and ask this overthere. By the way 365 is low but that is not that bad. Your gonna need your LS/FSH levels checked as well as E2. Let me tell you what low test is. I went to my doc for low test symptoms. My total test was 119, and i am 27. I used AAS in my past so most certainly that is the reason why my hpta is fried. You need to tell the doctor what YOU WANT. Your levels are more than likely in range but you need to tell him you feel like crap, no libido, can't focus at work. You need to insist he treat you. You are the patient, don't let him tell you that its normal with age, or that you don't need treatment, DEMAND IT. When my levels came back so low, my doc suggested testim gel. I said noway jose, i want straight shots if i have to do this **** the rest of my life. I also told him i want to do it myself at home..... He did not have a problem because he knows about my past experience with needles in regards to AAS use. Maybe i am just blessed with a doctor who was willing to treat me aggressively but this is my body and my health. I am willing to put up with a lot of bull**** in that office. But when it comes down to me being diagnosed with a relatively serious condition, i am going to educate the hell outa myself and am going to demand the treatment i believe is healthy and appropriate for me. Of coarse i am not going to walk in there and tell them my test levels need to be above 2000, but one thing i have learned is that you almost have to exagerate the symptoms. It took me 3 or 4 office visits for him to finally scribe me arimidex for some gyno problems, which is another story, that eventually lead me to find out my test levels were so low. Finally after my 3rd visit to the doc and being given another different script for "inflamation of my mammary gland" I said, "This stuff is not working i Need the arimidex we talked about".. You know what? I turned around and had my script in 10 minutes.

[strength77]

you need to talk to zonadave, jeff3kids or pmgammer