I am 29 years old, never smoked and rarely drink. I have always had a normal sex life until about a year and a half ago. Around that time I noticed that had difficulty achieving and maintaining an erection. Things have gotten progressively worse until now I have almost no sex drive at all. This has all happened in the span of little more then a year!

I have gone to many doctors but I have not found any so far that seem very concerned with helping me. Most recently I saw an endocrinologist and I had a bunch of tests ran. The results of them were....

Normal CBC and blood chemistrys (CMP)

My values Normal Male Values

Estradiol (43 pg/mL) (<20-77)
FSH (4.8) (1-8)
Prolactin (7.38ng/mL) (3.28-19.68)
Lutenizing hormone (5.2 mIU/mL) (0.8-7.6)
Testosterone, serum (343 ng/dL) (241-827)
Testosterone, free (13.17 ng/dL) (5.0-21.0)
% free testosterone (3.84%) (1.5-4.2)

I also had a tesicular sonogram that showed that my testicles were slightly below average in size, i have a left testicular varicocele and a small epididimal cyst.

Although my testicle size is shown to be below average now i can promise you that it wasnt always the case. Over the last year I have watched as my testicles shrank, my semen quality decreased, my libido has dropped to almost nothing and it is almost impossible for me to hold an erection. I obviously have low testosterone for my age but my endocrinologist did not seem concerned at all with these results. I had my testosterone checked a year ago and my testosterone was around 500 and i was beginning to have problems even then though nothing like I am now. I am not taking any testosterone replacement at the moment because I am scared it will affect my ability to have children someday. Besides i want to treat the problem more then the symptoms. I am sorry this was so long but I dont know what my next step should be. Maybe my varicocele is causing the shrinking testicles?

i cant give you a answer but i have been dealing with the same thing.my T is lower than your's 211.i am 31 and started to have the same thing happen to me.i did not noice's the shrinking ontill i started to use androgel.i have preety much lost all sex drive.bumed to hear about your endo.i am hopeing to see a endo and have been hopeing that thay could help me.Dont know if thay gave you all of the test that i listed in the post on this page.if thay gave you more tests than you had posted? if you did not mind posting them that would be great and if you did not mind looking at the post that i posted on the tests that i hope to get.the post is hyponadism what now.i think that i have a cyst to.i wonder if that can be fixed and if that could fix the problem?421

The varicocele can cause that particular testicle to not function up to par. But at the same time I would expect your LH to be higher if that were the case so the other testicle would make up the difference. Since your LH is mid range normal instead of high as it should be with your low T you seem to have secondary hypogonadism. The "normal" range for T is from about 225 to 1000 or so. Your doctor is apparently of the mindset that if you are in that range you are ok. This is wrong because you are experiencing all the symptoms of low T it sounds. For your age being mid 300's in total T is in fact too low and there are studies that show avg T level based on age.

I think the first step for you is going to be to get copies of all your records (at least the blood tests) and find a doctor who knows how to treat this. Unfortunately that can be hard to do and sometimes involves trial and error which is too slow. I can suggest 2 nationally recognized doctors but you would have to travel most likely and pay cash. I see one of them and I got sick of poor treatment and decided to pay the money and stop screwing around. If you want to find one on your insurance and/or local to you I would look for lists of anti-aging doctors in your area and see if any are on your insurance.

I believe my doctor would first try you on one week of clomid and test to see if your LH and T went up or not. Most likely the problem is in either your hypothalmus or pituitary, both in the brain. He would also test you for hypothyroidism, vit D deficiency, DHEAS and a few other things. You might also want check blood iron levels for hemochromatosis, and get an MRI of the pituitary to rule out a pituitary adenoma.

I notice your estradiol is quite high considering you are not on any T replacement and your T is fairly low. This could be the problem for you. If so, clomid may help. Are you overweight by a lot? This can contribute to excess estrogens. You could try taking Indoplex with DIM by Phytopharmica and 30-50mg of zinc per day to see if it helps. This can help lower estrogen levels in men. The problem is the estrogen tricks the hypothalmus into thinking you have enough T when you don't. So it does not tell the pituitary to make enough LH.

You are smart not to try any T replacement until you figure this out. It can in fact make you infertile while you are on it and there is no guarantee of fertility to return once you stop.