I was curious what were your symptoms when first diagnosed with low Testosterone?

Loss of Sex Drive
Decreased strength of erection
Brain Fog (cannot concentrate thoughts clearly)
Became more edgy, nervous
Excess fatigue, tougher to get out of bed in morning
Decreased sense of self worth, depressed

loss of sex drive
loss of morning erections
hormone caused ED
brain fog
memory loss
irritability, especially with my wife

Erectile Dysfunction
Low libido
Fatigue
Depression
Mood swings
Insomia

brain fog
memory loss
irritability
depression
mod swings
dizzness
anxeity attacks
cold/hot flashes

I think the number one symptom would be irritability (grumpy old man syndrome) and possibly self social isolation. You may have the other above listed symptoms to a more or less degree. For instance you may have fine sexual performance and even reasonable libido while your testosterone slowly falls over many months or even years. The symptoms may be intermittant with some days or weeks being great and other pretty marginal.

I would add: muscle loss (eg: pants slide over your calf muscle easily when they didn't before), muscle weakness (eg: can't open the pickle jar anymore) and joint pain (eg: knee pain walking up stairs that you didn't have before).

I readily concur with all the previously listed symptoms...all too familiar.
But I want to add a couple more that I have: unrefreshing sleep and
no stamina for any but minimal exercise even though I know I need to
exercise and no zest for the future.

I was curious what were your symptoms when first diagnosed with low Testosterone?

fatigue
loss of erections
no libido
hard to think
grumpy
depression
loss of muscle mass and a lot of fat gain

ALL of the above!

About 6 or 8 months ago I noticed the following:

Mild ED
slight loss of libido
depressed over things that haven't bothered me for many years
grip weakness - can't open jars of food very well
grumpy
hard to think
sleep not restful - tired in morning
don't care as much as I should about life
wish I had done many things differently throughout my life

I started taking DHEA about 4 months ago and it helped some. I switched to sublingual liquid DHEA about a month ago and things got better. My annual physical was 3 weeks ago and my doc tested me for T and DHEA-S. We were on vacation for 10 days and he called me during that time with the results. My DHEA-S was 450 (normal for man in 60s is 25-95) and my T was 304. He told me to stop the DHEA and start on Androgel 5gm when I got home. Three days after stopping the DHEA I got really depressed and gave him some info on DHEA (keeping the level at that of a 25 year old). He told me to start the DHEA back up, which I did yesterday. I start the Androgel tomorrow if the drugstore gets it in today as they are supposed to.

I wonder how low my T really is since stopping the DHEA. DHEA isn't supposed to raise it much, but it is obviously lower than 304 when off the DHEA. Since stopping the DHEA, my libido has really gone down. My wife was getting passionate last night and I just wanted to tell her to leave me alone. She finally got me going though. In 29 years, I have never given her a chance to initiate sex and last night I was irritated by her fondling me for the first 10 minutes or so. It isn't fun.

I started taking DHEA about 4 months ago and it helped some. I switched to sublingual liquid DHEA about a month ago and things got better.

WHYTRY and LAVOV929: You both some symptoms that are often associated with other hormone problems beyond testosterone. Have you had your thyroid and prolactin levels checked? Low thyroid is associated with weight gain and depression. Elevated prolactin is associated with low libido/performance as well as other more serious problems..

DHEA is a must for older people but be careful not to take too much. At least in women, elevated DHEA is associated with ealier mortality. This has not been shown to be true in men, but the reasearch is mainly focussed on women so we don't know as much about men and DHEA. I think its reasonable to keep your DHEAS levels near that of a 20 year old, but not more. You might also want to have a test for SHBG and estradiol to be sure they are in the normal range. Elevated SHBG and low normal testosterone are associated with the fast binding of testosterone that you take for supplement.

Low testosterone is associated with prostate cancer. In fact, mainly castrated dogs are known to get prostate cancer compared to intact male dogs. If your testosterone has been low for some time then you should have annual prostate checks, including PSA and the digital test; especially taking DHEA and testosterone supplements.

Thanks for your comments and suggestions, Orion. I know your thoughts
were directed to whytry as well as myself. For myself, I have been taking
a thyroid supplement for a couple of years now as I knew then about the
symptoms of hypo-thyroidism. I was started on TRT by a doctor who also
boosted my T4 dosage last August. I have been having PSA/DRE test/exams
every six months for at least three years. Recurring prostatitis causes major
periodic fluctuations in my PSA results that is disconcerting. I plan to ask
for estradiol tests next time I see my new endochrinologist. My SHBG has repeatedly been mid-normal range since last year (three tests). Depending
on the outcome of FSH and LH tests results as well as cortisol and ACTH
tests I will follow up with prolactin test, as I am also considering adrenal
insufficiency. All the above is meant to let you know I agree with your
comments.
I must admit to ignorance about DHEA but will now try to acquire more
information about it. I am in the category of older people so I will look into
using it as an adjunct to all the rest of my supplementation.
Thanks.

Orion...Very good and interesting comments...

Question for all of you...Have any of you experienced phimosis as a symptom of Low T? If so, when did you start noticing it and how often did it occur?

as I am also considering adrenal
insufficiency. .

If you have adrenal insufficiency, [which specifically means that while your cortisol blood test are in the normal range your body doesn't have the ability to cause a significan peak cortisol output] then your DHEAS levels will be low because the same pituitary hormone that regulates cortisol also controls DHEA. There are many potential benefits of DHEA, the most important of which is control over part of your immune system. Anyone taking hydrocortisone as replacement will have low DHEAS levels.

Orion, I have been researching DHEA supplementation and have decided to
begin with it. I did read that in men it can raise estradiol and I was not
happy with that possibility, but all in all it seems a good choice.
Thanks for getting me interested in it. It seems to have more positive
effects on women than men from what I have read.

Has anyone noticed a loss of appetite, increase in headaches, and nausea with their low testosterone symptoms?

Has anyone noticed a loss of appetite, increase in headaches, and nausea with their low testosterone symptoms?

Those symptoms would not be common and are probably related to other hormone problems like low cortisol or elevated prolactin.

Interesting, I should be getting the prolactin test back any time now. I thought that might be the case, but I wanted to see how others were feeling.

Thanks!

If you have adrenal insufficiency, [which specifically means that while your cortisol blood test are in the normal range your body doesn't have the ability to cause a significan peak cortisol output] then your DHEAS levels will be low because the same pituitary hormone that regulates cortisol also controls DHEA. There are many potential benefits of DHEA, the most important of which is control over part of your immune system. Anyone taking hydrocortisone as replacement will have low DHEAS levels.

hmm.. I'm taking hydrocortisone and my endo has never even mentioned this DHEA. what is it?

headaches and nausea could be indicators of a tumor on the pit gland pressing on the brain and sinuses.

hmm.. I'm taking hydrocortisone and my endo has never even mentioned this DHEA. what is it?

DHEA (dehydro-epi-androsterone) is the most abundant hormone in a normal human body. It is produced at the same time as cortisol in the adrenal glands and is controlled by ATCH from the pituitary. DHEA decreases with age and it has been shown that in women low or high DHEA blood levels are statistically associated with increased mortality. DHEA can not be patented so very little research has been done or will be done about it.

DHEA can be converted into several other hormones including testosterone. Currently it is not known exactly what DHEA does on its own but it is believed to act to prevent some of the bad effects of cortisol. For example, cortisol acts to reduce immune function, while DHEA causes immune stimulation.

If you are taking hydrocortisone then your adrenals won't make cortisol or DHEA and you will be DHEA deficient. Since a normal human body has this hormone it only makes sense that you will want to take a supplement to restore normal function.