orion

So let me get this straight. You went to your doctor, complained of no libido, no energy, depression, muscle weakness and they did a testosterone test which showed you have low normal testosterone and your doctor said, "you are normal." Well that doctor is an idiot and you should fire him immediately. Low testosterone at your age in the face of symptoms is a warning bell. I would document your visit to him and if nothing else you will be able to sue him later for malpractice.

You mentioned your LH test, that is a very important one because if it is low as well, in the face of low testosterone, you know something major is wrong.

While you are waiting go to the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists web site and get their guidelines for hypogonadism. It outlies what all the tests mean and how to use them. Armed with that information you can approach another doctor. It won't be easy though, because doctors are afraid of testosterone, simply because it's an illegal substance.

I was testosterone deficient and I also had lots of body hair so that isn't a good diagnostic sign. It takes years for the body hair to reduce and for your genitalia to shrink, the same with muscle mass. But if you continue with low testosterone those things will happen. The fact you have lots of body hair tells me that your normal testosterone was probably pretty high, well over 600.

You mentioned the doctors worry about "the harm testosterone can do", but was the doctor also worried about the harm low testosterone can do, including early aggressive prostate cancer, heart disease, diabetes, muscle loss, not to mention your self esteem, and infertility. Oh but then, why would you worry about that (sarcasm)!

The fact you already have a thyroid problem, makes me suspicious about your other hormones. You should also have blood tests for prolactin, cortisol, IGF-1, FSH and probably a fertility test.

The most important thing to do is to find out why your testosterone is low. The LH test will help there. If LH is low, then you know you have a pituitary problem, if your LH is high, then you know you have primary testicle failure. Once you know the source you can try some treatments.

If you take testosterone then for sure you will experience some shrinkage of your testicles and you will become infertile. It might be possible to regain your fertility later by taking a product like Profasi but it is very expensive ($60/wk). I was able to do that. It is true once you start testosterone treatment it will be for life. But if you really are deficient then you will have no choice anyway because the deficiency will continue to get worse over time.


Oh yeah, the reason your free testosterone is still within the normal range is because your SHBG is so low (normal in young males). Normally SHBG binds testosterone so it isn't available in the blood. Being so low, it is allowing way more testosterone into the blood than normal, that's presently keeping your beard going. SHBG responds to the conversion of testosterone into estrogen. And it's the lack of estrogen that is causing your libido to be low. So you should also have a test for Estradiol the male form of estrogen. My guess is, it will be very low also.


[This message has been edited by orion (edited 08-02-2003).]