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Comment by quotz | Hacker News Reader

Had loads of brain fog for 2-3 years straight in college. Kept gradually getting worse, changed about 20 docs, nobody knew how to treat it and they thought I had mental health problems.

Then I took matters in my own hands, joined some forums and subreddits, turn out loads of people were like me. Literally thousands of people in online communities had undiagnosed Low Testosterone. Most docs are uneducated about this as they just look at the blood test lab results, and group everyone from age 20 to age 70 in the same category. Went to a mens health doc, gave me TRT, symptoms gone in a week. Literally saved my life and career, I almost dropped out of college. I put my dad on TRT too, and litterally I tell everyone about this. The Low T epidemic is a really serious issue!

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I was very tired all the time. Doctors took blood tests and found out I was low on testosterone, called in a specialist that looked at the same blood tests and said it was ok because I had enough free testosterone if I remember it correctly. Never did solve it. Any advice?

Of course, join r/testosterone read the info. Then, go do blood tests again. Total T has to be >600 ng/dl no matter ur age or what anyone says. If you dont want to bother diagnosing yourself, find a mens health doctor in your area on the subreddit. If you cant, then I can advise you further I will give you my contact. I am on it for 2 years already, I put my 60yo dad on it as well, I have a doc in NYC called Dr Rotman, I can give you his contact if you live nearby

Did you have blood work done to diagnose low T?

My understanding is that T levels can vary based on the time of day they're taken, so they likely need to be taken multiple times.

In any event, glad you arrived at a solution!

Yes of course, T is always measured in the mornings as thats when its peaking. Ive probably measured my T around 5-10 times before getting on TRT. Mind you I am in my 20s, everyone was shocked. Also, not only Total T but measured Prolactin, did a contrast brain MRI, SHBG, E2, Albumin, Free T, Thyroid profile, Calcium, and a bunch of other things probably.

This is helpful, thank you.

Was the contrast brain MRI to make sure you didn't have tumors that were subsequently impacting your hormone production?

Exactly, Low T / Hypogonadism can be caused by either primary (testicles not producing enough because of some idiopathic reason or injury or even mumps) or secondary reasons (pituitary gland which is located in the brain not releasing hormones that would in turn signal the testicles to produce T). When trying to figure out whether its primary or secondary one has to measure FSH and LH levels, low meaning brain doesnt produce enough, high meaning brain produces a lot but testicles dont work as good. Mine was average so that was kinda weird, you gotta measure LH and FSH multiple times to get the clear picture. Brain contrast MRI didnt show up anything. If there was a pituitary tumor, thats the easy part actually since around 3-5% of the population has it but it is super undiagnosed since a lot of people dont have any symptoms, its very benign. Basically you take this pill called cabergoline for a few months, boom tumor gone and your T will spike up again. But otherwise you would have to do TRT, and add HCG to it if you want to preserve your fertility. But you have to watch out and get a really good doc or two, and research yourself on the subreddit and ask questions. Recently my coffee habits skyrocketed which plummeted my SHBG which literally destroyed my T again even though I am on TRT. If I didnt educate myself enough on this matter I wouldve probably given up and thought it doesnt work. You gotta watch out of SHBG and E2 while on it. Once you get everything right literally its a gamechanger, I mean anything is achieveable not kidding. There was also a guest on Joe Rogans podcast that started a nonprofit after he had uncurable depression and he was on the verge of killing himself and some doc found out he had hypogonadism and within a month the depression was gone, and since then he staretd a nonprofit for it and saved around 200 lives that way. If there was a Testosterone ETF I will go long on that with all my money...

Just wanted to say thanks again for the thorough response!

Youre welcome! I am happy to help anyone on this issue!

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