Intro - for hubby - HELP!!

[Guest guest]

Hi all!

I am new to this group and am posting for my husband. Its been a

while, but have posted with Phil before at real thyroid help.

Looks like his main problem is low testosterone, but he does have low

adrenals and its possible the thyroid could use some help.

A brief history -

He is 35. First went to doc in June '07 with fatigue, muscle

weakness, low sex drive. Blood work results showed elevated EBV

antibodies.

Other results as follows:

Testosterone, Serum: 212 (241-287)

Testosterone, Free: 9.77 (5.0 - 21.0)

TSH: 2.545 (.35 - 5.5)

Free T3 : 3.2 (2.3-4.2)

Estrogens, Total: 248 (40 - 115)

Also, cholesterol was high as it usually is.

We had done an adrenal saliva test prior to this and his adrenals are

not good. Stage 5 I think. He is taking 25 mg. HC

Doc (an osteopath that I see) thought it might be his pituitary and he

had never seen testosterone that low in someone his age. Did more

bloodwork in July '07 to figure out what was going on. Phil had

advised us to check estradiol, but this doc didn't want to.

Testosterone, Serum: 255 (241-827)

Testosterone, Free: 9.64 (5.0 - 21.0)

LH: 4.2 (1.5-9.3)

FSH: 5.9 (1.4-18.1)

Prolactin, Serum: 55 (22-322)

Doc still baffled and sends him onto an endo. Appt. not til Oct. '07.

In the interim I did have him try DIM for a month even though we

hadn't checked estradiol. There was no difference.

Results of Oct. bloodwork:

Testosterone, Serum: 376 (241-927)

Testosterone, Free: 10.1 (8.7-25.1)

LH: 2.4 (1.5-9.3)

FSH: 3.8 (1.4-18.1)

So, the endo says its not his pituitary and that now technically his T

is in range, but says he can go on testosterone if he wants. He says

yes and has been using the gel for the past couple of months. Felt

pretty good for maybe a week and then not as good, but still not as

much weakness.

Just saw endo yesterday and recent labs show his serum testosterone to

be down to 206. lowest its been the whole time. Don't know what the

free was here. Also, the endo was very concerned because his blood

was lipemic and full of cholesterol (even though they didn't check

cholesterol). He wants him to go on statins which I am less than

thrilled about.

Said T was lower because he had gone on meds and pituitary is shutting

down his own bodies production. He has increased his dose of the gel.

I know a ton about thyroid/adrenals, but I am lost when it comes to

testosterone. We really need some guidance.

Would the lower T cause his blood to be lipemic and as it gets

straightened out that will improve? He really eats a pretty good diet

- not no carb, but lower carb.

Is increasing the gel the right thing to do? How do we know if this

is or isn't a pituitary problem? I don't really trust the endo on this.

Do we really need to have the estradiol checked still? We'll do it on

our own if necessary.

Thanks so much!

Trish