Let me say thanks to whoever put this forum up. And to those of you who have 'been there, done that'.
First off, I am 41 and 5'10" @260lbs. So I know I am overweight. I wasn't always like this, but as time has gone by I have gotten worse.
A year ago I maxxed out at 310lbs and decided that something had to change. At any rate I have been working at dropping the weight, but it is a slow go. It seems that no matter what I do in the gym I can't make any progress.
For the past few years I have been low energy, loss of focus, low libido, and crying at the drop off a hat.
I finally decided to go to the doctor about it and she immediately put me on antidepressants. I think that may have helped hide the facts, but ultimately I just couldn't function and started researching my symptoms myself. When I happened to find an article on hypogonadism and I had a lot of the symptoms, I asked her to do a TEST screen. Initially she didn't think that was my problem. And I just said, hey its a blood test and I'm paying for it, so let's do it to rule it out.
When my results came back she said I had 'somewhat' low TEST numbers, and that we could consider doing some TRT. So she started me on TESTIM. That has been a week ago tomorrow. I decided to drop by the Dr. office yesterday to get my blood test info and that is when I discovered that she didn't do a 'full' work up like you guys are saying.
Pretty much she did a Testosterone, Serum and a PSA screen.
My Number on that are:
Test Serum: 227 range: 241 - 827
PSA 0.8 range: 0.0 - 4.0
Now I know this isn't the whole picture, but I would think that 227 is below the 'normal' range. To me that doesn't signify 'somewhat' low. Also I see no tests on E2 or Free Test, etc.
She did do the Cholesterol and I am low on good, high on bad, high on ratio.
Ultimately I want 2 things out of this. #1 and most important, I want my sex drive back. And #2 and really close to #1, I want this crying shit to stop.
So I have been thinking of going to an endo and just getting her out of the loop. My question is, do you guys think I should do that or continue to try and work w/ my regular doc?
She has been pretty good up till now, but I really don't have the time or effort to educate myself and then educate her. I was hoping that I could 'shop around' for a doc that deals with this on a more regular basis. Unfortunately I don't know any good docs in the Tennessee area. I know I saw a link on some thread that had a list of doctors by state, but I can't find that now. And if any one is in Middle TN and know of someone that is knowledgeable, please help a brother out.
Thanks!