TRT on CBS this morning

[bullshark99]

Trending on Yahoo Homepage #10 is TRT. 5 minute video, pretty basic but interesting. Most interesting is the Dr never says "what" Low T is????? Specifically what number? Insists not for people with normal T (Duh) but never indicates where his threshold is.

[Times Roman]

it's called being non commital, an excellent way to avoid accountability

[JohnnyVegas]

He probably also knows that 99% of viewers/readers will lose interest as soon as it gets to technical. Better to keep it understandable and achievable. Plus it is marketing...like the line in drug commercials that say, "ask your doctor about, blah, blah." I assume he wants you to go to a doctor for specifics.

[ecdysone]

The most laughable part was when he said he could tell a man's test level just by looking at him!

Damn, and I been spending all that money on lab tests.

[APIs]

I thought it was good. Anything that puts a positive spin on TRT is appreciated IMO. Especially due to all the other asshats out there bashing it. I think he's correct in that you can usually spot someone who's a likely candidate for this treatment. Did you notice however the nice spin he threw out for the Gel being the major treatment used? No doubt his Abbott Pharma rep will throw the Doc a nice Hawaiian vacation for that remark lol...

[HRTstudent]

Well, the truth is there is no cut and dry number for low T!

Many men operate just fine at 400 T levels, some are dismal at that number. And vice versa for high numbers.

If you tell people that, say, 350, 450, or 550 is Low T then many people will buy into it and believe they need treatment when they really were just fine without it.

[ecdysone]

Well, the truth is there is no cut and dry number for low T!

Actually, you bring up a fascinating point: what would be a reasonable consensus number for low T? Sure, everyone's different, but that's the same for, I dare say, ANY medication.

For certain, 250 would have near universal agreement that it's too low.

Most TRT doc's seem to like a trough level of 500-700.

However, a few, very rare guys, are OK at 400, others can get through a productive life at 300-400.

Epidemiological studies are all over the place, but it seems most of them are good with levels >500.

If pressed, I would say low T is when your mid-day level is <500 and you feel several of the symptoms normally attributed to low test.

[kelkel]

However, a few, very rare guys, are OK at 400, others can get through a productive life at 300-400.

Don't know ecd. Are they ok at 400 or do they just not know any better and it's what they're used to. Agree with your last line that it has to be symptom related also.

[ecdysone]

Don't know ecd. Are they ok at 400 or do they just not know any better and it's what they're used to.

I'd have to find the thread (from yesterday?) where one of our members had a total test = 400, but a free test centering in the normal range due to low SHBG and probably other factors. So in this instance, free test is the predominating factor, no matter the total test - although I doubt if the total test could have been any lower.

I suppose the other thought is that long before we knew about TRT (like <20 years ago!), men lived productive lives even when they were old dudes. And IIRC, most of the epidemiological studies are with data from the mid-80's, so guys were going about their business with seemingly very low T values.

Maybe I'm a bit of a cynic concerning low testosterone symptoms, because when you think about it, at least half of them could easily be attributed to other causes, some physiological like thyroid/adrenal abnormalities, but others could be psychological, due to depression and stress.

There is definitely some truth that TRT is the new "fountain of youth" and might be somewhat of a fad that will give way to the next "great thing"-- such as gene manipulation.

[keep fightin]

^^^ good point ecdysone, I believe T repla***ent might be the " blunt force object" like the first Terminator! with gene manipulation more like the T 2000, more elegant and even higher up than T in the hormonal cascade