Would love to get your feedback, I am LOST!

[vinnymanjari]

Hopefully this post isn't as long as I think it is going to be in my head, but here it goes:

I am a 23 year old male, 5'7 and 155 pounds and about 2 years ago I moved to Utah for graduate school from Los Angeles. You'll see why this is important after. I was feeling great when I first moved here when I was 21 years old, but over the last 2 years I have felt that something within me is beginning to change.

I spend a lot of time alone as I do not have many friends out here. I am a social butterfly and back in Los Angeles I would hang out with friends every single day and just have a good time. Other than the gym and a couple hikes here and there, I don't really do much outside of my apartment to be honest.

I've been smoking weed chronically since I was 19 years old up to about the beginning of March 2015 (2 months ago). Now I have cut it down to about once or twice a month. Please no one beat me on this because I have graduated from a highly prestigious university and am in graduate school so it has not ****ed up my physical life, but my mental health is a different issue. Honestly everything was really fine until that time in March where I decided to quit. For example, I would get boners almost instantaneously around women and many spontaneous erections during the day. I had a crazy libido, where sometimes I would jerk off up to 5 times a day. A horny mother ****er in general. My mood in general was very positive, like nothing can put me down. A bit narcissistic, to be honest.

I realized something was wrong when I was out a couple of times last month and my desire for women had really decreased. I had no intention of going up to them and putting in the effort to talk. 2 out of the many nights I ended up pulling 2 different woman home and I realized something was wrong when it took like over 30 minutes to even get a half ass erection. Wouldn't even last up to 5 minutes while in both of them and it would just spontaneously go away and never come back. I could see how I mentally screwed myself and let my body not get an erection.

I went to the doctor to get my yearly physical after all of this and while he was checking off stuff for the blood test, I'm like "hey man check my testosterone too for shits and giggles, i'm sure it's going to be fine, i'm just curious." Since I got my first results where my testosterone was low, everything started going down hill from there.

First Test: Taken at 8:00 AM

Testosterone,serum: 264 (348-1197 ng/dL)
Free Testosterone(Direct): 8.1 (9.3-26.5 pg/mL)

Cholesterol:
Cholesterol 143 (0-200 mg/dL)
Triglycerides 42 (0-150 mg/dL)
HDL, Cholesterol 46 (40-60 mg/dL)
LDL (calculated) 89 (0-160 mg/dL)

Thyroid:
TSH 0.784 (0.360-3.740 mIU/mL)

Also my CBC and CMP all came back in normal ranges.

I got extremely worried about the testosterone, so I went to doctor again to get it checked.

Second Test: Taken at 3:30 PM

Testosterone,serum: 251 (348-1197 ng/dL)
Free Testosterone(Direct): 8.0 (9.3-26.5 pg/mL)
Luteinizing Hormone: 4.08 (1.24-8.62 mIU/mL)
Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH): 12.40 (1.00-42.50 mIU/mL)
Vitamin D, 25-Hydroxy: 26.8 (30.0-100.0 ng/mL)

I see that my Vitamin D is low, but when I asked my doc how much this affected my testosterone he said not much at all because basically everyone in Utah is Vitamin D deficient, so if it were to lower it, it would not be this significant.

So my testosterone came back low the second time again, but the hormones from my pituitary gland were normal. After this test, the doctor offered me either Clomid, shots, or the gel. I told him that I still feel i'm too young (only 23) for any of these things, but sometimes my depression and anxiety gets really bad. I don't know if thats because of me stopping weed daily, i'm sure that is a big issue, but I did truly start feeling all these symptoms after I stopped daily use. As I said I still do it only once a week. I never really had any significant symptoms before. I have been having suicide ideation lately, and man that is totally not me! Since I am a very positive being and I have my head on my shoulders. Sometimes I am very good and at times my mood just switches so spontaneously its crazy. I get angry at everything and don't want to talk to anyone. I just want to be left alone.

It seems that I have primary hypogonadism, but I am so confused at what to do at this age! Just needs some words of wisdom.

Thank you for reading.

PS: I take Multivitamins (has 1000 IU Vit D and 25 mg Zinc), Fish Oil, Vitamin D (4000 IU), and this supplement called Testosterone Up which basically has a lot of zinc and other natural products.

[hawk14dl]

Your tsh is awful low. Makes me think there may be something going on with the thyroid. I'd suggest getting more labs run, I'm sorry i don't know which ones but someone will chime in soon. Thyroid can certainly effect testosterone .

[hawk14dl]

Also, have you experienced any severe head Or testicular trauma? I.e. concussions, etc.

[vinnymanjari]

No concussions or trauma.

[bigdil511]

When I was a young kid 13-20 I smoked weed chronically as well. All day everyday. When I turned 20 I quit cold turkey. I never thought to go to dr but my libido disappeared my metabolism died and I always thought that the chronic pot abuse had a lot to do with it. I'm 33 now with lots of unrelated health problems but hang in there man. I would suggest quitting altogether and get ur ass to a therapist to work on the suicidal thoughts. Good luck man if u need anything in here for you.

[dep30]

I wouldn't think pot would affect the test level although I've herd it can cause gyno... But it does stimulate the dopamin which is what makes u feel good when high... Sex also makes Ur body release dopamine... After years of abuse and a sudden stop Ur body comes to rely on the stimulation and this is why drug addicts of other recreational drugs face depression and why relapse is so common... They need the drug to feel normal again... I know weed isn't a hard drug but this could be the cause of some of Ur depression and it may have caused Ur test to be lowered as well.. but I doubt there's a lot of hard info on this subject

[kelkel]

I would investigate your thyroid further like Hawk suggested. Full BW is always step one, to include cortisol, prolactin and shbg as well. Hyperthyroid can effect shbg levels thus your T levels. A better thyroid panel could be something like: TSH, FT3, FT4, RT3, Antibodies.

If you've been supplementing Vit D for a while at the levels you've shown then you need to double it, asap. Also, I would not jump on any form of therapy just yet until you find the cause of your issue. Your LH levels are not bad and I agree with your doc that the problem is probably not secondary. So, if full BW reveals nothing else significant then you need to examine your testicals for possible issues. An ultrasound may be prudent.


Testosterone & Hyperthyroidism | LIVESTRONG.COM

Effects of chronic marijuana use on testosterone, luteinizing hormone, follicle stimulating hormone, prolactin and cortisol in men and women. - PubMed - NCBI

[vinnymanjari]

Was waiting for a response from you kelkel haha. I just called the doc to see if I can just come in for bloodwork and not pay for another full on visit. Hopefully he'll be cool with that. I'm going to get a full thyroid panel, cortisol, prolactin, and shbg.

And I only started the Vitamin D like 6 days before I took my second test (which included Vit D results) which was about 3 weeks ago, so it's only recent.

[kelkel]

Take a look at the BW in the Finding A Doc sticky at the top of this forum vinny. Ok on the Vit D. Nothing wrong with starting around 5K iu's per day then be sure to test it in the near future. It's a fat soluble (not water) vitamin so take it with a larger meal for best absorption.

Post up your next BW on this thread please.

And welcome to the forum.

[dep30]

I would investigate your thyroid further like Hawk suggested. Full BW is always step one, to include cortisol, prolactin and shbg as well. Hyperthyroid can effect shbg levels thus your T levels. A better thyroid panel could be something like: TSH, FT3, FT4, RT3, Antibodies.

If you've been supplementing Vit D for a while at the levels you've shown then you need to double it, asap. Also, I would not jump on any form of therapy just yet until you find the cause of your issue. Your LH levels are not bad and I agree with your doc that the problem is probably not secondary. So, if full BW reveals nothing else significant then you need to examine your testicals for possible issues. An ultrasound may be prudent.

Testosterone & Hyperthyroidism | LIVESTRONG.COM

Effects of chronic marijuana use on testosterone, luteinizing hormone, follicle stimulating hormone, prolactin and cortisol in men and women. - PubMed - NCBI

I stand corrected!!! Good find kelkel!

[vinnymanjari]

So I got my recent blood work back. I didn't test testosterone again cause if you read above you will see I had gotten it tested twice already, so I wanted to see what was causing it.

Test was taken at 8 AM:

Full thyroid panel came back normal.
Cortisol: 18.4 ug/dL (6.2-19.4) - Seems a little high.
Sex Hormone Binding Globulin: 16.5 nmol/L (16.5-55.9)
Prolactin: 25.1 ng/mL (4.0-15.2)

So my prolactin is elevated, I will be getting tested again in a couple weeks to check what is wrong. And if it comes back high again, will get an MRI of pituitary gland. Cortisol seems a bit high and SHBG is right at the borderline for being low.

What shall be my next step?

[kelkel]

Normal according to who? Post the numbers if you would.
Cortisol is up a bit. Add a gram of vitamin C to your protocol. Will help a little.
SHBG is low. Best is mid range.
Prolactin way high. Why test again? Get the damn MRI done and don't waste any more time.

Step one would be the MRI, imho.

[hawk14dl]

Agreed, get the mri.

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