TNT:
Thanks for your post. There's a club on the web for hypogonadal dudes...I've spent a lot of time helping them to ask the right questions. The most common problem being the physician's lack of experience in hormones...particularly the "females" which I coined to mean the "estrogens" and "prolactin".
With regards to the Androgel and Androderm promotions...you are totally correct. Doctors get all kinds of perks from the drug companies to promote their products. My current Doc happens to be the largest prescriber of Androgel in my area. He is a family physician but treats approximately 500 men with HRT..he has a huge practice. Maybe he gets kickbacks? If I didn't have insurance...my monthly Androgel costs would be $495 or I can get a two month supply of cyp from a compounding pharmacy for $41...delivered to my door. Hmmmm....I smell a conspiracy or at least a new set of golf clubs.
My current doc doesn't like the cyp because he believes the supra levels which occur at the beginning of the injection are unhealthy. When I was on shots...I got to were I could time my injections just right so I did not experience the peaks and valleys....then I freakin had to move...duh!
My current doc did just as you said the first time I mentioned Arimidex...he turned to his desk reference manual to look it up (he had never even heard it) then said...this stuff is for treating breast cancer in women....why the heck would you be taking it. I tried to educate him..but you know how that goes...doctors have egos the size of texas...and according to him...my previous doctor was a quack! I couldn't believe it....here he is treating over 500 male patients and he never checked the "females". Take a look around...high estrogen levels are rampant in old age men....and now we know why old men grow saggy boobs and have a pot belly. It's called andropause...not enough testosterone and too much freakin estradiol...and dangit...doctors need to educate themselves for crying out loud and start treating people appropriately...ok...i'll get off my box of Tide.
And you are correct on the religious affiliation...LDS aka Mormon. I use to have a different online identity but when you visit bodybuilding chatrooms to talk training, diet and supps, I was getting all kinds of cybersex requests which I found to be offensive...so by putting LDS in my online name...they run like hell!
Here's some interesting info from www.lef.org on estrogen and men. Also as you asked, my previous physician was a general MD who also specialized in treating hormone irregularities for both men and women. He was a progressive thinker...not obscenely progressive...but open minded enough to treat the whole picture. I felt much better under his care than I do with the current "text book" physician. I hate schmucks who are too afraid to step out of the box a little...for pete's sake...at least into the gray area!
Here's the article:
"Too Much Estrogen
The most significant hormone imbalance in aging men is a decrease in free testosterone, while estrogen levels remain the same or increase precipitously. As men grow older, they experience a variety of mechanisms from the dual effects of having too little testosterone and excess estrogen. The result is a testosterone-estrogen imbalance that directly causes many of the debilitating health problems associated with normal aging (1-12, 28).
One cause of hormone imbalance in men is that their testosterone is increasingly converted to estrogen. One report showed that estrogen levels of the average 54-year-old man are higher than those of the average 59-year-old woman (1, 5, 13-18, 48). (This thought scared the hell out of me...I picture saggy boobs...ugh!)
The reason that testosterone replacement therapy does not work by itself for many men is that exogenously administered testosterone may convert (aromatize) into even more estrogen, thus potentially worsening the hormone imbalance problem in aging males (i.e., too much estrogen and not enough free testosterone) (21, 26).
Estrogen is an essential hormone for men, but too much of it causes a wide range of health problems. The most dangerous acute effect of excess estrogen and too little testosterone is an increased risk of heart attack or stroke (39-43, 261-270). High levels of estrogen have been implicated as a cause of benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) (35-44, 46, 47). One mechanism by which nettle root extract works is to block the binding of growth-stimulating estrogen to prostate cells (42-44, 48-50).
When there is too little testosterone present, estrogen attaches to testosterone cell receptor sites throughout the body and creates many problems in aging men. In youth, low amounts of estrogen are used to turn off the powerful cell-stimulating effects of testosterone. As estrogen levels increase with age, testosterone cell stimulation may be locked in the "off" position, thus reducing sexual arousal and sensation and causing the loss of libido so common in aging men (94, 99, 259).
High serum levels of estrogen also trick the brain into thinking that enough testosterone is being produced, further slowing the natural production of testosterone. This happens when estrogen saturates testosterone receptors in the hypothalamus region of the brain. The saturated hypothalamus then stops sending out a hormone to the pituitary gland to stimulate secretion of luteinizing hormone that the gonads require to produce testosterone. High estrogen can thus shut down the normal testicular production of testosterone (1, 53, 54, 271-277).
One further complication of excess estrogen is that it increases the body's production of sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) (280). SHBG binds free testosterone in the blood and makes it unavailable to cell receptor sites (51, 52, 55, 56).
Based on the multiple deleterious effects of excess estrogen in men, aggressive action should be taken to reduce estrogen to a safe range if a blood test reveals elevated levels.
Estrogen (measured as estradiol) should be in the mid- to lower-normal range. If estradiol levels are in the upper one-third of the normal reference range, or above the normal reference range, this excessive level of estrogen should be reduced. Labcorp lists a reference range of between 3-70 pg/mL for estradiol while Quest states a reference range of between 10-50. For optimal health, estradiol should be in the range of 10-30 pg/mL for a man of any age."
Well...TNT...I hope you found the information interesting. Thanks for your warm welcome...I plan to stick around. What do you think...perhaps I should conjure up some extra cash to fly back and forth to my former doctor. I think my nips are starting to itch....CRAP!
Have a good one!
LDSlifter
"Have you checked your "females" Today?"
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