When your body betrays you... (TMI?)

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve been recently diagnosed with (male) hypogonadism, ie: the twig and berries have dried up. Dr. just says it’s “one of them things” that sometimes happens to men as they age. No good reason necessary. Most of the other parts are working OK, thyroide, etc., but not the ol’ man-juice levels.

Lots of side effects, low energy, depression, sexual disfunction (small phrase for a big problem), etc. It started as a trip to the HMO Dr. to complain that I just didn’t feel right. I was depressed, etc. He simply prescribed happy pills without doing any other tests & sent me on my way.

I was taking these pills for two (three?) years before I went back again to my new Dr. and explained the situation. He was appalled that I wasn’t given a general workup before being diagnosed with clinical depression and promptly sent my blood off to the lab. How 'bout that, says the computer printout, I have the testosterone levels of a six year old girl.

How strange to have this medically confirmed. I was so indifferent to my wife (as a women, that is) that she was starting to think I was having an affair. I was, frankly, indifferent to all women. Sure, I could recognize an attractive woman at the office but it was abstract, like noticing a building with nice architecture. Nothing visceral about it.

I was betrayed by my body when my eyes went bad. Later my hair fell out. Now it’s this. Talk about immasculating. I’ve been neutered by mother nature herself.

Replacement testosterone is administered via the skin as an absorbable gel. I’ve been working up my dosage, trying to get the proper “clinical response”. (“Normal” levels for testosterone is a huge range, very individual. Part of getting the right level is more than just a blood test, it’s getting a level to where you start feeling like yourself again).

My wife is thrilled to have her husband slowly returning - a man who can get it up without having to take a little blue pill. A man that can find his wife attractive again. I joke with my wife about taking my “Man Gel” when I apply my morning dose. I try to make light of this situation but still, and I know this is probably an incorrect response, I feel like less than a man somehow. I’m only male thanks to modern medicine.

So, the reason this is in IMHO rather than MPSIMS (although not “mundane” to me): I’m looking for those of you who’ve also been betrayed by biology, and how you’re handling it. Perhaps there’s a lesson for me in what you’re going through.

2

All I can report is that my hair growing patterns have shifted. Where there was, there ain’t. Where it weren’t, 'tis.

May your precious bodily fluids return to normal, and then some.

Good luck.

3

Don’t know what to say, other than to try and focus on the miracles of modern medicene, instead of your body’s betrayal.

Thankfully, my testosterone levels must be just fine. The closest I have to a similar situation is that a small amount of my eyeball jelly has crystallized. My vision is fine, I still don’t need any form of correction, but I can see a dark spot if I look at a large, pale, monochrome object. Mostly, it is midly irritating and yet another depressing sign of age. (Are there any exilarating ones, after 30?) However, since I am in my mid-40’s, at what kind of age does your problem tend to happen?

4

My eyes. My up to now perfect, near flawless vision has began it’s 4th decade decline. Don’t need glasses yet but where I used to be able to thread a needle drunk, I now have to stick my hands under a table lamp to accomplish the same feat. And my kids keep handing me their Gameboy Advance and it’s always too close. Fortunately my arms are still about long enough.

Thank goodness everything else seems to be in working order.

Glad you’re making a recovery Beltrix. Better living through chemistry, eh?! :slight_smile:

5

I think you’re looking at this all wrong. The key to happiness lies in acceptance, grasshopper. You had low testosterone levels, and now you’re fixing the problem, and all is right with the world. It doesn’t have to be about anything more than that.

If you think about it, our bodies betray us all the time. Who hasn’t had to get out of a warm, soft bed and go take a cold pee at night?

6

And speaking of pee…
:sigh:
This has been my body’s betrayal. Punishment for bearing babes I suppose.
Ah well, it’s not so bad unless I sneeze. I best fix the situation before my spring allergies kick in though!

7

Every woman who gets old enough gets to go through menopause - pretty much the female version of what you are going through, only now the medical community says estrogen replacement therapy isn’t as good an idea as they used to think it was.

Nothing like having a hot flash in a business meeting …

Getting old ain’t for sissies.

8

Forget menopause. The advent of puberty in itself is a big betrayal. Guys get it easy…they don’t suddenly start having blood coming out of their nether regions. But there’s still lots of changes. And you’re lucky if your mom tells you at the right time and in the right way. The stories I’ve heard about what moms tell their daughters…

And every month I feel like my body betrays me. I’m a generally happy-go-lucky person, but when I get my period I get way, way down. I cry at stupid commercials. Not a huge deal, but damn, every 28 days.

Your problem is fixable. Consider yourself lucky! If we start thinking in the way you are…that every “artificial” thing we take into our bodies makes us less of who we are, then we may as well move back into caves*.

If you want more examples, yeah, I’ll throw in my eyes, even though I’ve had glasses since I was 10. How is it fair that I have to have imperfect eyes when so many have 20/20? I try not to think of it that way, but instead…only some years before that Lazy Eye surgery I had wouldn’t have existed, and I would have had to have what we call a Schenectady eye around these parts (one eye always pointing towards Schenectady).

Be grateful that there is a cure, I say.

*Yes, I know chances are high we didn’t live in caves. My answer to that is: They look like cavemen. :slight_smile:

9

And some of us on birth control. It can mess up your hormones and has made me feel completely “meh” about sex. Well, at least I don’t have to worry about getting pregnant. :frowning:

Good luck Belrix, both with the physical problem and the emotional ones that go with it as I know all too well.

10

Remember that you don’t have to be in the mood to make your wife a Happy Camper. Show her that the flesh may be weak, but the spirit is still ready, willing and able. She won’t feel unnatractive if you spend time worshipping at the shrine, so to speak. Give her long, sensual massages and pleasure her with your hands and tongue. If your juices get flowing, awesome-- if not, she still feels loved and satisfied.

11

I actually felt about 500% better when I started taking birth control pills at age 22. Apparently my natural hormones weren’t quite what they should have been. :slight_smile:

12

My parents and I all cooperated with a free blood pressure screening at our church a month ago. Mom’s blood pressure was in the right zone thanks to the miracles of modern medicine, Dad’s was a tiny bit high thanks to the attractiveness of the lady taking his blood pressure (mostly a joke, she’s a friend, a mother of grown children, and not exactly the Playboy Bunny type) and mine was right where it should be-- thank the powers of youth.

Dad made Mom really irritated when he told his mother that his blood pressure was good–without any medicine to make it so. It’s great if your diet, exercise and genes work so that you have good blood pressure-- but it’s hardly a moral failing if you don’t.

Likewise with glasses, or any number of other conditions. Heck, my grandmother may not have Alzheimer’s, but she has demetia, and she ate right, excersized plenty, did crossword puzzles, and everything else they tell you should diminish your chances of developing Alzheimer’s, and it didn’t work.

So count your blessings that you live in an era where your symptoms are treatable-- and count your blessings that your symptoms primarily affected your quality of life, and didn’t put your life itself at risk.

13

According to my limited research, slowly decreasing testosterone levels are normal as man ages (I’m 41, BTW). Radical decreases, like mine, are not. Here’s another link that says, among a bunch of other stuff.

I’m feeling better today - just down yesterday, I suppose. Yeah, I should be happier - this is correctable for now - as long as I have insurance I guess. (The real cost of the testosterone gel is so high as to make it out of reach without insurance). My wife doesn’t think less of me, I’ve had my children so fertility is not an issue, and my quaility of life is improving as I get the dosaging right.

Maybe I should just count my little blessings and hope that something else isn’t about to fall off.

14

Well, you’re 41; things are pretty much all downhill from here, anyway. :smiley:

  • featherlou, 39 (honest!)
15

Ditto, except for the age.

16

Tough luck, Belrix. Hope the gell improves your mood too. I wonder if you’re not getting a double whammy of bummers: mood affected by low testosterone compounded by psychological impact of the physical results.

How has my body betrayed me? Apart from the hair migration already mentioned? My brain chemistry has always been wrong and it tends to “embellish” the messages sent to me by my senses and then amplify the emotional responses to the falsified information. All the while my rational bits can remain rational if I stay alert enough to remember what’s going on. But that gets tiring and fatigue worsens the symptoms. Eventually things break. Currently controlled but not corrected with drugs.

And incidentally, the drugs bestow a very satisfying “staying power” if you know what I mean. :wink:

17

Well, me for one.

I don’t like that my metabolism has slowed down. I’m hitting the gym at the crack of dawn four days a week, trying to find my slender college co-ed figure again…you know, when a size 8 was considered baggy and you wept in despair when the scale hit 130.

18

You’ve never had to pee at night? Either you have a bladder the size of a watermelon, or rubber sheets. :smiley:

19

I’m pretty sure that depends

20

No, seriously. I pee before I go to bed, then again when I get up for the day. Nothing in between.

I’m 38 and femaled, by the way.