My journey to the promised land

[English]

Also, had some blood work done close to a month ago now before starting the current protocol. (I don't put a lot of stock in bloods, but here they are in case someone can possibly interpret what else could be going on):

Total T: 463 ng/dl (348-1197)
Free T: 12.8 pg/ml (9.3-26.5)
Estradiol: 14.5 pg/ml (7.6-42.6)
DHEA-S: 365.1 ug/dl (14.3-530.5)
SHBG: 25.3 nmol/L (16.5-55.9)
DHT: 30 ng/dL (Range: 30-85 ng/dL)
LH: 5.9 mIU/mL (1.7-8.6)
FSH: 11.9 mIU/mL (1.5-12.4)

Hey fella,

First up, welcome to the forum. Like CD says, you've been pretty much got it sorted.

I just want to add regards your bloods, your LH is quite high considering your free T level, and there's a recovered scientist kind of guy "Josh" who talks alot of sense in his articles within this link regards calcium and magnesium issues in pfs guys that struggle to convert good LH numbers into T. It is very easy to remedy it, have a read (you must scroll right to the bottom to see the next article of 5 i think) and you should also take not of his articles on inflammation in the gut. You can ignore the thryroid article as you wouldn't be performing as you are physically if you needed thryroid meds. Also, when taking magnesium, always co-factor it with calcium, and always take the glycinate version predominently, other types are poorly absorbed and tolerated:
Post-Finasteride Syndrome Recovery: How to reduce gut inflammation PFS Healing

[Maxout777]

Hey fella,

First up, welcome to the forum. Like CD says, you've been pretty much got it sorted.

I just want to add regards your bloods, your LH is quite high considering your free T level, and there's a recovered scientist kind of guy "Josh" who talks alot of sense in his articles within this link regards calcium and magnesium issues in pfs guys that struggle to convert good LH numbers into T. It is very easy to remedy it, have a read (you must scroll right to the bottom to see the next article of 5 i think) and you should also take not of his articles on inflammation in the gut. You can ignore the thryroid article as you wouldn't be performing as you are physically if you needed thryroid meds. Also, when taking magnesium, always co-factor it with calcium, and always take the glycinate version predominently, other types are poorly absorbed and tolerated:
Post-Finasteride Syndrome Recovery: How to reduce gut inflammation PFS Healing

Thanks for the article, I'm going to take a look at it.

This LH level was taken about a month after those T levels, and I was already taking Tongkat Ali and Tribulus, so I have a feeling that may have thrown it off. My original LH with those T levels was 3.7. Would that make more sense with my levels?

Gonna do a dig of that article and see what I can tailor around myself. Thanks again for the information!

[English]

Thanks for the article, I'm going to take a look at it.

This LH level was taken about a month after those T levels, and I was already taking Tongkat Ali and Tribulus, so I have a feeling that may have thrown it off. My original LH with those T levels was 3.7. Would that make more sense with my levels?

Gonna do a dig of that article and see what I can tailor around myself. Thanks again for the information!

Yeah even at 3.7 that is a high LH number for free t of low normal. To give you some comparison, my last t number was over 800 including high normal free T and my LH was definitely under 3, i think it was 2.7 from memory.
It's pretty difficult to go overboard with calcium and magnesium as both are needed and used in virtually every function of the body.
Following CD's suggestion, another great way of getting both calcium and magnesium is by making your own Kefir. Kefir could be made by a monkey it is so easy to do, and it is an incredibly cheap and effective pro-biotic. Although it is still dairy, if you use goats milk then the protein is A2 type which is the easy to digest type (it is A1 proteins responsible for many dairy intolerances) and most of the lactose gets fermented and converted. If you really want to avoid lactose completely, simply add some lactose enzyme to it after you've fermented it to your tastes. Many people cure themselves completely of crohns disease by taking Kefir daily, it is that good, and if you're doing that, you may as well ferment Kombucha too which again, is a probiotic. It is great tasting and you can ferment it so it is fizzy, making it something you can drink cold as an alcohol replacement - actually it does have a small amount of alcohol in it but the postives way outstrip the small volume of alcohol in it.

[Maxout777]

Yeah even at 3.7 that is a high LH number for free t of low normal. To give you some comparison, my last t number was over 800 including high normal free T and my LH was definitely under 3, i think it was 2.7 from memory.
It's pretty difficult to go overboard with calcium and magnesium as both are needed and used in virtually every function of the body.
Following CD's suggestion, another great way of getting both calcium and magnesium is by making your own Kefir. Kefir could be made by a monkey it is so easy to do, and it is an incredibly cheap and effective pro-biotic. Although it is still dairy, if you use goats milk then the protein is A2 type which is the easy to digest type (it is A1 proteins responsible for many dairy intolerances) and most of the lactose gets fermented and converted. If you really want to avoid lactose completely, simply add some lactose enzyme to it after you've fermented it to your tastes. Many people cure themselves completely of crohns disease by taking Kefir daily, it is that good, and if you're doing that, you may as well ferment Kombucha too which again, is a probiotic. It is great tasting and you can ferment it so it is fizzy, making it something you can drink cold as an alcohol replacement - actually it does have a small amount of alcohol in it but the postives way outstrip the small volume of alcohol in it.

Thanks for the help English, I'll definitely take those suggestions into consideration. I'm accumulating quite the arsenal of tactics to combat this shit! I'm having bloods done again soon, my GP has me regularly doing hormone tests. He has no idea about PFS or what is going on but he did recognize the low T levels and wants to keep track of them. I'm interested to see where they sit - I'm feeling much better than my last test.

In other news, I finally made ground in the sexual department. Far from saying I'm back - but I can go into action without PDE5s and actually get a decent erection from stimulus instead of manually having to bring it up. Just the kinda improvement I needed to see to help see me through this feast!

[Cdsnuts]

Hey fella,

First up, welcome to the forum. Like CD says, you've been pretty much got it sorted.

I just want to add regards your bloods, your LH is quite high considering your free T level, and there's a recovered scientist kind of guy "Josh" who talks alot of sense in his articles within this link regards calcium and magnesium issues in pfs guys that struggle to convert good LH numbers into T. It is very easy to remedy it, have a read (you must scroll right to the bottom to see the next article of 5 i think) and you should also take not of his articles on inflammation in the gut. You can ignore the thryroid article as you wouldn't be performing as you are physically if you needed thryroid meds. Also, when taking magnesium, always co-factor it with calcium, and always take the glycinate version predominently, other types are poorly absorbed and tolerated:
Post-Finasteride Syndrome Recovery: How to reduce gut inflammation PFS Healing

IMO the best place to get magnesium and calcium that are properly paired and are more importantly, bio available is in the form of dark green juices or smoothies as an addition to your diet. Something to keep in mind. Get in a large green smoothie or juice daily and you will more than satisfy this need.

Another fantastic benefit to magnesium is that it increases testosterone by binding to SHBG. It directly increases your free testosterone levels. Among the hundreds of important things the mineral does in the body, this to me is one of the most exciting.

[Maxout777]

IMO the best place to get magnesium and calcium that are properly paired and are more importantly, bio available is in the form of dark green juices or smoothies as an addition to your diet. Something to keep in mind. Get in a large green smoothie or juice daily and you will more than satisfy this need.

Another fantastic benefit to magnesium is that it increases testosterone by binding to SHBG. It directly increases your free testosterone levels. Among the hundreds of important things the mineral does in the body, this to me is one of the most exciting.

I have made a habit of doing a green type smoothie everyday before, just got out of it and stopped doing it. Will definitely add that back to the diet. I supplement Natural Calm magnesium twice daily so I will add Calcium to it just to see if it helps any as well. Can use all the Free T I can get at this point.

CD, I did have a question that I forgot to ask, given that I'm performing pretty well, should I stick to just doing intermittent fasting or do you believe a longer water fast thrown in from time to time will be better? Thanks in advance for the help guys, much appreciated! Hitting the gym for the day as we speak.