I decided to post this article in an attempt to talk about the experiences of mine because I think it might possibly be great for many other males who may be suffering along with the same problems as I was. I want to preface this with a disclaimer: I am NOT a health care professional or an authority on medication or even health issues. In case you think you may well experience low testosterone, please read my story. If you discover you are able to identify with my experiences, you may opt to seek direction from a qualified professional.

I'm a 42 year old man, husband and father of 4 children. Around 8 years ago I started to feel "off." It began with extremely slow, almost imperceptible changes in how I felt and yes it slowly became more intense. I was very easily winded (even tying the shoes of mine evolved into an enormous chore). I'd no energy or maybe motivation to do anything. I got dizzy if I stood up prematurely. I started to gain weight without having true change in the diet of mine. I'd always been an extremely sexual individual throughout the whole adult life of mine and when I do not had early morning erections, I knew something was wrong. The libido of mine was pretty much non-existent.

I went to my general practitioner who referred me to an Endocrinologist. The health care provider did a lot of tests (blood, urine, etc...) and also discovered that my testosterone levels had been way below the normal levels for a male of the age of mine. He explained I had a thing called pituitary hypogonadism. In a nutshell, my pituitary gland shut down and ceased sending signals to my testes to make testosterone. Evidently, it is very common in males that are in their late 30's as well as early 40's. I imagine many males simply put up with it and chalk it up to growing old. Not me. No disrespect to those males that are all right with aging however, I want to do all that I are able to do to be youthful for as long as I can. The Endocrinologist put me on testosterone, an injection that I had to give myself in the rear-end, after each and every two days.

After my first shot, I felt better. The energy of mine came back, I started losing weight, the erections of mine as well as libido returned in earnest. That was it! That was the solution. It simply made a lot of sense. I was tight on testosterone, hence I had to supplement testosterone right? Wrong! Please let me explain further.

I stayed on testosterone for a lot of years. I did shots (two various kinds of testosterone esters), treatments, spots and gels. I've experimented with all of them. All in all I experienced better than before the HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) but I begun to come up with another problem. This one, I wasn't able to detect on my personal. There were no side effects like getting exhausted or not wanting to have sex. The surgeon who was treating me Click for details the lower testosterone did periodic blood testing to check out on my all around health as well as testosterone levels. He realized that the hematocrit level of mine began to rise. Hematocrit is a measurement of blood volume which is occupied by white blood cells. I began to develop the exact opposite situation of a person with anemia. I'd a lot of white blood cells - an ailment called Polycythemia Vera. Polycythemia is potentially life threatening. A lot of red blood cells make your blood especially thick. A few professional athletes (particularly distance runners) take health supplements in an effort to boost the number of red blood cells in their systems. Red-colored blood cells transport oxygen to our muscles so in theory, the more white blood cells you've, the better oxygen you are making available to the entire body of yours. This translates to much better and more efficient athletic performance as well as quicker recovery. But, as in my case, there is a point at which it's too much of a very good thing.

The downside of an increased number of red blood cells - fuller blood means the heart of mine needs to keep working harder to pump blood throughout the body of mine. The "extra work" I am asking the heart of mine to do could result in a heart attack. Also, thicker blood is going to clot easier and more safely and effectively. This could cause stroke, deep vein thrombosis, a pulmonary embolism, etc. Basically, it's not good.

I went to yet another physician (this one a Hematologist/Oncologist). The treatment for high hematocrit (too many white blood cells) is doing a phlebotomy (remove a little blood). Basically, they simply take off a pint of blood. Whenever they remove a pint of the "thick blood" my body is going to make brand new blood to change the pint they took. The desire is that my body cannot generate the white blood cells as fast as the surgeon can remove them. It's just like donating blood. This blood-letting required to happen a couple of times per month until the amounts of white blood cells cane down to a "safe" or acceptable level.

I was in a catch 22. I had to have the testosterone to feel normal and similar to a man, though every time I took the shot of mine, I had to run for the blood bank to bleed-out a pint and eat a cookie! I did the cycle for a few years and it sucked!