guy question

before surgery my blood work showed I have low testostone levels.  This could have been brought on by the weight.  Soon I will start a monthly steroid regiment. Did any of you had this problem, and did your testostrone level go back up without the steroids?

Sorry, I got nothin. Can't help.

It might be a good idea to have your levels tested again after surgery, after you've lost some weight, though if it were me, I'd defer to my endocrinologist (but only after I had my blood levels tested again, post-op! ) Low testosterone levels are quite common in men with "morbid obesity"; some of this may be due to conversion (by fat) of testosterone into estrogen.  (This is perfectly normal, except when the amount of fat you have isn't perfectly normal.)   Estrogen signals the brain to decrease its production of FSH/LH hormones, which direct the testes to product spermatozoa and testosterone.  "Too much circulating estrogen" == "too little circulating androgen".  Weight loss has the potential to reverse this, though I'm sure that there's a lot of individual variability. If you start an androgen-replacement regimen, your levels will reflect the effects of the testosterone injections.  That's not necessarily bad, but (speaking personally) I'd just as soon find out beforehand whether I still needed testosterone replacement now that I weigh less. A couple of years before my WLS, I saw my PCP regarding a non-existent sex drive, and asked to have my testosterone levels measured.  They were quite low, but supplementing them with a monthly shot in the butt didn't help with much of anything other than the testosterone levels themselves, which were now high enough to rival the most juiced bodybuilders!  Since I wasn't obtaining any benefit from them (no side effects, either, thankfully), I stopped after a few months. A year later (still obese and pre-op), I asked my PCP for another test, this time measuring both total testosterone and FREE testosterone (usually they just measure total testosterone).  My total testosterone was low, more or less where it was before, but my free testosterone was in the normal range.  "Free testosterone" is what counts, since it's what is actually available to your cells.   I never saw an endocrinologist to make sense of this test result.  If "free" is normal but "total" is low, is supplementation helpful?  I have no idea. Once I'm at the 6 mo. or 9 mo. point post-op, I plan to get my testosterone levels tested again (both total and free), to see whether there's any change. /Steve

I want to correct something I wrote earlier.  I said that I didn't experience any benefit from the testosterone replacement shots, but now I recall that after I'd been taking them for several months, I somehow managed to lose 25-30 pounds during that time without dieting or exercising or doing much of anything different I'm *NOT* saying that androgen replacement is a good way to lose weight, or even that my weight loss back then was a direct consequence of the injections, but it did happen, and after I discontinued them, the pounds came back on after several months.  This is just an anecdote, not a scientific study. Of course, losing 25 pounds when you're 300 pounds is good, but you're still obese, which is why it took me a while to remember this. /Steve

Since my PCP will be doing the shots I'm sure there going to want some more lab work done cause of my rapid weight loass so far.  Hopefully things will look normal. But man being 36 will little sex drive is weird. I feel like a freak.  Althou after loosing 66lbs the drive is starting to come back and a couple of times Little Johnny has been at attention.  Also I wonder since I'm working out if the steroids will benifit my muscles?  

> Also I wonder since I'm working out > if the steroids will benifit my muscles? Testosterone replacement therapy in someone with low testosterone levels should help stimulate fat loss and increase lean body mass, which means less fat, more muscles.  It should complement your workout regimen pretty well. I wish I could say that I was impressed with testosterone replacement to correct a low sex drive, but it really didn't have any effect on me one way or another.  Which is not to say that it isn't worth trying. /Steve

Steroids would drive the level down even lower, I would think ..   (but dang, it coudln't be all that low now with all that facial hair, right?)   And, our weight loss will actually drive it down a bit during the process (or estrogen up, can't remember which)  ..  Some of our biological types on here can better explain how that works than me ..

I had facial hair when they told me my testostrone level was low. This has been going on for several years now.  My insurance didn't cover the steroids. The steroid the insurance did cover gave me a alergic reaction. So I just did without.  Now with new insurance I'm going to give it a try again.

> Steroids would drive the level down even lower, I would think .. Administration of supplemental testosterone will suppress your own body's production of the hormone, but since it's all the same **** in the pool, as it were, the amounts of testosterone circulating in the body will still be higher. > (but dang, it coudln't be all that low now with all that facial hair, right?) You don't need testosterone to continue to grow facial hair, assuming that you have the mature hair follicles to begin with.  Ditto with body hair.  And anyway, a man who is just low in testosterone (and hasn't been castrated) still has enough testosterone to maintain beard growth.  (In other words, most men with low testosterone levels have much, much, much higher levels of testosterone in their bodies than women, even women who are complaining about facial hair of their own!) Perhaps over a period of many years, someone with extremely low testosterone, or who has had an bilateral orchiectomy, i.e. castrated, might develop a sparser beard, but it takes a while. > And, our weight loss will actually drive it down a > bit during the process (or estrogen up, can't remember which) The stress of surgery and rapid weight loss just by itself can have all sorts of effects on hormone levels, but it wouldn't be predictable.  But a man who is low in testosterone as a result of his morbid obesity might expect this to improve a bit or a lot as the weight comes off. /Steve

Testosterone supplementation will usually increase your sex drive. They are actually working on an inhalabe form for women to boost their sex drive and the early results are looking good. That doesn't mean it works for everyone, but it helps most people.

Docs won't prescribe you anywhere close to what body builders use, those guys takes some serious risks with their body.

Anabolic steroids in general, not just test have a powerful fat burning effect. That said, they are fairly risk in quantities high enough to burn much fat because part of the test will convert to estrogen (especially in overweight men) which would put us at a major risk of growing breasts by the time we took enough to lose major fat, then we would gain it all back when we stopped the steroids, which you have to do sooner or later.

It's no alternative to WLS, but possibly a good supplement to it? There has been little research into anabolics when taking in reduced calories. Possibly it could keep us from losing so much muscle but so far every study I've seen evaluates steroid along with a high calorie, high protein diet.