Testosterone Recovery After Hormone Therapy

I just had my semi-annual exam through my Primary Care Physician and he always tests for testosterone. Since I was on Lupron/Eligard for three years my T recovery has been slow, but thankfully steady. I am now off HT for 18 months and my Total T is 158 and Free T is 19.7. These are not yet in the normal range, but they are increasing. Last May the Total T was 95 and Free T was 15.5. One year ago the Total T was 17.

As others have shared their T recovery after HT, it looks to me a mixed back of experiences. It definitely looks like the longer one is on HT, the slower the recovery one should expect. However, I remember that Southern Comfort recovered very quickly after HT So far my urologist has not considered doing anything to help boost the T recovery, preferring to let nature take it's course. At the rate of change over the last year, I hope to be back in the normal range in the next 6-12 months. I think I feel better as far as energy goes, but other physical signs of recovery have not occurred. I am still too heavy, though I have dropped 10 pounds, and there are no new hairs on my chest. Of course my wife is glad that the back hairs haven't returned either.

I remember there are a number of guys that are in their later stage of HT (Redwing comes to mind). I suggest you have a talk with your doctor to get a good expectation of what your T recovery time might be. Hopefully your recovery will be faster than I have experienced.

I completed 18 months of HT in May 2014. At 12 months it got up to 289 but at 15 months it had fallen back to 249. I am starting to feel it may never get that high again. Worse things can happen.

I've seemed to have a slightly different experience.
After 2 years of Ht, my testosterone bounced back very quickly. I don't know why. 3 months after "estimated" end date, it was still low but at my next 3 month check it was back to 700's.(25*28.8=720 if my math. Moles per are correct) I obviously felt instantly better. Both my Onc. And Uro. we're surprised. Maybe age? Or type of ht? I was on eligard. Maybe Adt 2 or adt3 slows recovery?
Interesting all the same.
If we can draw some conclusions from other's experiences maybe it can dictate the type of Ht that is picked while on intermittent Ht. I'd like to have my testosterone bounce back as quickly as possible.

When Lupron is used to treat sex offenders, it has been noted that after about 3 years, the effect of the drug becomes more or less permanent....The age of the person being treated has a lot to do with it..

In the past, Lupron was only used to treat advanced PC patients..In these cases it was strictly palliative and the shots continued until active treatment was stopped. There was no coming back...

Great info Ray....I have a few pine trees in my yard, just how do I treat the bark?

Good suggestion about weight training. Of course I have thought that with my weight gain just moving around was a form of weight training. I think I have to do something else.

Good to hear from you and glad see some good results, keep up the success.

I don't have any smart advice. But, best wishes to all you guys coming off HT. T level recovery was a huge concern of mine. I was fortunate to have a fast recovery. The only insight I received from oncologist was that being younger and having a higher pre-HT T level resulted in better odds for a quicker recovery.
Southern Comfort

trailguy said...
This coming Saturday will be 1 year after my last hit of Eligard. Dotted line was last April 3, April 30th blood test was double 0's. Next blood test is in 3 weeks.

The wife says she can smell a difference in my sweaty T shirts, smell sorta like they used to. I can't feel any difference though....still tired, no desire, total ED, still have my new belly fat - down from 14.5 lbs extra to 12.4 lbs extra. Haven't gotten my muscle mass back at all either, but I am still doing the workouts. No hair where I used to have it yet either.

I'm curious, what did your smelly t shirts smell like when you were on Eligard?

At first, I was just glad to get rid of the hot flashes and the sleep deprivation but it was a long wait to full recovery.

Geez, men. Talk about side effects. As an older guy (66) with little enough testosterone already, I don't see how one would ever recover QOL after ADT. You'd have to convince me that I'm a dead man if I don't do it.
Either that or relegate yourself to being a weak, tired, confused, squishy marshmellow.