Lupron Side Effects

In my case, it just took a while for the Lupron to wear off--as best as I can recall, my hot flashes lasted at least 3-4 months after my last shot should have worn off. If your July shot was a six-month shot, you might be in that same weaning off period.

FWIW, my testosterone never returned to its baseline. It was in the 300 range prior to starting ADT and has been in the 200 range since I finished. I did 18 months of ADT and in general the longer you're on ADT, the longer it takes to recover. For now, I think you just have to hang in there and, of course, being active is always helpful. Good luck to you.

Agree with Michael's advice.
As an aside, I had ADT as well for 18 months and my T has recovered to a value that is reasonable for a (really) old guy. More importantly, I am feeling OK.

I too did 18 months of Lupron. The final injection was four years ago, Jan 2018. No baseline was taken before starting ADT but I suspect I may have already been low-T as I had lost a testicle about ten years ago. And now it seems that Lupron has likely taken out the other one.

Now I insisted that my T level be tested whenever my PSA was drawn, which hasn't been easy. The lab often forgets to test either the T or the PSA or they use the wrong PSA and I must return for another draw. Oh well.

Considering that once the final six month depot shot has completely dissolved, Lupron in the blood has a six month half-life, so I had calculated that my T should have recovered sometime in 2020. I was encouraged that I began to find women attractive once again. The hot flashes seem to diminish and my low-T induced moodiness stabilized.

But no luck. My "T" has consistently been between 45 and 60 for the past two years. Brief hot flashes hit me in the evening and overnight. Venlafaxine has helped a lot. I still need a fan for a few minutes, then the flushing subsides. From what I have read, this happens to about 5% of men who have been on ADT for a year or more. My Uro would prefer that I not pursue supplementation, even though I have been NED for four years now. He said he has seen PCa recur as much as twenty years later. In a way, having no sex drive has greatly simplified my life.

RobLee said...
In a way, having no sex drive has greatly simplified my life.

mattam said...
Lol. Rob, that really is one more profound things I've ever read on the forum. ADT has me all manscaped up, but I have nowhere to go. Thanks for giving me a smile this morning.

Glad you found it amusing, though it was said in all seriousness. ADT really has been life altering. It made me realize just how obsessed with sex I had always been, as have probably most men. But there's really not much discussion about it. It certainly does feel foreign. It's more significant than just having no chest hair and no longer needing deodorant. I started a "Life on Lupron" support group on Facebook, but no one was interested.... probably because that's what Lupron does to you.

But don't worry about it. Nice that it made you smile.

My dad died 35 years ago, and when he was still lucid once imparted some of his wisdom to me. He said you spend most of your life thinking about sex, then suddenly it's not so important.

Matt, I meant it when I said don't worry about it. Seriously I am happy that it made you smile. There was nothing wrong with your response, and I took no offense.

But in a way I do wish that there was more discussion of how seriously this affects us men. Most of what we say is humorous, because as you've noted, that's how we deal with it.

I remember one of the funniest things I read when I first joined HW was written by one of the veteran members about how prostate cancer cells "feel" after going thru ADT and radiation... "listless and somewhat depressed", hoping to maybe someday move on to live elsewhere. I liked it so much that I printed it out and showed my RO. That was like 3 or 4 laptops ago. If I didn't have so many bookmarks and flash drives I could possibly put my hands on it. But as that post also ended, "why bother?"

Thanks Jack. It's not sex that I miss, it's the passion... the drive and enthusiasm that does indeed diminish with age but drops off almost entirely without testosterone. As I had mentioned earlier, not being obsessed with sex has greatly simplified my life, but I feel like a gelding or a neutered pet that has lost all interest other than eating and sleeping.

I too have been married 40 years, will be 41 in June. My wife also has had cancer. We stopped having sex a decade ago, but we were blessed with several decades of passionate lovemaking. The strange thing about ADT is not really caring about it and wondering how we were previously able to devote so much time to it.