Testosterone Recovery

Just more information which I hope will be of interest, especially to new members with questions.

After RP (08/17) when PSA was noted after one year of undetectable and with SRT/ADT in my future, I made the decision to obtain baseline T and try to track recovery. Everyone is different so please remember these are my recovery data points all using LabCorp. Further, note that I received only 6 months of Firmagon injections.

08/18 - 472
12/18 - 427
06/19 - 16
09/19 - 28
01/20 - 158
03/20 - 212
04/20 - 240
07/20 - 301
10/20 - 260
01/21 - 277
04/21 - 347
07/21 - 336
04/22 - 413

With recovery back into the 400s believe I will move myself into annual T level testing.

Blessings to all.

Did a quick search on natural ways(no drugs) to increase testosterone levels and the first one was to exercise and have some resistance training. Also, some sort of high intensity has shown to boost t levels which is no surprise to me.
I am convinced that my t levels have slowly risen to 400 over the last 3 years after 6 months of ADT is due to a very active year round life style.

Just trying to encourage others to lead a more active lifestyle before going the drug route.

Dave

Thanks Slapshot. I had read this also. Good reminder, and some motivation to get back to it

trailguy said...
Well, since this is about information....leuprolide chemotherapy killed 1 of my testicles completely (known possible side effect) ... To be quite honest, I no longer much care about my libido or ability. My wife is no longer interested (age related) and I just want to be done with prostate cancer, its treatments and the many side effects.

Similar story. I had a partial orchiectomy ten years ago, and no baseline was taken. So I only had one testicle to start with. Then RP four years later and started 18 months of Lupron. My final shot was Jan 2018, four years ago, and my T has not been above 60 ever since. I get it tested every six months along with my PSA.

Needless to say, I have zero interest in anything sexual. Fortunately my wife is very understanding, plus has lost interest with age. More than anything, I miss the PASSION of having a libido. But other than difficulties with the AUS, I am ready to put PCa behind me, though I do admin several support groups. I generally avoid prostate groups as I grow weary of the "you should have just had radiation" comments that inevitably pop up now and then.

Just to set the stage, recall that I have been on TRT before, during and after PCa treatment, due to adult-onset hypogonadism.

IIRC, when I first began researching my own treatment path, I looked into research on the impact of ADT and/or that of withholding TRT during treatment. What I found was that the patient's pre-treatment (ADT) T level, patient's age at treatment, and length of time were all contributing factors to if and how quickly T would recover. Older patients, Patients who had lower pre-treatment T levels and Patients who were on ADT for longer periods recovered slower and had lower post-treatment T levels. Over-all, the studies found that in about 30% of the cases, T levels did not return to near pre-treatment levels. And that was for generally healthy patients. Those of us who were hypogonadal or had other T-related factors had even less chance to recover T production after ADT. It all scared the dickens out of me, so I had to find a way to continue my T therapy.