Getting a Diagnosis of Low Testosterone, Hypogonadism Low TRT - MyTestosteroneTherapy.com

My Diagnosis of Low Testosterone caused by Hypogonadism

I now realised that something was significantly wrong with me. I had been feeling unwell for longer than I cared to remember. I couldn’t even put a date on it except for certain events I remember it’s been a gradual worsening of symptoms.

I’ve laughed in the face of Man Flu, Having suffered Bells Palsy in the past I understand how to play the long game. I waited that ‘S of a B’ out. Turns out with male hormone deficiency you just can’t do this. It gets worse.

I had indeed picked the wrong strategy. This simply was not going to go away. As I sat in my GP’s surgery waiting room pondering the origins of the stains on all the green foam seats. Eventually my name was called and after being hustled into the consultation room. I now sat opposite my GP confident that I was about to be set ‘well on the road to recovery.’ After rattling off all my symptoms like a Hypochondriac on amphetamines. The Doctor asked me ‘the Big 4′.

Yep..’The Big 4′ ARE those killer questions that your frazzled, 5 minute target obsessed Doctor will use to convict you for “heinous war crimes” against your own body. Yes sir, answer these little beauties wrong and you may as well be sending yourself off to guantanamo bay.

Do you Smoke, Drink Alcohol, Are you Overweight, Any Exercise? If none of these little critters are to blame then it’s probably just depression. GP’s seem to love dishing these out. Seems like an easy fix, huh? I knew my primary problem was not depression. I was thinking along the lines of something a bit more exotic and sexy. In fact I’d have plumped for anything pretty much.. except the clap or cancer. Thankfully, I could easily rule out the former ( Happily married – still, despite me being a miserable bastardo on occasion) and Thank God later further Blood tests ruled out the latter. So relieved was I that my number wasn’t up just yet.

So after being told “you’re probably just depressed” by my GP. I felt a little miffed that they were overlooking all of my symptoms. I was so angry in fact. that I actually just walked out mid consultation!

Depression and Low Testosterone

I knew that I wasn’t depressed… Chipper, I certainly wasn’t. But I didn’t want to just go on Anti-Depressants because it’s being pushed by the big pharmaceuticals. This is where my battle really started. So now you have just lived through over a year in my life in the space of reading a page.

Not exactly like watching Jack Bauer in action packed 24 though is it?

After a month or so I still felt bad and had reached the point where I called the GP surgery crying and said I still feel bad and felt like I could not go on.

I’d managed to get a phone consultation with a doctor for that same day and he said that I had better come down and see him

I explained that I wasn’t just down or drinking too much. Something was WRONG with me. He had decided that he was going to do a full blood screen and see what he could find.

I had got a letter through my door a week or so later saying that I had an abnormal Thyroid TSH Thyroid Stimulating Hormone. Please come down for a repeat test. My TSH was 6.38 and the normal range is <5. My TSH was abnormal BUT because it was less than 10 they would not treat me as being Hypothyroid. I.e start a replacement thyroid hormone program.

I was being called subclinical Hypothyroid. This pretty much meant that they would not do anything for me. If I had been seen by a Doctor in the US or Germany with a TSH of over 3 I would now be getting treatment for Hypothyroidism.

I had further tests of liver function etc. These were slightly elevated. This was not suprising to me. I had been drinking more recently. Because I was down and just hacked off with life and always feeling rubbish. Now I was getting lectured from a doctor about my drinking and I could see her looking down her nose at me.

I drank because I was feeling so bad, what did she expect. I told her as much. I paid for private blood tests to check my full thyroid function using Genova Diagnostics. That indeed said my reading were abnormal. I took my online research down to her demanding they at least consider some form of treatment. Including the fact that she thought a TSH of around 5 was OK where I showed here a study indicating that 98% of the population have a healthy TSH of <1.

She said she would ONLY refer me to an Endocrinologist because as she put it “You will clearly not listen to me telling you your thyroid is ok but maybe you will believe that opinion from a consultant!”

After joining a thyroid support forum a particular member there suggested I should get a lot of other things checked prior to seeing the Endo and I should get the Doctor to do these tests first as it would save time at the Hospital. I was told to get B12 and my prolactin checked out also.

Well, I went back to the GP and asked her to run these tests. Either to prevent her from looking foolish or just to get me out of her surgery as fast as possible she agreed.

Surprisingly I got another letter through saying please come in for a retest you have a high prolactin level. As this was high I’d gotten my GP to do other tests (THANKS to the online support from new friends at the Thyroid group). Sex hormones etc. My Testosterone came back low!!

At this stage I was only weeks away from seeing the consultant. So I decided to lay low and not annoy my GP anymore. If they didn’t think I was an annoyance in the early days they’d be proven wrong by now. I figured that by now the only person who would make a real change to me would be the Endo.

At my hospital appointment the Endo I saw was a young consultant who took all my concerns seriously and treated my with respect and didn’t seem to think of me as some kind of Hypochondriac. He said my symptoms were “classic low testosterone” symptoms but was concerned about my high prolactin. This should not be high in men, primarily it’s a female Hormone useful for breast feeding women about as much use as tits on a fish for me then! Further blood tests revealed that I was secondary Hypogonadism I.e it was my pituitary system that was responsible for my low T my testes were working fine. Just not getting the correct signals from my pituitary gland. Which happens to be a small pea sized gland in the head. Primary Hypogonadism is where the testes themselves are responsible for low T.

So what was causing my High Prolactin and Low Testosterone? My Endo thought that it was most likely a Prolactinoma (a normally benign tumour on the Pituitary gland). Depending upon the size of these things they can cause visual disturbances as they can interfere with the optic nerves. At this stage I was pretty scared as you can imagine I thought the grim reaper was seriously getting on my case.

What felt like the three longest weeks in the world for me went by and i’d gotten an MRI scan to have a look at my Pituitary gland. Now these things themselves don’t make you feel too hot. After being almost fully encapsulated in the MRI machine for just under 90 minutes. My scan consisted of without and then with contrast dye injected . I could look at some funky angled mirrors to see the Radiographers sat in a booth about 20 foot away. As soon as a bearded mad scientist doctor type entered the booth I could see him looking at the Scanner screen then fingering his beard. That’s it I thought.. I’m done for! Condemned by a guy with a beard.

After the scan was done the Radiographers told me they could not tell me anything and I would get my results from my consultant. Well despite William and Kate getting married that same weekend I was busy waiting on tenterhooks. Just wishing that they would let me know I was going to be OK.

My pituitary has probably been squashed flat in it’s little bone hollow known as the ‘sella Turka.’

Depending upon where you read it from, has different causes and currently cannot be corrected by surgery or drugs. Just the symptoms are treated. Fingers crossed for me that it’s just my Testosterone thats affected and nothing else.

Thats how I have come to be diagnosed with empty sella syndrome causing me Secondary Hypogonadism resulting in Low testosterone. Phew.. that was a mouthful !