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Posted 11/22/2016 4:51 PM (GMT -5)
Got the results from my PSA work taken last Friday.

Good news is PSA has gone down! After steadily rising, it went from .08 to .06.

Bad news: testosterone level is substantially below normal. Was in the car when I got the results but think it was around 144. Have an appointment next week with urologist to discuss.

Question: With my history, should I stay away from trying to correct T? Feel like I'm in a catch 22 with this. Hate to trade feeling better for another bout of PC.

Any ideas from the brain trust?

Thanks to all!
Posted 11/22/2016 8:04 PM (GMT -5)
Stay away from trying to correct T? Well, I am FAR from an expert, but I can suggest that you search for research papers by Dr. Abraham Morgentaler of Harvard. He is the one doc who seems to be involved in all of the research regarding the intersection of T and PCa. What I also did was to look at the list of names of his co-authors and search for their work, too.

Tall Allen probably has a standard set of links to appropriate studies, but I am sure you can find some with a simple search on Dr. Morgentaler.

Don't give up the ship yet. I can't say if it all applies to your specific case, but a lot of good quality recent research does go against the grain of the previous teaching that giving T to a PCa patient is like throwing gasoline onto a fire.
Posted 11/22/2016 8:22 PM (GMT -5)
What am I missing? is the T naturally low...I see no evidence in sig that it is anything but natural...if so get it fixed... if the psa goes up{it won't imo} do Ht...You are no where near recurrence at this time...imo and most medicos...now here at HW you are long overdo for SRT...pick your poison...
Posted 11/22/2016 8:51 PM (GMT -5)
Mpac...I'm fighting the same battle with testosterone, although in my case I think my low T (111) is related to the fact that I was on hormone therapy during my treatment. I am presuming you weren't and that your drop is natural as Bolo has suggested above.

I wouldn't exclude doing it, although I think it depends to how badly you're feeling. I feel a touch run down, although I don't know if it that's psychological as well. Once I know my T is low, I might be imagining all of this.

Paxton pointed out a source for research, but as I understand it from a PCa perspective, it doesn't matter if your T is 100 or 400--it's "on" and it can fuel the cancer. You'd certainly want to hear what your doctor says, but if that's the case then it wouldn't matter from a PCa perspective.

Tall Allen made some good comments on the testosterone thread I started yesterday about a couple of ways to jump start natural testosterone production. You might want to check that out...
Posted 11/23/2016 8:55 AM (GMT -5)
This is, as far as I can determine, is occurring naturally. After PSA had gone up until this test I was prepared to do SRT (markers have been placed). Drop was a nice surprise. Dr. had said previously we'd pull the trigger on SRT when PSA hit .1.

Have not had HT, just the surgery. Low T is causing problems on the home front and feel I need to do something
Posted 11/23/2016 9:33 AM (GMT -5)
Similar situation here. PSA zero, but T recovering very slowly. Of all the treatments I have endured in the course of PCa I have to say that HT has been the most difficult to cope with.
Posted 11/23/2016 1:16 PM (GMT -5)
Guys, I don't have the links readily available like Tall Allen does, but a while ago there was a study performed to test the T response of PCa patients after cessation of ADT. IIRC, the study stratified the patients by age and length of time on ADT. It found, for example, that among patients in their late 60's to early 70's, endogenous (natural bodily) T production re-started in only about 30-35% of the population, and that for most of those successful cases, it took from 6 months to about 3 years to reach whatever peak level it hit.

In other words, don't for a minute blindly accept your doctor's assertion that "You'll be fine. After a couple of months, your natural T production will come back to normal." It may. It may not. It could take a long time, too.
Posted 11/23/2016 1:57 PM (GMT -5)
Here's one study for long term HT use.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0090429507022017
Posted 11/23/2016 2:00 PM (GMT -5)
Don't know the science very well but here's another.

/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16329145
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