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First let me apologize if this post turns out somewhat long. It's just that I got my test test results in and I feel like I'm back in control of my life again, or will be soon after 5 + years.
Jeez, where to start. Well I'll be 59 next month and I'm a good 30 #'s overweight(still it did take 10 years to gain that after quitting smoking). Over the last few years I began to have what we all know now as the classic symptoms of andropause.
It started out with muscle soreness and fatigue. This was probably 4-5 years ago. I'm still active physically and turning 30 acre's into a working farm here in Alaska. About 4-5 years ago I started building a 5 bedroom house for my family from the foundation up with no help. So for the first 3 years I'm thinking it's because I'm pushing myself at this age, my body's not used to it, my muscles are just sore from the physical labor of building the house.
Then while building the house I start with the sleeplessness. Night after night I'm only getting 3-4 hours sleep before I wake up and can't go back to sleep. After a year of this I get my Dr. to give me Ambien. It works for about 6 months and stops. So he switches me to Lunesta which I've been on ever since. I still wake up occasionally but now it's maybe once a week instead of every night.
So, another year goes by with the muscle soreness and the sleeplessness and I'm still building the house when I start getting the g$^56dm hot flashes. Only with me it didn't matter if it was daytime or nighttime. If any of you have experienced this s#$% you know what I mean. Where you go from being nice and comfortable to instantaneously so hot you're pulling your shirt off. Luckily for me in the winters all I had to do was open the door. At 40 below zero you can cool off really fast. It does tend to upset the rest of the family though when they're all comfortably watching TV at 72 degrees. But they put up with what they thought were my little idiosyncrasies.
And somewhere in all this mess I end up with HBP. Plus I start becoming irritable as well.
Then I started getting the mental fog. Like I'm thinking and looking through a dirty window at the rest of the world. Well, the HBP medicine helped with the HBP, but I still have the mental fog.
Next I start losing my libido. Now for some guys that might be alright. But I'm lucky enough to have married a woman 25 years younger than me(no I'm not a sugar daddy, she makes more than me) AND she is one hot tamale even after 4 kids in 4 years. So this was NOT acceptable.
That's when I started thinking about the Viagra and stuff. But I didn't really push it until I ended up with low semen volume(this is the que for everyone to laugh because we all know how I found out about that
and if you don't I'm not explaining it in a mixed forum) last month.
That was it. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. I started researching online all of these symptoms I had been having over the last few years and this forum came up on Google. And that's when I started reading the posts. Boy have you opened my eyes.
So of course I had to go to my new Dr. and tell her I my symptoms and that I wanted my test tested. This is when she says she'll also have my free test tested as well. Come to find out she gets about 5-6 guys a year with the same problem. And if you've stuck with me this far and read down to here the results are(drum roll please)
Test - the range according to her is 300-1100. Mine--- 150.
Free test - the minimum according to her is 30. Mine---22.
So I have an app't to see her tomorrow. She was originally talking about putting me on Androgel. But I've read about the patch and I'm wondering if it might not be better since I still have 8-12 years old children around.
Comments anyone? If any of you do recommend the patch who makes it? Also what else would you recommend. I don;t want to be 20 again but at pushing 60 i would like to at least feel 40 again.
Again, thanks. Without this forum many, many people would have no source for information about this problem. Now I'm looking forward to being my old self again or at least starting to head that way.
Jeez, where to start. Well I'll be 59 next month and I'm a good 30 #'s overweight(still it did take 10 years to gain that after quitting smoking). Over the last few years I began to have what we all know now as the classic symptoms of andropause.
It started out with muscle soreness and fatigue. This was probably 4-5 years ago. I'm still active physically and turning 30 acre's into a working farm here in Alaska. About 4-5 years ago I started building a 5 bedroom house for my family from the foundation up with no help. So for the first 3 years I'm thinking it's because I'm pushing myself at this age, my body's not used to it, my muscles are just sore from the physical labor of building the house.
Then while building the house I start with the sleeplessness. Night after night I'm only getting 3-4 hours sleep before I wake up and can't go back to sleep. After a year of this I get my Dr. to give me Ambien. It works for about 6 months and stops. So he switches me to Lunesta which I've been on ever since. I still wake up occasionally but now it's maybe once a week instead of every night.
So, another year goes by with the muscle soreness and the sleeplessness and I'm still building the house when I start getting the g$^56dm hot flashes. Only with me it didn't matter if it was daytime or nighttime. If any of you have experienced this s#$% you know what I mean. Where you go from being nice and comfortable to instantaneously so hot you're pulling your shirt off. Luckily for me in the winters all I had to do was open the door. At 40 below zero you can cool off really fast. It does tend to upset the rest of the family though when they're all comfortably watching TV at 72 degrees. But they put up with what they thought were my little idiosyncrasies.
And somewhere in all this mess I end up with HBP. Plus I start becoming irritable as well.
Then I started getting the mental fog. Like I'm thinking and looking through a dirty window at the rest of the world. Well, the HBP medicine helped with the HBP, but I still have the mental fog.
Next I start losing my libido. Now for some guys that might be alright. But I'm lucky enough to have married a woman 25 years younger than me(no I'm not a sugar daddy, she makes more than me) AND she is one hot tamale even after 4 kids in 4 years. So this was NOT acceptable.
That's when I started thinking about the Viagra and stuff. But I didn't really push it until I ended up with low semen volume(this is the que for everyone to laugh because we all know how I found out about that
and if you don't I'm not explaining it in a mixed forum) last month.That was it. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. I started researching online all of these symptoms I had been having over the last few years and this forum came up on Google. And that's when I started reading the posts. Boy have you opened my eyes.
So of course I had to go to my new Dr. and tell her I my symptoms and that I wanted my test tested. This is when she says she'll also have my free test tested as well. Come to find out she gets about 5-6 guys a year with the same problem. And if you've stuck with me this far and read down to here the results are(drum roll please)
Test - the range according to her is 300-1100. Mine--- 150.
Free test - the minimum according to her is 30. Mine---22.
So I have an app't to see her tomorrow. She was originally talking about putting me on Androgel. But I've read about the patch and I'm wondering if it might not be better since I still have 8-12 years old children around.
Comments anyone? If any of you do recommend the patch who makes it? Also what else would you recommend. I don;t want to be 20 again but at pushing 60 i would like to at least feel 40 again.
Again, thanks. Without this forum many, many people would have no source for information about this problem. Now I'm looking forward to being my old self again or at least starting to head that way.
