Posted by BarbaraCat on May 14, 2004, at 17:42:18
In reply to Re: Testosterone info, posted by stann on May 13, 2004, at 23:42:13
> When I had my original T test it was very low and between different treatments my t levels came back very low. I am 40 years old and my doc said this was unusual for a man my age. I thought it might have been caused by all the ssri antidepressants I had been taking but my doc said not likly. I have read that ssri's can cause T levels to lower.
**What you are saying is very interesting because this is what happened to my husband. He went through a very stressful period at work and became very depressed. For about 1.5 years he was taking Zoloft. He was OK while taking it but once he stopped he became very depleted and started having sexual dysfunction. He went to a urologist and tested at extremely low levels of T and went on the patch. He was in his early 40's at the time and we both felt it was too young for this kind of thing. He always felt the SSRI was what affected him, but we could never find any info on this. So I'm grateful (as I'm sure he will be) that someone else has had similar suspicions with SSRI's.
BTW, just to let you know the outcome, he went off the patch and wasn't on any hormone therapy until recently getting the natural hormones. During this time, I could sense that his testosterone level was still low. His sexual functioning, energy level and motivation were all low. Sure enough, his test through the naturopath showed low testosterone, but not only that, his estrogen levels were very raised!! Not good for a guy thing, but also the risk of cancer. The naturopath says it's rare for only one hormone to be out of balance. His cortisol was real low too and cortisol is important in hormone production, so he's taking stuff for balancing his adrenal function as well.
Even though it's been a slow ramp-up he's feeling and looking 100% better and feels like things are stable. The urologist only focused on testosterone and not the big picture. He used a powerful synthetic med that worked faster but caused alot of problems.
I hope you pursue this get things in sync. Hormonal dysfunction is at the root of so many of our mood disorders. Just ask any woman (or her partner) about PMS! Standard blood tests only measure the free hormone instead of what is being taken up cellularly and don't provide much useful info, so maybe you'll look into saliva testing. Take care and good luck, and let me know how things go. - BarbaraCat
poster:BarbaraCat
thread:338064
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20040418/msgs/346912.html