Based On A True Story

As a busy family doctor, husband and father, I expected to feel more tired, less patient, and less mentally "quick" than I had when I was 10 years younger and single. But as a good doctor who tries to lead by example, I couldn't understand why, at only 41 years old, my 4-5 time/week workout performances were tailing off. I never lifted weights when I was younger, and after some initial improvements in my strength, not only wasn't I getting stronger, I actually started losing the gains I'd made over a 6 month period.

Having recently been to an educational event where I first learned about andropause, I decided to do something I shouldn't have done, that is, be my own doctor, and order an appropriate lab work-up, including bioavailable testosterone and PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen, a marker for prostate cancer). When my bioavailable testosterone came back at the very low end of normal, and my PSA came back normal. I decided to do the smart thing and make an appointment with my local Urologist."

When I went to the doctor, the first question he asked me was how my erections were. I told him that given how busy and tired I was, (and my wife too) that I hadn't even thought of it! So after answering positively to 9 of the 10 questions on the ADAM test (I didn't think I'd gotten any shorter), and reviewing my lab work, we decided that I was in fact suffering from andropause. In spite of what I know and having the evidence in front of me, I still had trouble believing it. I wasn't doing that badly, was I?

One quick way to check for symptoms of low testosterone is to take the ADAM test.

After a thorough physical, including an exam of my prostate, my doctor suggested that a trial of Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) would be worthwhile. We talked about all the preparations available on the market. Injections didn't make much sense to me, as I wanted something that worked more like my body's own testosterone.

I wasn't sure exactly what to expect once I was on therapy, but I presumed that the first things I would notice would be physical, as that's what caused me to seek help in the first place. The amazing thing was though, that within about three weeks, my head "cleared up". It was as if someone had come and cleared out the cobwebs, and all of a sudden, names and phone numbers I had been struggling to remember started to come to me almost automatically. I was less cranky, and less short with my kids, and able to stay awake through the books I was reading to help THEM fall asleep. My wife noticed that I was actually funny again. The physical changes started to come later, and my weight lifting, not to mention how far I could hit a golf ball, started to come back to their old levels.

All in all, the recognition of the fact that I had andropause, and the initiation of appropriate TRT, has been a huge boon to my life, and I'm now very pro-active in discussing it with all my male patients who are over 40, trying to make sure that even if they don't have any symptoms now, I try to get at least a blood test for a baseline, so we have something to compare to in the future, should problems arise.

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