Hi Steve,Sorry I dissapeared for a while as I've een obsessed with doing research on low testosterone levels and I'll explain why. It's all a bit personal, but I don't mind if you don't mind.
My nipples have been quite painful for a while and then I found a lump in each breast. Off to the docs straiht away and they made me an emergency appointment (1 week!) with the breast clinic. On examination, she said she was sure it wasn't breast cancer, by gynecomastia gyne what? lol.
Anyway this prompted me to research my head off and apparrently it's quite common in older men. As testosterone drops with age, and typically fat levels increase, the increase in body fat encourages the body to convert more testosterone to estrogen, compounding the issue. And yes, you guessed it, men start to grow female breast tissue. Well that caught me off guard, but it did make me think.
So I did a bunch of reasearch online and found the ADAM questionnaire for low testosterone. For any men reading this it's here:
The questions are very personal, but you don't have to enter your name or email address, so it's completely anonymous.Androgen Deficiency – Aging Male (ADAM Score) for Low Testosterone
Androgen Deficiency in the Aging Male (ADAM Score) - low testosterone assessment that can help patients or providers assess low testosterone.globalrph.com
Any road up, I scored quite high and it made me think how much, if any of my issues over the past year, are due to low testosterone. The symptoms are quite wide ranging, including fatigue and low mood.
So, back to the GP for a testosterone level test and I'll get the results tomorrow (Friday) or Monday.
The blood test service from the GP is excellent. If you have low testosterone, you get a £25.00 Marks and Spencer voucher for any skirt of your choice 🙂
Any road up, I hope I made you smile. Let me know how you are doing when you can.
Sorry to hear your news. Totally understand why you disappeared. I may feel like doing that in time to come lol. I'm glad I'm hearing from you but didn't want to pressure you in replying etc I was just concerned as it had been a while.
Wow, I do know that hormones can be very powerful when you are lacking them or having too much. When balanced they create good health in general. Great you are gaining knowledge around this subject now and that it might be why you have felt other things too in low mood etc. I'm glad the results of the lumps you have aren't serious. So will they just leave them there now? have heard of this in men who might reach a certain age from past experiences. But can't remember all the details of it now, although for you it has come as a great shock and understandably too.
Yes I can imagine the questions being very personal. Good that it is anonymous.
Good point about yoru issues over the last year, and good your GP is following up on it. Let me know how things go with that.
Haha, good you get a clothes allowance for this condition haha. You have indeed made me smile hahaha.
A few weeks ago I found out through a friend who had been looking into my father that he passed away in 2010. He wasn't a very nice man to put it simply. I was contemplating getting in touch with my brother again you see. But chose not to do that if my father was still alive and around him, it would have been too much. So thi ha really stirred up a lot of child stuff that was bad. I thought I had handled it but think more suppressed it and from there it lead to a life that I had... without too much detail... a loveless marriage, an abusive relationship and string of other stuff mixed in that now has surfaced so need to handle and the OT diagnosed me with Complex PTSD which I never thought you could get and thought of it as Army type people got, so this has weighed heavily on me the last few weeks and now getting an assessment for therapy tomorrow on the phone to see if the service is compatable to help me with my issues. It will be a journey if I take this path but am open to a much better life from it. I'm quite excited to be able to handle things and already like yourself have been researching many things and learning so much and even the health stuff all of this creates and many of my symptoms are from the past stuff that I never knew or realised!
So for both of us it is a learning curve and finding new ways forward and better ways and life ahead.
I'm doing lots of well being stuff and wellness things to keep myself balanced especially in the last week. If I do go quiet at times it's because this stuff is taking my time and my energy as I have to devote my freshest energy to resolving things the best I can now, this will take priority when/if therapy begins. It's only in assessment stage right now but will know more tomorrow maybe. I'll let you know.
Keep me updated in what you are up to if you want and when no rush or pressure. It was good to hear you are okay, well you know what I mean.
Take good care of yourself and sending best wishes in the steps that come.
All the best
Samana x