kingprop

You may have a problem with 5 alpha-reductase being low - and so limited conversion to DHT. Does your Father have a full set growth? At what age did he obtain it? Any brothers who can grow a full set?

subterfuge

sorry, full set growth? are you referring to facial hair? if so:
My brother does have a beard, although it is a little bit patchy. Not thick, dense facial hair that some of my friends have where there doesn't seem to be a milimeter between each hair. I think its the same for my dad, a little patchy(although he is generally clean shaven). So its fair to say that we are not a very hairy family, although I have nothing at all, which donesn't seem natural!

Nutz01

Realy usefull link mate


Reps if i could

bentleymiller

The doctor will not be culpable if he is basing his decision on the evidence before him.

Ian_Montrose

My advise would be to persevere with the doc but take a different approach. Instead of focusing on low test, which is easy for him to dismiss given the morning wood, lay out the symptoms clearly and emphasise the impact they're having on your quality of life. Make it clear that you expect him to do everything reasonably possible to identify the root cause. Don't let him dismiss you. Keep making appoitnments, ensure you have an agreed action plan from him and then chase it up within a reasonable time. If he doesn't play ball switch GP and complain to the practice manager, the local NHS trust, your MP and santa clause.

I wouldn't recommend self-administering test. You don't actually know that is the source of your issues and your hormonal system is an incredibly complex and dynamic affair. You could very well do yourself more harm than good.

Don't waste your time with a private blood test. I had one done by Medichecks and paid close to £200 for what they called a full Andropause profile. It is nothing close to full and lacks a good number of essentail tests. Further, my doctor tried passing my private results to the local endocrinology dept for their opinion and was told they would not look at tests from any labs other than their own. Fortunately I'm having those tests done next week but the money I spent on the Medicheck test was completely wasted.

I wish you all the best but you're going to have to fight tooth and nail which will not be easy given your lack of drive and motivation. Male hormonal health is barely on the radar of your average UK GP from what I can tell, and reading around on the net I'm not sure our endocrinologists take it anywhere near as seriously as they should.

kingprop

Yes I was. Seems like a genetic low activity of DHT action in skin. How about hairlines? Still got them ok? (ie are any men bald?)

It was the same for me really. Never had much of anything growing on my face whilst all me mates were shaving every day. I had a chubby face and mid-section growing up and even adolescent gyno at one point. If I take any steroids that are DHT based, or hang around my system longer than a couple of days I get migraines.

There's definitely a dietary link, well there was for me and as soon as I reduced refined carbs, ate more red meat, drink more water and less alcohol, and especially becoming aware of the benefits of fatty acids and therefore increasing oily fish intake DRAMATICALLY (2xday) helped hugely.

Training helped too obviously. Using testosterone will too.

subterfuge

I dont think anyone in my family has ever gone bald. Even my Grandparents had decent amount of hair when they died. In fact, my mums dad especially had AWESOME hair when he died. Loads of thick, white hair, lol.

As for diet, my profile pic is mw when I was eating right/working out. You mention oily fish. I ate mackarel every day for lunch, and often had salmon and veggies for dinner. When you say 'that helped hugely', helped with what? chubby face/midsection?

I read that it is possible that my total lack of facial hair could be to do with my genetics (although this always confuses me because, when people say that, isn't that just like saying that 'genetically' you dont have much testosterone!! so its the same thing??!)

I guess the answer at the moment is that I really need to FIGHT for a bloodtest from my GP (which just sounds ridiculous! in other countries you have them regularly as a friggin check up!)

And thanks for all of the advice/help from EVERYONE who i haven't directly responded to/quoted

kingprop

Dramatically in changing body composition. I did major changes with diet first, then began training hard, and continued this for years. I believe, although this hasnt been medically proven, that I had a problem with low DHT activity. This wasnt helped by doing/eating those things that can cause oestrogen to rise. The gyno showed me that there was certainly an imbalance. Im sure my lifestyle was disrupting enzyme production. Once id made the change things happened quite quickly on the facial hair front, then my head hair started to fall out which was a good sign DHT activity had increased. Now im bald but very hairy everywhere else.
So your testosterone level could be fine. I cant see any GP referring you on to investigate further once that test comes back within normal range.

subterfuge

me fein

x2-3-4-5and6
just demand your doctor does it,and get a full medical while your at it,f**k all out of his pocket to run the test for you and if he refuses again switch to a gp who will do it,i wouldnt go doing test shots my self bad idea man,you could really f**k up your hormones bottom line man just demand your gp does it he cant really refuse ya