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Testosterone

34 year old over weight male.  My Dr just prescribed me Testim due to a low T count.  Im extremely concerned that it's very transferable.  My question is will i have to take this for the rest of my life.  Is there anything i can do to raise my T count without medication?  Also why didnt the Dr prescribe me something like viagra?  
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Avatar universal
Hello,
     Yes, a T level of 134 is considered low enough for replacement therapy. But, in the light of your previous post, it appears that your symptoms started only an year back and considering your age and over weight stature, it may be worth while to do some more testing before deciding on HRT. Did your doctor say any thing about the duration for which the replacement he wanted to try?
Normally you have to check the T level once or twice more before considering HRT, as a single measurement need not necessarily be correct. Also you should do the testing in the morning hours. Measurement of free T is also needed, as in your case SHBG,count would be low, which in turn could increase both free and bio-available T levels. Again, low SHBG and insulin resistance are implied, so that you could be a candidate for type II diabetes, which could affect T levels, so that better to check the blood sugar levels also, especially since you started getting problems of late only.You should also check up your thyroid levels, estrogen, LH, prolactin, and adrenal levels to confirm none of those are responsible for your low T levels.
If there are such primary causes, low T could only be a symptom and not necessarily a disease to be treated.  

Again, taking balanced food (zinc very important), avoiding junk food and stress and doing moderate exercise will all help to improve T levels in an youngster like you.

In short I advise you to consult an experienced Endo from a research oriented hospital  before taking the hard decision on HRT.

Good luck,
Solace
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Avatar universal
my T count result is 134. and it says reference intercal is 348-1197 not sure what that means.  it does not say anything about free T
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Avatar universal
Hi,
    In fact these are the very same questions you should have asked your doctor when he prescribed you this treatment. A doctor is obliged to clear off all doubts in a patient and you have the right to know about the details of the treatment. I am sure that the doctor might have weighed all pros and cons of the treatment options. Nevertheless,  you can still take a second opinion from an experienced Endo before starting the treatment, since replacement in all probabilities is likely to extend for life.
Since you are overweight, one possibility is that you have estrogen dominance and T replacement may further increase the estrogen levels, but your doctor must have considered this issue already.May be he wants to try it on a short term basis to test its efficacy. So, it is better to get these points clarified from him.
By the way, what was your T levels?, did you check your free T?.

Solace  
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