Danielle (imported) wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2012 10:10 am Hi Janekane,
I am curious to know about HRT subsequent to your orchiectomy - - - have you been on any to maintain general overall health? My T level is very low because of the regimine outlined here, but I have been on Estrogen for a very long time. I believe that some sort of HRT is necessary to maintain healthy calcium levels in the blood, whether that hormone is Testesterone or Estrogen.
What is your experience?\
The only testosterone I have had since the summer of 1986 is that which is made elsewhere than in testicles (what testicles?) or is ingested in my diet. About three years after my orchiectomy, I came under the care of an internationally recognized endocrinologist, who decided to prescribe a Premarin and Provera regimin, which lasted for about 8 years, and gave me rather more of the body shape my brain has always deemed right for me. However, increased concerns regarding my genetic predisposition for cancer (familial ademomatous polyposis) and the availability of bone mineral density enhancing medications (now alendronate) resulted in discontinuance of HRT.
What do I do for calcium? Calcium pills resulted in a serious kidney stone problem and repeated lithotripsy. Not a good way to live. So that internationally recognized endocrinologist and I worked away at finding a solution, which is, I eat quite a lot of cheese, mozzarilla cheese, cheddar cheese, colby cheese, monterrey jack cheese, romano cheese, parmesan cheese. Not Limburger! Adequate niacin appears to control the side effects of eating quite a bit of cheese.
Because I was able to work enough, in suitable ways, to qualify for Social Security with Medicare, and because I was able to work, in suitable ways, to qualify for a form of "guaranteed" (what is a guarantee in these economic times?) government pension with lifetime heath care coverage (as in Medicare supplement), I am able to get proper blood chemistry testing as is medically indicated, and my "blood levels" are being maintained such as to give me a fairly decent chance for a fair number of more years of breathing.
About four years ago, when I was 68, some 21 years after my orchiectomy and without HRT, someone who is very physically disabled was given enough money to help pay for gasoline and asked me to help get property in storage near the gulf coast. I have a 1996 pickup truck and a 20 foot enclosed cargo trailer that I use from time to time in my work, and I drove, with this person, to the gulf coast area, in July, and filled the truck, the trailer, and the rack on top of the truck cap with this person's things. The work was strenuous, and I worked at loading the truck and trailer for some 14 hours a day, for about three days, essentially non-stop except to grab a drink of water in order to remain adequately hydrated.
How did I do that, without HRT and its muscle strengthening effects? I keep physically active. I attend to blood chemistry. Bone mineralization is a process involving osteoblasts, osteoclasts, and osteocytes. Physical exercise tends to promote osteoblast activity and reduce osteoclast activity, with osteocytes apparently functioning as the "strain gauges" which mediate osteoblast mineralization and osteoclast demineralization. That is a simple model.
However, I have chosen to behave in ways, as best I am able, which, from physical activity, tend to encourage maximizing bone strength and muscle strength and minimizing bone and muscle weakness.
I have a hunch that there is a tendency to think of bone strength in terms of calcium (bone mineral density). I find that to portend of possible harm, because bone mineral density is a major factor in bone strength when bone is loaded in compression, while bone collagen is a major factor when bone is loaded in tension. For those who relish the proper tensor calculus, bone invariably fails first in tension, even when it has observably failed from compression. How do I know and understand this? I did the maths. (apologies for my British English usage).
My experience? Exercise, exercise, exercise. When muscles become weak and cannot maintain adequate compression in bone loaded in both tension and compression (which really almost always happens), it is weak musculature which may often most wisely be considered as the proximate cause of osteoporitic bone fracture.
Your mileage... Because my main goal was not replicating my dad's and brother's cancer deaths, my actions regarding hormones may differ starkly with what is wise for people who did not inherit a sometimey-fatal tumor suppressor gene predicament.
That said, I am well over the threshold of being transgendered that, once off testosterone, I guess I would prefer to die from brittle bones than live another day with the "mental cloud" that I experienced for decades with testosterone.
. I went to work wearing compression running shorts under my work pants, and was comfortable all day. During restroom breaks, I noticed that the testicles were definitely warm. The left one swelled up more, but with no pain. Right one was less swollen, and was the one that radiated pain up to the abdomen for about an hour. It is still is a little tender this evening.