What gel do you use?

[coffee10 (imported)]

I didn't quite understand why you used Androforte as its listed as a Testosterone Cream to suppliment low testosterone serum levels?

Are the gels meant to boost Estogen levels?

[shemp 83676 (imported)]

Hormone gels can either contain estrogen or testosterone depending on which you have selected. Here the main thrust is with testosterone gels.

I have experimented with many including Andromen Forte, Androgel, Androgel 1.62%, Axiron, Testim and some special compounded creams. I did like the Andromen Forte but had to pay for that myself because it isn't in my insurance formulary. Otherwise Androgel 1.62 was the easy winner. I played around with all and various doses but for the last 3 years have dropped the testosterone and gone to just taking added calcium to prevent osteoporosis

[nvrgag44 (imported)]

I still have my testicles but radiation for prostate cancer in '06 cooked more than the cancer. I've had all sorts of problems pop up due to the radiation. Rectal bleeding that had me wearing diapers for a while. A Gastroenterologist fixed it by cauterizing the scar tissue twice. Now a blocked urethra from scar tissue that has been worked on 3 times is causing problems. Urethroplasty is the next step. The radiation also did a number on my testicles. It killed my ability to get hard or ejaculate. At least I can still experience satisfying orgasms. My testosterone levels run from a low of 130s up to no more than the mid/high 200s. A urologist I used to see prescribed Androgel 1.0 but my primary doctor was very much opposed because I have A-Fib. I've been seeing him for years and we speak like buddies over a beer. He asked me if risking a stroke, heart attack or the return of prostate cancer was worth the Androgel experiment. As usual, he made the most sense. So I have a month's supply of those expensive little blue foil packs sitting on the shelf-- just in case I ever decide to get stupid.

I actually like the reduced T levels. I'm less stressed out and my previously bad and often destructive temper is ancient history. I've lost a lot of body hair which is also welcome. I'm not as strong or energetic as I once was and my libido is a shadow of what it was once too. But I'm also 70 so how many of these changes are due to low T or age? I'd guess both. So to answer the question, "Which gel do you use?" None, I could but it's just not worth the risks. I might see things different if I were a eunuch and producing only minimal T from other glands.

[Woggler58 (imported)]

I'm in my 5th year of taking a bio-identical testosterone rub-on crème as prescribed by a MD who's with the USA-wide BodyLogicMd practice. It's formulated by University Compounding Pharmacy in San Diego California, packaged in a clever "Topi-Click" dispenser, and sent by UPS to my home monthly. It is free of the user-unfriendly characteristics mentioned by others in this thread and seems to most resemble the Australian Andromen Forte as described by them. It is 5 percent testosterone (50 mg per gram) and I'm prescribed 1 gram a day, measured out by four click-defined turns of the knob on one end of the dispenser, and applied to upper chest and inside of upper arms in 1-fourth gram dollops which emerge onto the center of the smooth plastic dome of the other end and rubbed on in the way stick deodorant is. It feels cool for less than a minute on the skin as something volatile evaporates, after which there's no evidence on the skin that anything had been applied.

I'm taking this stuff for the same problem nvrgag44 states: "

I still have my testicles but radiation for prostate cancer in '06 cooked more than the cancer.

" (in '07 in my case.) Unlike him, I blew off nearly every urologist's notion that taking lab-made T (a hobgoblin in their minds, left over from med school) would cause return of prostate cancer but having lots of your own natural T would not. Prostate cancer spontaneously returns in a substantial minority of those getting any mainstream treatment for it, and very few of them have taken a prescribed T supplement. I did, and it seems that the cancer has returned, about in the way it would have anyway. If the cancer wasn't entirely eradicated, any non-castrate level of T from any source will enable its regrowth. I figured I might as well enjoy a generous T level while I can, and if the disease comes back it was going to anyway.

Dosage of supplemental T does increase red blood cell concentration, as I've noted on my blood test panels taken at least twice a year. When I was doing 5 clicks a day (which the monthly refill supplied) my RBC and hematocrit were high in the normal range; over the last year I have tapered back to 3 clicks a day and those red blood cell measures have settled back into the lower half of normal. Concurrently with less T dose, trouble with left leg deep vein blood clots has gone away -- and with it the prospect of clots breaking loose to lodge in lungs, heart or brain.

Every organ-focused treatment for prostate cancer, including radiation, degrades erectile performance, from somewhat to total erectile dysfunction. Nerves essential for triggering erection pass so close to each side of one's prostate, with branches entering it, that they suffer some function-impairing damage despite the best medical skills. That, and loss of semen production, are the bad news accompanying every diagnosis of prostate cancer that isn't left untreated. Those patients who go all the way off testosterone as their systemic treatment will typically lose erections plus libido and ability to orgasm.