So yea, this time I did not start public diary here about my progression. Still I did keep a diary about changes due to very low T. And it was my 4th time to be chemcastrated for a summer time.

this time it started in 15th of May and last Androcur was taken on 7th September. 4 months practically. By now all the T has fully returned. So I had a nice summer again, without annoying hornyness and sexual thoughts. My T dropped to 21ng/dL. From my usual 600-700 range.

Why am I not surgically castrated yet? It is hard to say. One of the reasons is bad side effects from very low T. For me it is very bad sleep. I just couldn't fall asleep and I woke up at night many times. But if I managed to have a good rest, I did not feel tiredness or being exhausted. The next thing I hate is feeling old and slow. I noticed how my walk changed from energetic to slow. To look as energetic, I had to push myself considerably. Also by the evening I became exhausted, so that I just lied on my bed at times. Any harder work made me sweat a lot and I could easily be out of breath. Also very frequent hot flashes and sometimes cold shivers became a nuisance. My thermoregulation seemed to be out of order.

It was especially bad during the first month and a half. Then everything got slightly better.

By the end of chemcastration I was waiting when all this will end, as I wanted to finish all the Androcur I had and keep the promise. Although lack of sexdrive was very pleasant and desireable. I really enjoyed that part of being castrated as always, I wanted to take a rest from negative effects for a while. And now that all the T effects are back I already wait for the spring to start another 4 month T-less period.

Interesting thing is, that even with very low T I still had few and mild sexual toughts, fortunately they did not occur every day. The longest period without masturbation was 3 weeks, right before the end of chemcastration period. And I did not force abstination. That was nice.

I can tell that all these 4 chemcastrations have been different. First of them was 10y ago. Interestingly I did not have such sleep problems back then. May be it was because I was younger. What I remember clearly of this period that differs from recent experience, is sudden, abrupt loss of sexual thoughts. I also felt being inadequate without T, compared to other males. And things that I could easily lift before became impossibly heavy which I did not notice this time. Also being out of breath was not a case.

I would gladly reply to any related questions

What happens to you at the end of the Androkur course?

Is it harmful to your health?

Is there a full recovery?

Or are there pathological changes?

Have you been to doctors?

The questions!

Valery_V (imported) wrote: Tue Oct 18, 2022 7:55 am What happens to you at the end of the Androkur course?

Hopefully everything will return to pre Androcur condition. I have to tolerate negative Testosterone effects. But there are positive Testosterone effects as well, and I try to enjoy them. Like endurance. I would love to go to some physically demanding hike soon, and not be all wet, out of breath and unable to continue

Interestingly there are more positive effects. Like 3D perception of surroundings. You may say that you see everything in 3D anyway. But no! Spatial perception is significantly better with T. At least for me.

Until I get tired of negative T effects I guess. Wether I take Androcur again, Triptoreline or go permanent, I don't know yet.

Is it harmful to your health?

Of course, there are risks, like with any medication you take. Also there are risks with abrupt change in hormonal levels, like sudden drop of T levels.

Before I dared to take any drugs, I read about all the possible drug related side effects. Tried to find related scientific studies. Read what people have written about their experiences with Androcur. I was especially interested in anything bad that had happened to people. So I knew what might happen to me. Still, I came to conclusion that it is worth to take the risk and go forward. I was ready to accept setbacks. One of the rare effects of Androcur for example is that castration might suddenly become permanent. I have seen at least 2 such cases. One was described here in EA. Also, there is a risk not to recover fully. I accepted these and many other risks. To reduce many of the risks, including liver function, I have limited taking Androcur to 4 months. I also monitor myself my liver function parameters. To keep my bones healthy I used Tamoxifen along with Androcur that works as estrogen for bones and antiestrogen for breasts, to avoid breast growth.

Is there a full recovery?

Hard to tell. I feel that during my second Androcur period (also 4 months) recovery was not 100%, although my T levels returned after some fluctuation to the same levels. But that might be related to my age. I am not 20 anymore. I still continued to masturbate 1.2 times a day in average. As you see, I have actual data.

Or are there pathological changes?

There are no pathological changes. No weight gain, no breast growth. Interestingly, during castration I lost 7kg. I think that it is partly related to water loss or dehydration, as Androcur is a good dehydrator. It made me pee a lot (at nights) and I tried to compensate with drinking more water.

As I am physically active during summer months, weight gain is not too big a problem during that time.

Have you been to doctors?

No. It would be difficult to find supportive and knowledgeable doc here, where I live.

One of the things I'm waiting to see about at my next visit to the TG doc (currently scheduled for Dec.) is what my T level will be now that I'm off Lupron but on E...

My understanding is that when doing Lupron or Androcur your T level goes to effectively zero, as the drugs don't just shut down the T production in the testicles, but also in the adrenal glands and other places that make some. However when surgically castrated, you get a higher level of T than with the drugs because the other glands still make some, so you end up at 'female' levels...

My reading here seems to suggest that if doing E for primary hormones, the best result is to get both T and E levels that are approximately similar to pre-menopausal female levels, but without the extreme cycling that goes with the menstrual cycle.

I am expecting / hoping that being on E will mostly keep my balls from starting back up after the Lupron, but being off it will let the other glands bring my T back up some, but still leave me at castrate levels. It seems that we are better off with a slight amount of T than at absolutely zero.

I'm wondering if something like this would be a solution for you Erik?

(And if I'm wrong on my assumptions above, I hope someone will say so...)

WheelyCurious

You may want to try something besides CA because many of the bad side effects could be from the CA and not just low T. Many bad side effects are actually caused by low estrogen and our body can't synthesize estrogen without having testosterone so you may want to try 1 or two mg of estrodiol daily which shouldn't be enough to cause feminization.

Hello,

I will soon start my 2nd Androcur period.

The first lasted 3 months. Now I want to take it a little longer. Maybe 6 months.

@erikboy how high was your dosage?

Hello,

Stephan_BRB (imported) wrote: Wed Oct 19, 2022 7:12 am I will soon start my 2nd Androcur period.

The first lasted 3 months. Now I want to take it a little longer. Maybe 6 months.

@erikboy how high was your dosage?

At the end of the Androcur period I'll be curious to see how long it takes to return to normal again. Or if you return to normal. For me, after taking last Androcur, it took one week to notice first very mild morning woods. 18 days to have normal morning wood. Interestingly my sex drive appeared only after 3 weeks. Right now I feel that my endocrine system is a bit overactive. And soon it will become underactive. But after few months it should stabilize.

I started with 200mg a day, as I wanted my system filled with Androcur, so it can start to have effect. Otherwise it will take days until Androcur levels rise to correct levels. 5 days on 200mg, 10 days on 150mg and the rest of the period 100mg. From previous periods I know that I can not drop below 100mg a day. 50mg is too little for me. At the end of the period I gradually reduced intake by taking one day 50 and other day 100. and last 10 days I was only on 50mg. It is important to reduce Androcur intake gradually and slowly.

JessicaH (imported) wrote: Tue Oct 18, 2022 2:11 pm You may want to try something besides CA because many of the bad side effects could be from the CA and not just low T. Many bad side effects are actually caused by low estrogen and our body can't synthesize estrogen without having testosterone so you may want to try 1 or two mg of estrodiol daily which shouldn't be enough to cause feminization.

Yes, I would like to try some GnRH agonist instead Androcur. I already took Tamoxifen to keep bone density and avoid breast growth. I am not a great fan of E.

WheelyCurious wrote: Tue Oct 18, 2022 1:30 pm One of the things I'm waiting to see about at my next visit to the TG doc (currently scheduled for Dec.) is what my T level will be now that I'm off Lupron but on E...

In any normal country there are companies that service hospitals and clinics. They have labs to test blood, urine etc. Like www.synlab.de. They will happily test your blood just by your request. You just go to their office and say what you need. Or make an order of tests what you need over internet.

erikboy (imported) wrote: Wed Oct 19, 2022 11:59 am Yes, I would like to try some GnRH agonist instead Androcur. I already took Tamoxifen to keep bone density and avoid breast growth. I am not a great fan of E.

I have been permanently chemically castrated, and I had been taking Tamoxifen for a long time. However, when I was finally able to convince a doctor based on my low T levels to do a bone density scan, I was diagnosed with osteopenia - a precursor to osteoporosis. In the end, I was put on testosterone replacement and Fosamax.