Fertitility and TRT?

[firemetick]

So I have a 2 part question.
Background; I'm 37,  competitive athlete since 15-various sports, various cycles through the years-all with pct-some with blood work, some not. No Roids for last 2 years.
Wife and I have been mildly trying to have a kid for the last year ( no BC, timing sex during ovulation).
The last 2 years I've been renovating a house, so way less time in the gym.
Wife has noticed over the last year my sex drive has been lower, weaker erections,  harder to maintain muscle mass(looking smaller, lower weight, more fat), I just attributed it to not working out and lower calories.
 After a bit of talking, I took 2 "lets get checked"  total testosterone tests. one taken at 1pm and one at 8am( 7.3nmol/L, 9.1nm/L)..... OK so that's low.

Went to a walk -in, got blood work and semen analysis done. 
total test( that's all she would test) was done at 8am and result was 9.3nmol/L (scale 7.6-31.4)
semen showed lower volume 1.0ml,(scale says 2+),
higher PH 8.2,(scale is 7.2-8),
lower Morphology
 good sperm count 140.5million
60% motility, good swimming, normal agglutination.

After talking with doctor, she says she will refer me to a fertility clinic because shes not well versed in fertility.
And after a bit on convincing an endo  appointment as well (the usual run around, "your test is on the normal range, so its fine!)
She then goes on to explain that the referral and appointments will take between 2 and 3 months to get...!

Q1-Should I just wait the long wait time to get the first appointment and then start the process ( new blood work and semen tests), knowing that i will most likely have to do a protocol version of hcg and clomid.

 Or is it worth it to try a more known fertility protocol before visiting with endo/ fertility clinic.?
(100 mg clomid for 2 weeks, then 50 mg afterwards for 2 months, HCG 500 IU every 3 days ,20 mg of nolva every day for 2 months )

Q2- If I did the known protocol, are there any long lasting effects? 
  I would assume that the Hcg use would raise my test levels and the endo wouldn't even look at me for low test.?

And Ive read a few times that Clomid was discontinued in Canada...... thou I can get it through UG sources.
 

Thoughts from anyone?

 

[Sorbate]

I didn’t run gear until I was 42 but just before 40 I knew my hormones were dropping.  Felt weak, didn’t care if I fucked every day anymore, was getting fatter, losing muscle in places like chest.  Anyhow maybe gear useage got you there faster.

 

i woukd personally wait the two months, shit you’ve went 2 years already, what’s a couple more months.

did you get your estrogen levels checked,  maybe now that you are older you are converting more test to estrogen and it’s giving you a feed back loop dropping your test further?  Only guessing, but let’s get checked can heck estrogen.  Could be why your wee, wee isn’t functioning at stud levels.  If it was me and I had some aromasin kicking around from previous cycles, and was being cheap and did want to pay $200 fir the estrogen test, I’d run a bit of aromasin, like 1/2 a tab twice a week for the first week, then if I was getting better wood, 1/4 tab twice a week and then wait to see how my duck was responding, and see if I was crashing my estrogen.

worse thing to happen is you crash your test and feel shitty for a few days.  Or if you are not an experimenter like me, then get your estrigen tested and go from there.

but once I got an endo appointment, I’d quit experimenting and went in natural, doing nothing.  If you need trt, why fuck it up yourself, and let the doctor who does this for a living do his job.

Edited February 22, 2019 by Sorbate

[firemetick]

Thanks for the reply.
Yes I'm assuming my previous gear usage has helped me achieve the lower natural test levels.
And no i did not do a more comprehensive hormone test,( LH FSH,SHBG, Prolactin, estradiol.)  I was just checking for piece of mind, I didn't expect to get those low results.
The doctor wouldn't test for anything else other than regular blood panel, TSH and Total Test.
 

11 hours ago, Sorbate said:

If you need trt, why fuck it up yourself, and let the doctor who does this for a living do his job.

I just have large hesitations in fully trusting the medical system to actually treat me in a timely manner, without fighting them the whole way.
(I talk to and work with many doctors from different disciplines/departments/hospitals almost every day at work.  Wife is a NICU and L&D nurse,so sadly we see alot of the problems and frustrations in the health care system)

Think of all the people  who have issues with endos or GP's telling guys then they wont treat low test because they don't believe in the treatment or don't know anything about it,
and the horrible experiences during the process to get to a manageable trt program.
How many people-who have a good idea what a trt program should resemble, just give up dealing with inflexible or unwilling physicians, and go on their own?

On the fertility side,  yes 37 doesn't seem that old, but honestly i don't want to be 40 and just starting the first kid( personal belief), so waiting 2-3 months for the first visit, then new blood and semen tests, then waiting for results, then re testing, then starting the whole process of treatment- realistically 6-8 months to start.
( this is in Manitoba, so there is only 1 fertility clinic, and very few Endos, options are very limited and wait times are long)

that is why I am considering attempting the fertility route myself.
Yes I know TRT and fertility are two different beasts.

@Physlifter  ( how do you attach peoples names?)
how was your fertility experience?

 

[Patrick.m]

I went through this when I was 38.  Get to the fertility clinic.  They will help you out a lot. She will have to have A LOT of tests.

I was put on Clomid. no hcg although some people I know told me to do so, I didn't. Followed the doctors orders and it all worked out. He/she is going to find a window where you should be doing it the most. Maybe pick up some cialis if your erections are weak.   Listen to what they say at the clinic. Worked for me.

[Cheapshot]

Thanks guys. Lots of good info

[Svensson]

I second Patrick.m, get to the fertility clinic. My wife and I went through about five years of treatment to try and start our family. My test levels came through on the low side of normal but my sperm count was low. I currently have no history of PED usage so not sure what to blame for my issues. The only way to do it in the end was to go through In vitro fertilization. The first attempt failed and we lost all 13 embryos which was devastating for my wife and I. We decided to give it another go even though my wife found all the drugs and treatment difficult to manage. Jump to today, I'm 40 and as I am typing this I'm holding my 5 month old son. I don't think he wants me to lift, sleep or even visit this forum... lol. Just get started on the road as soon as you can as it sometimes doesn't work the first or even second time around. I wish you the best of luck, as I can speak from experience that it is a difficult journey.

[Ryujiin]

Old post. Hope everything has worked out well for you.  Any update?

Im on TRT and trying to make a little one now, my motility was almost zero.  2 months of 500iu HCG and 50mg Clomid EOD (Mon, Wed, Fri) my count jumped to 14% A (forward progressive) and my total count doubled. Not bad while still being on TRT. 

Just my experience so far. 

[firemetick]

Thanks for the reminder bump.
We are prego at this point!!!

Interesting that you mention clomid as part of your treatment, is it through a compounding pharmacy?

 Canada hasent had the sale of Clomid since june 2017( drug manufacture issues) so they now use Letrozole insted...... funny thing is, there has been very few studies done on the drug for male fertility (best one was out of Singapore in the last 4 years) .
So Canada is basically doing thier testing right now with the public.

 After taking 2mg of letrozole every 3rd day for 3 months my levels improved, test levels rose a bit too to 10 nmol.

I'll have  my first Endo appointment later on this month , my total test levels were 5.7nmol in late sept.
  Maybe its an after effect of the letrozle use..?

[Ryujiin]

8 hours ago, firemetick said:

We are prego at this point!!!

Congrats man. For the clomid and hcg, I pretty much get it through other means.  Were I live now, after my first test result the doctor said "well, too bad: no kids for you unless your wife uses someone else's swimmers"

Giggle fest. Glad to hear everything is working out for you. 

[Bosswave]

Congrats on getting preggers. I wanted to share my experience even though it’s like 2 years late. I was on UG trt dose to combat my low test. I was taking roughly 125m test e with hcg and no ai. After trying to get pregnant my sperm analysis came in at under 5 million/ml and did not register on any further tests. The fertility dr put me on prescribed clomid from only 1/2 pharmacies that can provide clomid in my city. She gave me a 6 month prescription at 50mg a day. I went crazy at about 2.5 months and we decided we could not take it anymore. About 4 months later I had another semen analysis and 2 days before going back to the fertility dr we were pregnant. My numbers were 40million per ml. About 6 months after the first kid was born I slipped one past and we have another one currently in the way. Lol oops  
 

I think ug clomid is under dosed as the prescribed clomid felt like the flu immediately and I went bat shot crazy. My balls were huge and still are lol.
 

In short hcg with trt still had me “sterile” and I believe a hcg protocol while coming off test while taking real clomid brought my numbers back up through the roof. It also restarted my natural test to a low shitty ass number that is not considered low enough for treatment but low enough for me to put on 30lb of fat. Fuck being average. Thanks for listening. I hope this helps someone.