BigStu81
New member
Hey guys.
How's it going? First post here. Been lurking for a few days and was hoping for some advice.
I'm 35 and have had a low sex drive and general lack of energy for a good few years now. I always put it down to a stressful job, poor sleeping/eating habits, poor fitness, etc, never seemed a real mystery to me.
However, about five years back I started lifting again, cleaned up my diet, and got into fairly good shape. I also changed career and I love my job now. However, I still have this 'walking through treacle' feeling that I've had for a long time and I just can't understand why. I have to really force myself to do housework etc and can't be arsed with a lot of my old hobbies. I also realised how bad my libido was recently. Having been single for a few years, I hadn't had to perform spontaneously so assumed that all was ok, mainly because everything functioned ok when I did feel horny. However, in Feb I started dating a girl from work and on three separate occasions I had to make excuses to get out of sleeping with her because I wasn't turned on. It wasn't lack of function, it was more lack of interest, despite finding her really attractive when I'm in the mood.
I had the same thing happen a couple of years back and I told myself it was stress. I decided to sort my job, house move etc before starting dating again and tbh I'd probably still be telling myself that had the most recent one not asked me for a drink.
I only started considering low T to be a possibility a few weeks back when I was looking online to find out why I often wake up with a drenched tshirt even when it's not particularly hot - one of the first symptoms was low T.
Went to see my doctor today and despite having read that the NHS can be a mixed bag, I decided that I'd initially be as open minded as possible as it could be many things causing it. However, I'm a bit sceptical after my visit. I told him that I'd been putting this visit off for ages and had low energy and terrible sex drive, told him about my recent bad experience, said I had no real reason to be depressed outside of these issues. His response was that 'you don't need a reason to be depressed' and when I asked if it could be hormonal because I'd read that night sweats were a symptom, he pulled up my recent blood test (from Oct before I moved to new area/doctor) and said everything good and my liver was 'ok'. I asked if it was worth also testing for low testosterone as I had originally thought it would be done in the original blood test, and he looked at me and said word for word "you're a big chap and with that beard I can say with certainty it's unlikely to be a problem, but I'll test it to rule out the possibility.'
I'm happy that he's prepared to test it but surely he can't jump to conclusions by just looking at me! I'm trying not to jump to any conclusion myself but I'm a bit scared that if they come back at the bottom of the 'normal scale' then he'll try and give me an antidepressant instead. I've read that the NHS guide range doesn't account well for age and that you can be less than half of the average for your age group and be told you're ok despite exhibiting symptoms.
What do you guys reckon?
He lists his areas of interest as 'diabetes, heart disease and mental health.'
How's it going? First post here. Been lurking for a few days and was hoping for some advice.
I'm 35 and have had a low sex drive and general lack of energy for a good few years now. I always put it down to a stressful job, poor sleeping/eating habits, poor fitness, etc, never seemed a real mystery to me.
However, about five years back I started lifting again, cleaned up my diet, and got into fairly good shape. I also changed career and I love my job now. However, I still have this 'walking through treacle' feeling that I've had for a long time and I just can't understand why. I have to really force myself to do housework etc and can't be arsed with a lot of my old hobbies. I also realised how bad my libido was recently. Having been single for a few years, I hadn't had to perform spontaneously so assumed that all was ok, mainly because everything functioned ok when I did feel horny. However, in Feb I started dating a girl from work and on three separate occasions I had to make excuses to get out of sleeping with her because I wasn't turned on. It wasn't lack of function, it was more lack of interest, despite finding her really attractive when I'm in the mood.
I had the same thing happen a couple of years back and I told myself it was stress. I decided to sort my job, house move etc before starting dating again and tbh I'd probably still be telling myself that had the most recent one not asked me for a drink.
I only started considering low T to be a possibility a few weeks back when I was looking online to find out why I often wake up with a drenched tshirt even when it's not particularly hot - one of the first symptoms was low T.
Went to see my doctor today and despite having read that the NHS can be a mixed bag, I decided that I'd initially be as open minded as possible as it could be many things causing it. However, I'm a bit sceptical after my visit. I told him that I'd been putting this visit off for ages and had low energy and terrible sex drive, told him about my recent bad experience, said I had no real reason to be depressed outside of these issues. His response was that 'you don't need a reason to be depressed' and when I asked if it could be hormonal because I'd read that night sweats were a symptom, he pulled up my recent blood test (from Oct before I moved to new area/doctor) and said everything good and my liver was 'ok'. I asked if it was worth also testing for low testosterone as I had originally thought it would be done in the original blood test, and he looked at me and said word for word "you're a big chap and with that beard I can say with certainty it's unlikely to be a problem, but I'll test it to rule out the possibility.'
I'm happy that he's prepared to test it but surely he can't jump to conclusions by just looking at me! I'm trying not to jump to any conclusion myself but I'm a bit scared that if they come back at the bottom of the 'normal scale' then he'll try and give me an antidepressant instead. I've read that the NHS guide range doesn't account well for age and that you can be less than half of the average for your age group and be told you're ok despite exhibiting symptoms.
What do you guys reckon?
He lists his areas of interest as 'diabetes, heart disease and mental health.'
