prozac420 (imported) wrote: Thu Jul 16, 2009 9:05 am
I just set the date this afternoon. August 12th puts an end to 34 years of physical, emotional, and psychological pain. Now I've just gotta finish with the fund raising and I'm all set.
I feel much better off after my testicles were removed. I had a vasectomy about 20 years ago and had absolutely no discomfort arising from it and wasn't even aware until recently that so many had pain from it. But I did have a very active libido that didn't match my wife's at all. We did a long stint of chemical castration (2 1/2 years) where my testosterone level was under 100. I was generally very happy at this level. My libido had mostly disappeared and while I could still masturbate and ejaculate a few drops, I didn't get erect atall. My doctor was unaware of my chemical castration and discovered my testes were shrunken and very firm. This led to a biopsy where they were found to be atrophied and infarcted. He waited 3 months to see if there would be any improvement in my testosterone level indicating my testes were improving. I added Androcur to the Depo Provera I was taking at at the end of 3 months my testosterone was down to 44 and he said he would remove them. But I wasn't as happy at this level as I was at the previous 95 level. Now I had absolutely no sexual desires and couldn't ejaculate at all. My skin was very dry and itchy, I lost a noticable amount of strength, became more intolerant of cold temps but didn't have any depression as some claim they have had. I was unaware of bone loss issues with low testosterone so wasn't taking any calcium. A bone density test revealed the slightest case of osteopina- the precurssor to osteoporosis. He said it would improve with either calcium or testosterone. Estrogen would work, too but I didn't opt for that.
So now I am castrated and take a limited amout of Testim gel. I'm kind of at the same level that Gandalf is. One tube is 5gm just like Adrogel. I have a lot of flexibility because my doctor gave me a prescription for 2 tubes a day so I could play with it to see how I reacted. He initially recommended one tube a day and I did about half that. My testosterone level then was 165 which I felt was higher than I'd really like. For the last month I tried 1 1/2 tubes a day and am awaiting the results of a test I took yesterday. I was plenty horny at that level, could ejaculate and had very oily skin again. This month I am going to try Gandalf's idea of half a tube every other day and see how that works. I think I'd be content with a T level of about 110-125 and that should get me just about there.
I has been fun seeing how much testosterone effects things other than just sex and adjusting the level to get it right for me. I know my doctor would like me higher but I am satisfied at about half of the lower range for normal for my age. The only bad thing about the gel is the cost. The current cost at my local Walgreen's is over $600 a month for 60 tubes of Testim. Yes, I can get it cheaper directly from our health plan but they have a $20 co-pay for 3 months. The plan pays the higher cost at Walgreen's but my co-pay is $20 a month. But my doctor gave me a card from Testim that pays for the co-pay at Walgreen's but not mail order through the plan.
Do you think the drug plan in obamacare will be so flexible? Oh, that's right, they won't release the details
When I got home from the hospital I was pretty beat up and hurt all over anyway, add to that the idea that I was now a eunuch and deeply in debt. I didn't know
and hadn't had any T in my sytem for almost a month thanks to a LITTLE oversight by the hospital.
Believe me if I could have gotten downstairs to the gunsafe it would have been a 44 MAG, and I wouldn't be typing this! It got that bad, so I for one know exactly were you're coming from!
I sure hope that I don't have to have any prolonged hospital stays. Things could get dicey. BUT, I guess that is one of the things we face as eunuchs. I would have thought that the Dr. would have ordered the T gel for you while you were recovering. Unfortunately, doctors only think of what was done by them, not what has happened before they got their knives into you and your billfold.
