Questions about my health (Apnea and TRT) Long post sorry

[pcgizzmo]

Hello!

First this is long and I aplogize but I think it is necessary to get all the info in.

I am new here and hoping to find some answers to my search. I would like to say it is a shame that I have to resort to a Steroid forum to find answers that many Dr's could not give me in over 3 years. No dis-respect to the body builders here intended. I have followed body building for years and work out on a regular basis. I just think Dr's should be more educated and open minded in certain areas and should Now my history.

I am currently 35 years old. I am 5' 10" tall. 227 lbs and 18% body fat. My neck is 18"s. About 3 years ago I woke up gasping for air. Every time I tried to go to sleep I would wake up gasping. I went to the hospital and they told me I was most likely having panic attacks. I thought it was possible I guess. Both of my parents had just been diagnosed with Cancer and were having operations on the same day not to mention I had just gotten married. I thought it was not beyond the realm of possibility. This continured on for about a month. I was also having night sweats. I will also say that when I got married I weighed 200 and my weight went from that to what it is now in under a year. I finally got my Dr. to send me to a sleep study. I was diagnosed with mild to moderate sleep apnea and given a cpap. I tried using it but could not make myself sleep with it. My mouth kept opening and it was just not comfortable. About this same time I was also noticing low libido. I went to the Dr. and they diagnosed me with hypogonadism. I went through the tests and no underlying cause was found. They gave me the andro gel patch. This caused the worst apnea I have ever had. From the first night I wore it. I immediatly quit taking it. I started exercising (I had quit since getting married) and lost about 10 pounds. The gasping went from every night to about one or twice a month. I still had problems with the libido thing so I started seeing Endocronologist. They all wanted to know if I wanted kids. I told them some day so they said we are not going to give you Test we are going to give you Clomid to get your T up naturally. Well, this worked only slightly. It went from 212 to 400 which in my opinion is still to low for my age and to increase my sex drive. It also caused me blurry vision over long term use. To make a long story short I am currently seeing a DO who seems to know something about T replacement and ancillaries that go along with keeping everything working normally like Arimidex, Clomid etc.... My issues and questions/comments are this.

1. If I start taking T Cyp shots 1 CC per week I am afraid my apnea will come back. It can not be from the buildup of muscle but rather some chemical balance related central apnea since it happens almost immediately.

2. I still have a CPAP machine but it did no good in the past and I fear it won't help now. I could try a full face mask but, when I had my sleep study they even commented that the CPAP did not seem to really improve my apnea's and in some cases it made them worse.

3. Can anyone recommend a possible solution?

On a side note. Why don't Dr's especially Endo's and Sleep Doc's more familar with the effects of T on apnea as well as apnea's effects on the Endocrine system. There are way to many studies out there for them to not recognize this. To make matters even stranger my own sister is a Pulmonologist and just got certifed in sleep medicine and had never heard of Apnea affecting T production or T causing apnea. I do not understand.


Any help would be appreciated. I sincerely apologize for the rant but I wanted to inlude everything and I still cut it short

Paul

[buck]

I would have to think that not sleeping all night long for weeks or years at a time would definitely stress the bodt out and cause it to work poorly. When I had my apnea tested then the surgery, my Dr. said that extra weight such as lifting would have an effect on the apnea as the neck not only gets bigger in diameter, but decreases the size as it te extra tissue closes the opening making it easier for the tounge to block the opening when it slides back while you are sleeping.

[mranak]

Is that testosterone dosed at 200mg/mL? So you are taking 200mg/week? Have you had any blood tests since starting on TRT?

btw: This particular forum is not about bodybuilding or powerlifting or AAS use. Other forums on this board are, but not this one. We've got perhaps the world's best TRT physician moderating this forum.

[pcgizzmo]

It is 100 mg/ml dosage of 1cc per week. Sorry, I should be more specific. I still have yet to take it because of my fear of the apnea coming back in full force. My last blood test was Serum T301 and Free T 8.0 The only think abnormal was my Hemoglobin was 17.4. I think this is because of my apnea. My RBC was at the edge of normal at 5.60. It was elevated on a previous blood test and my hemoglobin was normal. They kind of swapped it looks like. Hematocrit was normal at 48.7.

Should I request the mod move my post? I thought I saw some posts about apnea in this forum.

Thanks...

[mranak]

Originally Posted by pcgizzmo

It is 100 mg/ml dosage of 1cc per week. Sorry, I should be more specific. Should I request the mod move my post? I thought I saw some posts about apnea in this forum.

Don't appologize. I was just inquiring.

Please stick around. This forum is for you. I was saying that other parts of this board are about steroids for lifters, but not this one.

[pmgamer18]

I feel it can be panic attacks from high E2 Estradiol. I have had them for yrs. was put on Xanix and never got relief. Then found out about high E2 in men and had it checked. Get your E2 checked first before you try shots. I would wake up in the middle of the night in a sweat and gasping for air but felt like I could not get any this feeling made it worse. I had a sleep test and they told me I have sleep apnea my wife had it and lost weight now she is ok. I feel that the sleep testing does not turn anyone away just like seeing a head Dr. they feel everyone needs help. I got my E2 down and never had them again unless my E2 goes up. And on nights I feel stuffed upped I put on a noise strip this helps me breathe better at night. As you can get this done in a Dr.'s office if Sleep apnea is your problem.
http://www.restoremedical.com/pillar.asp
I say get your E2 Estradiol checked a sensitive test for men. If your high do the Arimidex one half a one mg. pill everyday for a week and cut back to every 3 days and in 4 weeks get it tested again. I had bad ED, and could not reach an orgasm no libido and when I got me E2 down this gave me back my sex life.

[SWALE]

Sleep apnea is profoundly bad for your health. It can literally kill you. You MUST work until you get used to the CPAP! There are now several varieties of masks available, and keep trying until you find one you can live with. Nearly everyone has difficulty at first, but then gets so used to it they scarcely notice.

If you lose weight, and your neck shrinks, you may very well find your sleep apnea subsides.

[Weatherlite]

I also had apnea. I'm also on HRT. I had extremely mild apnea when I started HRT and it didn't affect it at all. However, I had surgery to alleviate the apnea a while back.

Originally, I had a cautery assisted uvulaplasty done....twice. First time enough tissue was not removed. This was a removal of the uvula and some of the soft palate tissue in the back of the throat. This reduced it enough that the doc said I could no longer be diagnosed as having apnea.

Well, I still stopped breathing throughout the night...just not as often...and I still snored really bad. A few years later I had to have my sinuses worked on. Bones had to be removed which were completely obstructing three sinus passages. Polyps had to be removed and my septum needed to be straightened. After that my apnea was greatly improved as was my snoring. 5 months later I had another appt to see how I was doing and to see if any revisions were needed. Yep! So a turbinate reduction and further septum straightening was done. Now I hardly ever snore and I no longer stop breathing.

Personally, knowing what I know now I would have had the sinuses done first and then, if necessary, the uvulaplasty. But I think the sinus surgery would have been enough in all honesty.

Ok, so what I'm saying is that there are other options out there besides the CPAP machine. Once your apnea is under control you may also find that HRT is no longer necessary...a possibility, not a guarantee.

BTW, if anyone out there needs to have sinus surgery done look for a doc who uses the FESS technique. Basically, this is endoscopic surgery in which a small tool that looks like a short tube is used instead of a hammer and chisel or scalpel. This tool has a small rotating blade inside of a tube in which only a small portion of the blad is exposed through an opening. You require no packing and are back at home the same day. This tool can even be used to reshape bone structures.

[pcgizzmo]

I have heard that the UVP procedure is quite painful. I have also heard of the pillar procedure but I am not quite sure of the success. I did have a ENT Doc tell me he could open up my nose some. He said I had a slight deviation to the left but it was not severe but he said he could help my breathing.


Thanks for all the info fella's I appreciate it.

Paul

[Weatherlite]

Fixing the deviation didn't help so much as did taking out the HUGE polyps in the back of the sinuses which were caused by years and years of constant sinus infections.