I've posted in the Clomid forum a few times. My story is probably a typical one: initially felt very good subjectively on Clomid, gradually felt worse. Now, sex drive is mostly gone.
February Baseline:
* Total T - 305
* Free T - 7.9
* LH - 2.5
April, 1+ month on 50mg Clomid/day
* Total T: 520
* Free T: 170
* LH: 3.5
August, 1+ Month on 25mg/day
* Total T: 420
* Free T: 10.5
* LH: 4.7
Back up to 50mg at the moment. I should have additional results within the next few days.
I've been trying to figure this all out and I'm starting to think of my thyroid. My TSH (from February) was at 4.7, "high" for the reference range. After digging a bit, I ran across two claims:
1) A poorly-functioning thyroid will blunt production of LH by the pituitary in response to GNRH
2) Clomid itself raises GNRH but reduces pituitary sensitivity to GNRH; so the increase in GNRH typically outstrips the increase in LH (your pituitary makes less LH per-drop of GNRH it gets hit with).
It would seem, then, that if my hypogonadism was primarily the result of a bad thyroid, Clomid would exacerbate the situation at some point down the road: an already insensitive pituitary becomes even less reactive to GNRH with the Clomid, driving down LH and Testosterone response to the medication.
Is this a sensible explanation for why I might feel so much worse now than in April and actually worse than even pre-Clomid? I see a urologist rather than an endocrinologist, and I have no idea if my uro would prescribe me Synthroid or something like that, so this may all be moot.
Am I ignorant of some relevant facts here? Thanks for reading.
February Baseline:
* Total T - 305
* Free T - 7.9
* LH - 2.5
April, 1+ month on 50mg Clomid/day
* Total T: 520
* Free T: 170
* LH: 3.5
August, 1+ Month on 25mg/day
* Total T: 420
* Free T: 10.5
* LH: 4.7
Back up to 50mg at the moment. I should have additional results within the next few days.
I've been trying to figure this all out and I'm starting to think of my thyroid. My TSH (from February) was at 4.7, "high" for the reference range. After digging a bit, I ran across two claims:
1) A poorly-functioning thyroid will blunt production of LH by the pituitary in response to GNRH
2) Clomid itself raises GNRH but reduces pituitary sensitivity to GNRH; so the increase in GNRH typically outstrips the increase in LH (your pituitary makes less LH per-drop of GNRH it gets hit with).
It would seem, then, that if my hypogonadism was primarily the result of a bad thyroid, Clomid would exacerbate the situation at some point down the road: an already insensitive pituitary becomes even less reactive to GNRH with the Clomid, driving down LH and Testosterone response to the medication.
Is this a sensible explanation for why I might feel so much worse now than in April and actually worse than even pre-Clomid? I see a urologist rather than an endocrinologist, and I have no idea if my uro would prescribe me Synthroid or something like that, so this may all be moot.
Am I ignorant of some relevant facts here? Thanks for reading.
