Testosterone recovery following prolonged adjuvant androgen ablation for prostate carcinoma.Pickles T, Agranovich A, Berthelet E, Duncan GG, Keyes M, Kwan W, McKenzie MR, Morris WJ; British Columbia Cancer Agency, Prostate Cohort Outcomes Initiative.
Vancouver Cancer Clinic, BC Cancer Agency, Canada.
BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to describe the rate and completeness of the recovery of testosterone production following prolonged temporary androgen ablative therapy in men with prostate carcinoma undergoing curative radiation therapy.
METHODS: Two-hundred and sixty-seven men treated with between 3 months and 3 years of adjuvant androgen ablation (AA) were followed at 6-month intervals following cessation of their androgen deprivation therapy. A comparative group of 518 men not undergoing AA were also followed.
RESULTS: Drugs used included low dose cyproterone/stilboestrol (CPA/DES) in combination (56%) and 1 month depot (18%) and 3 month depot (25%) leutinizing hormone releasing hormone agonist (LHRHa). Seventy-nine percent of men in the current study recovered normal testosterone levels (10nmol/L), and 93% recovered levels of at least 5nmol/L. In comparison, men who had never received androgen ablative therapy showed a fall of testosterone, with 17% having sub-normal levels after 3 years.
Median time to testosterone recovery was 10 months. Factors associated on multivariate analysis with delayed testosterone recovery included advanced age (P = 0.008), low pre-therapy testosterone (P = 0.04), and the use of 3 month LHRHa preparations as compared with CPA/DES (P = 0.002) or 1 month LHRHa preparations (P = 0.015). The duration of drug use was not significantly associated with time to testosterone recovery.
CONCLUSIONS: Long-acting LHRHa preparations appear to have a more prolonged action than previously supposed. Most men treated for up to 2 years recover normal testosterone levels after cessation of adjuvant androgen ablation, and the limited data available in the current study on patients treated for 3 years also suggests most will recover.
PMID: 11900222 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Individual variation of hormonal recovery after cessation of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonist therapy in men receiving long-term medical castration therapy for prostate cancer.Kobayashi T, Nishizawa K, Mitsumori K.
Department of Urology, Hamamatsu Rosai Hospital, Hamamatsu, Japan.
[email protected]
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the process of hormonal recovery after cessation of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) agonist treatment in patients who had received long-term LHRH agonist therapy for prostate cancer.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: Men who had successfully undergone androgen deprivation therapy with only monthly LHRH agonist therapy for > 30 months were enrolled and the administration of LHRH agonist was discontinued. Serum total testosterone, luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) were measured before the cessation of LHRH agonist therapy and every 4 weeks thereafter, and the administration of LHRH agonist remained suspended until the total testosterone level recovered to > 50 ng/dl.
RESULTS: Ten patients were enrolled in the study. The median (range) castration period and the levels of serum LH, FSH, total testosterone and PSA at cessation of therapy were 39 (30-56) months,<0.5 (<0.5-1.8) mIU/ml, 6.4 (3.0-15.9) mIU/ml, 15.3 (5.8-34.7) ng/dl and 0.13 (0.02-0.89) ng/ml, respectively.
Testosterone recovered to > 50 ng/dl in all cases. There were large variations in the times required for recovery of LH and FSH (30-100 days) and serum testosterone (30-330 days). PSA began to increase at various testosterone levels, and there was a large variation (0-83%; median 41%) in the ratio of the androgen suppression (testosterone < 50 ng/dl) time to the period of LHRH agonist cessation.
CONCLUSIONS: There was considerable variation in the hypothalamus-pituitary-testicular hormone profiles during recovery from long-term medical castration. These findings are noteworthy when interruption of androgen deprivation therapy is applied with the intention of delaying the progression of hormone-refractory cancer or improving the patient's quality of life.
PMID: 16809259 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
I have put in these abstracts as the majority of medical studies in the recovery of LH/FSH and testosterone have been in men who have had prostate cancer.
These patients have their test suppressed for the treatment of the cancer, and a similar situation occurs when exogenous testosterone is taken.
The recovery of their natural test at the end of their treatment is important, and they have also found that recovery is highly variable.
9 weeks post cycle is NOT long enough to tell if anything has happened if you had seriously suppressed your HPT.
Not having blood work before you started is also irresponsible, how did you know what you were working with?
Some men do have naturally lower testosterone levels, or naturally much higher levels, and the reference range for testosterone reflects this natural variation.
There are some really bonkers things being stated in this thread.
1. I really wonder about the 'feeling' if something is working? Vitamins, protein and other herbs and meds work in the body, but you don't 'feel' it. Feeling is so subjective. If you really want to know your drugs are working by the way you 'feel' do recreational psychoactive drugs. Herbal supplements also work in a far more subtle, synergistic way, and they will not pack the 'punch' that a lot of pharmaceutical drugs will.
2. Studies on herbal supplements are far and few between because most of the pharmaceutical companies do not want people self treating with substances that they cannot patent. The only ones I know that have been studied extensively are echinacea and St. John's wort, as their use in the general population is so ubiquitous. The only other studies are related to adverse interactions, of which there are many with pharmaceutical and herbal drugs. It would be great if all herbal supplements had clinical trials, but this is not happening right now. In the meantime, you could be missing out on a great supplement.
3. A phenomenal number of our pharmaceutical drugs have their origins in plants, going back to the origin of the drug, the herb, and they still work (depending on the quality of the source). There have been HUGE problems when the active ingredient in the herb is extracted. The best example of this is aspirin, originally found in white willow bark (
Salix sp.), therefore the medical name salicylic acid or salicylate. One company tried to isolate the COX-2 inhibitor in it and sold it as the drug Vioxx, which increased the incidence of heart disease, strokes and heart attacks, which aspirin is known to prevent.
The one thing I would advise caution with, if the damage was done by using some of the most powerful drugs known to humans, continuing to throw more powerful pharmas at the problem (especially when self-medicating) may not be the best move.
If it took you several years and several cycles to do the damage, expecting things to recover in two months is highly unrealistic.
The homeostatic mechanisms of the body do not work like that.
It takes three months minimum for changes in diet and exercise to determine if there is any significant changes in cholesterol (which is the precursor of the sex steroid hormones), I think that lends itself to the time frame involved.
Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below 
?? umh something is strange 
