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Gynecomastia and Low T

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andy88651
andy88651

Hi folks, this is my first post here so I don't know if I'm posting in the correct place or not, so forgive me!

So, I'm a 22 year old male, from about the age of 14 I've suffered from gynecomastia, I have an underactive thyroid and am on 100mg of Levothyroxine a day,  but find that it's not helping and doesn't do anything to improve my health (i've been taking it for years now). I've had a lot of blood tests done and the doctor says I'm fine, but I feel within myself that I'm not (unless I'm paranoid). I think I've got low testosterone because everything that's wrong with me seems to be a symptom of Low T. I gain weight easily, I can't grow facial hair, I'm tired a lot, I'm moody and sad quite a lot. I'm confused and agitated because the blood results show I'm fine, well that's what I was told anyway.

How can I go about talking to my doctor and getting this sorted? I'm 22 now like I said, so shouldn't this have all settled down by now?

Thanks in advance. This is really stressing me out and actually causes me to feel like I didn't develop properly, or something went wrong elsewhere.

 

0 likes, 7 replies

7 Replies

  • kumar91
    kumar91 andy88651

    Posted

    This is scary how similar my situation was. I also had Gynecomastia with low testosterone and also suffer from hypothyroidism but I was so fed up with my gynecomastia that I got surgery. I kind of regret it because I got the surgery done when I first started seeing weight loss results, I should have just waited to see if losing the fat would have helped. I'm 23 now and it’s been a bit over a year now since I got the surgery. My advice to you is to go see you're endocrinologist, show them your results and don’t go to your family doctor, from what I’ve learned from my family doctor, they don’t know anything about your situation, they might need to increase your dosage. By the way are you overweight? Are you active? Because if you have hypothyroidism you’ll need to exercise regularly. I’ve read a book about a thyroid diet and they recommended supplements such as CLA 1000mg 4 x daily-Carnitine 1000mg 3 x daily and to help with my low testosterone I started taking DHEA supplements but I’m off it at the moment. Go to the gym and lift weights and lose the body fat to help increase testosterone. I was on 200mcg synthroid and for 2 years I’ve been doing everything mentioned above and I went from 240lb – 190lb in 2 years. I still have a bit of excessive fat that wasn’t going away so I found a private doctor who prescribed me desiccated thyroid and have been taking desiccated thyroid for over a month, I noticed a difference in my symptoms, I had better mood, energy etc… I’d also recommend taking desiccated but you’ll have to find a doctor that will prescribe it, even my own endocrinologist wouldn’t prescribe it to me which is why I had to find a private doctor in my case. I’d really like to help you out because I’ve been in this same exact situation. I’ve been going about my own method for about 2 years now and I feel like I’m doing a lot better than ever before so try what i did to see if it helps. 
  • suzanne00
    suzanne00 andy88651

    Posted

    Hi Andy--Have your testosterone levels been tested?  I see a family nurse practitioner here in the USA who tests my hormones regularly with blood tests. I am on bioidentical creams (estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone) as well as thyroid (a T3 and a T4 supplement). It really helps me to be monitored and to have the creams. Would you be able to locate someone where you are who can do this kind of testing?  --Suzanne
    • andy88651
      andy88651 suzanne00

      Posted

      Hi Suzanne. I have had my T levels tested, I've had every blood test done. They were in the "normal" range, but the lower end of it, if that makes sense. It doesn't make sense to me... I don't really understand what's going on.
    • suzanne00
      suzanne00 andy88651

      Posted

      Hi Andy--So, short of having a practitioner give you a trial supplement to see if you feel better (which might be a reasonable next step), have you looked online at all of the ways to increase testosterone naturally (e.g., weight lifting)?  I hope that you can find the answer that works for you!  --Suzanne
  • Sketchy
    Sketchy andy88651

    Posted

    Hi Andy,  I don't know anything about gynecomastia but I would just like to alert you to some information that you may not be aware of.  As a general rule of thumb you should be taking 1.6mcg of Levothyroxine per day per kilo of bodyweight.  So if you are taking 100mcg now that must mean you only weigh about 60 kilo???  But you say you are overweight so I am betting that you weigh more than that.  Do the math and see if it gives a reason to increase your dose of Levothyroxine when you next consult your doctor or endocrinologist.  I am a 68 year old woman and I weigh about 59 kilo and I have been on 100mcg Oroxine for 28 years and I am fine with it.  That is just a rule of thumb calculation and can be tweaked a bit if necessary.

    I hope this helps ..

    • andy88651
      andy88651 Sketchy

      Posted

      Hi Sketchy. I don't know if it's different over here, I weight about 130kg I think, and I'm 6'5. How much thyroxine should I be on? is 100mcg not enough?
  • Sketchy
    Sketchy andy88651

    Posted

    Hi Andy,  I looked up an on-line calculator and put in your height and gender and your ideal weight range appears to be between 76.9 – 95.3kilo.  You say that you think you are about 130 kilo currently so that puts you at least about 35 kilo overweight.  Please look up an on-line weight calculator and check my figures.  When doctors/endo’s calculate your levothyroxine dose I am not sure if they dose according to your ‘ideal’ weight or your current weight.  But even if they calculate by your ideal weight you appear to be under-medicated by 50mcg to me.  I am not a member of the medical profession and have only become thyroid savvy after being mucked about by GP’s and I would urge you to ‘research’ as much as you can on-line about thyroid conditions so that you can have some input into ‘your health situation’ when visiting doctors.  It’s your body and your life and why should you live miserably when help and medication are available.  Most doctors look only at the blood test results and especially the ‘unreliable TSH test’ and ignore patient symptoms.  Familiarise yourself with thyroid blood test results so that you know what’s going on with’ yours’ – always ask for a copy of every thyroid test done.

    Good luck Andy .. I hope things will improve for you soon ..

     

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