varicocele

[C-Los]

Hey lads

I have some questions that I would be very grateful to get some feed back on. First of all, some background.....

Im 27, healthy weight (~12% body fat although drifted up to ~18% just recently while I was writing my thesis but im working on getting that back down), I lift weights and run, I have a good diet.

I started to have some mild ED when I hit 19. At 17 had girlfriend, had sex like rabits, broke up and got new girlfriend three weeks later at age 19 and bang......some errection problems....harder to get up and maintain and about 80% hard as was. Saw a doctor and he said it was all mental. Got new girlfriend a couple of years ago, nice girl, understanding, and things got better but still errection only about 80% of what I think it should be.

I went back to doctor....he was usless.....but he sent me to get bloods and testosterone checked.....results below.....

Prolactin:      238 mIU/L ( 50-380 )
Testosterone MALES OVER 18YRS:  20.89 nmol/L ( 8.36-28.6 ) - 600 g/mol if my conversion is correct. I think this is reasonable? Would like it to be higher but I dont think its that low is it?

The other thing that is weighing on my mind is I have a varicocele. It did get bigger around age 19 and have always wondered if this might be the source of my problems. I have read that blood to testies is different supply so doesn't affect erections. Also read that males with varicoceles tend to have lower T.

Does anyone have any thoughts or comments? I am young and I want my errections back to full noise!

[PeakT]

Your total testosterone looks pretty solid - I really doubt that is causing you issues.  It's always good to have estradiol and free testosterone, but at your age and body weight, it is unlikely those are not doing well. 

Also, at your age guys do not usually have endothelial issues, although anything is possible.  I'll ask about three things that can affect guys of any age:  overtraining?  bike riding?  medications?

Another important question:  during this high stress period with girlfriends, were you still getting morning erections?

As far as the varicocele, some studies show they can lower testosterone somewhat.  However, your testosterone is pretty beefy, so I doubt it's much of an issue for you.  As far as I know they do not cause erectile issues except for the testosterone connection, but ask your doc to double check that.

[C-Los]

Hey peak T, thanks so much for your reply! This is something that really gets me down and I really appreciate you giving advice and helping me out! You provide a great service to men and I hope everyone out there thanks you enough for it!

So to answer your questions, I weight train three times a week on a split program, monday = chest tris shoulders, wednesday = back bis, friday = legs. For a total of about 45-60 mins. I want to put on muscle so I do push quite hard and fail on some sets......I figure im there to get results so do push myself, but I wouldnt have thought I was over training?

I do cardio three times a week inbetween days (tues, thurs and sat) for about 30-45 mins. I injured my knee a few months ago so the cardio is fairly light stuff at the moment while I rehab that. I dont do any biking at all. Other than that, I am fairly sedentary as far as my profession goes so dont think I am over doing it?

I am on no medication at all. Never have been.

Think im really healthy in generaly, Im totally puzzled at where my problems are! I really dont think my issues are in my head, I would add that I have been experiencing a little bit of low libido. I wake at night some times with errection and a fair amount of time have morning errection, but again....the errections are not as hard as they used to be for sure. And when I do get errections if there is no stimulation they sometimes tend to fall away reasonable quickly.

I have purchased and read all your books on diet and T so have incorporated some supplements into my diet, just taking a mulit, fish oils, vit C, and maca powder, waiting to see how they go before adding anything else. Thinking about citrulline and pycnogenol. Some awesome advice in your books, I have switched my protien powder out to a low T microfiltered one. I have incorperated juices, tea and raw organic cocoa into my diet.

Thanks for the info on the varicocele. What are your overall thoughts about where my problems are coming from and do you have any general advice?

[PeakT]

Hmmm.  Yeah, you're not the standard case that one sees on the forum.  Plus, at your age (unfortunately in some ways) you can do almost anything to your arteries and still do pretty well in the erection department. 

One question though:  you said you are pretty sedentary except for a relatively small amount of exericse - and it's great you're exercising of course - but by any chance are you coupling that with a lot of saturated fat in the evenings? 

A lot of guys weight lifting go crazy in that category and saturated fat definitely slows down blood flow in young and old.  You said you're at "80 percent":  I can see that possibly related to heavy saturated fat even at your age.

[C-Los]

I would describe my current diet as mediterranean in nature. I eat a little over 2000 cals per day, from around 160 g protein, 240 g carbs and 50 g fats. My fats come from egg yolks, olive oil, avocardo, maybe some nuts and then what ever would be from meat, although I am really only eating lean chicken breast at the moment.

Last night I watched forks over knives......mind = blown! I am really keen to ditch the meat and dairy from my diet. The only thing is my mind has been so fixed on the belief that I need meat for my protein and weight training......but when I really think about it, there doesnt seem to be any reason why I cant get a good 150 g of protein per day from plant based sources and if I keep eggs in my diet (maybe 1 yolk per day and 5 whites im thinking). I think that should be enough protein, today I am going to do some research on vegan body building and see what that school of thought has to say on the matter. Will also search this forum, this is bound to have been discussed before.

One thing about that, I think I have seen you say on your site to be cautious of soy protein? And also, what is the deal with rice milk to substitute cow milk?

Anyway, it seems that I am a tricky case? It is concerning that you say at my age I should be able to get away with nearly anything, I shouldnt be having any problems. Maybe it is in my head?

[PeakT]

A few quick comments:

--One thing about your diet:  it's going to be very high in AA (Arachidonic Acid) and this will lead many guys down a path of inflammation imo.  (Chicken and yolks are both high in AA.)  High inflammation can effect endothelial function.  So this could be an underlying issue, but you'd have to experiment as young guys can weather almost anything. 

Imo this is definitely very risky long term regardless.  Inflammation is likely the primary factor leading to heart disease, erectile dysfunction, autoimmune disorders, diabetes, Alzheimers. and possibly many cancers as well. 

http://www.peaktestosterone.com/Hdr_Inflammation

--I do something very similar to what you said (for what it is worth):  some egg whites + undenatured whey + rice protein:

http://www.peaktestosterone.com/Undenatured_Proteins

--There have been a few freakish monster vegetarian bodybuilders.  Vegan bodybuilders are impressive but not freaky big. 

--You may want to read my interview with Mike Mahler:

http://www.peaktestosterone.com/Mike_Mahler_Interview

--The breakdown of your diet actually reminds me of the ol' Body for Life by Bill Phillips.

[avacado]

c-los, what country are you based in? UK? i say this because you mention the "lads", testosterone in NMOL and the doctor saying its "all in your head", very much similar experiences of treatment i've experienced in the UK, its good to compile different experiences of people in this situation

[C-Los]

Hey avocardo, im from NZ. Interesting that you got the same treatment from the doctor as me. Its really un-helpful huh!

Recently moved to Auz (melbourne), so may consider seeing someone else over here once I get set up, get a job etc.....

Thanks peak T for the links, I especially liked the Mike Mahler interview

[PeakT]

Thanks peak T for the links, I especially liked the Mike Mahler interview

Everything I've read about Mike Mahler has been positive and his articles are excellent from what I've seen.  I also heard that his podcasts were good but don't know where those are at.

[werd200]

Go get it fixed, it should give you at the very least a boost of 100 ng/dl, the average regain was 150 ng/dl based on one study. The rest is just nutrition, diet, exercise and adjusting sleeping patterns if they're bad.

http://nyp.org/news/hospital/goldstein-varicoceles-testosterone.html
http://www.modernmedicine.com/modernmedicine/Modern+Medicine+Now/Varicocelectomy-leads-to-testosterone-increase-reg/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/758848
http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/758088