ROLL CALL: low testosterone and anxiety

[OS]

At PeakT's suggestion, I'm starting a thread, inviting readers to share their experiences with the interconnection between low testosterone and anxiety.  Parroting the recent Roll Call on depression, I'd suggest responses inspired by:

1.  Do you think that low testosterone caused your anxiety or the other way around?
2.  Do you think that any meds you were taking for anxiety created any kind of sexual dysfunctions?
3.  Any tips for guys going through the same thing?  Did anything make a big difference?  (For some of you it may be testosterone!)

I'll give a response myself (revised version of what I wrote on the Depression thread).

[Nocturne]

I've never had anxiety other than during my divorce and a terrible year at work about four years ago, which I mentioned in another post.

Today I certainly have anxiety, and it is confusing to me.

I will wake up in the morning with anxiety in the pit of my stomach.  I used to think it was because I was afraid of what would happen when my wife woke up and we tried to have sex (performance anxiety), but even after we talked and agreed to limit sex to nights only (when it tends to work much more often for whatever reason), I am still waking up early with anxiety.

It happened today.  Last night we had very satisfying sex (I think I have discovered a technique for staying erect inside of her that works pretty well for me), and I felt totally content as I drifted off with her, but this morning I again woke up early feeling jittery, anxious, and unable to get back to sleep.  Why?  No idea.

So as with many other symptoms, I'm not at this time sure if it's the low T, the Clomid, or just the fact that I have ED.  Oh, it could be my sucky T to E2 ratio too.

[OS]

I suspect I've had lowish testosterone all my life, though I didn't start getting numbers on T until a year and a half ago.  And I've had mild anxiety (in particular, social anxiety and lack of self-confidence) for most of my life.  I couldn't begin to say whether one cased the other. 

Like most people, I've had waxing and waning "real" reasons to have anxiety over the years, and at many points, there were external factors that could have reasonably made me anxious (or depressed) but which did not necessarily give me significant trouble "carrying on."  My feeling is that something qualitatively different started happening 3-4 years ago---for example, I developed a fear of air travel, having flown with pleasure for 25 years previously.  Similarly with increasing anxiety about being far from home, or about being in confined spaces from which I couldn't immediately escape. And I grew increasingly overwhelmed, intellectually and emotionally, by tasks at work which previously I'd embraced.  Then when life again really gave me things to be anxious about in the last half year, I fell apart emotionally---frequent, physical symptoms of anxiety, perhaps bordering on panic disorder. 

Unfortunately, I don't have very good T-level information to tie to this.  I was tested for the first time in Spring 2014 and was on the low end of normal (460).  In the midst of major stress and after months of repeated respiratory infections, in Spring 2015, three tests consistently put me in mid-upper 200s. 

Then I developed libido/ED problems in May (which of course doesn't help with anxiety!) but mercifully started TRT (compounded cream) in early July.  It's hasn't solved all my problems (just about lost my mind being stuck in an hours-long traffic jam a few weeks ago), and we're still adjusting dosages to get beyond the quite modest improvements in T levels, but the anxiety / sense-of-well-being situation is much improved.  I remember, just a week into TRT, being in a couple of situations where my mind told me, "This is the sort of situation that generates anxiety/panic in you," but my body simply wasn't producing anxious feelings.  It was uncanny.

In terms of medication, since the spring, I have occasional use of Klonopin (half of a .5 mg tablet) to help with sleep, maybe once every week or two.  I have no idea whether this has had an impact on testosterone levels or ED/libido.  Acknowledging the many posts about the dangers of benzos, I have to say that this occasional use is very helpful for anxiety. 

I'm particularly curious whether other posters got "early warning" of Low T via depression/anxiety, ahead of more obvious sexual issues like low libido or ED. 

[PeakT]

Been pretty anxious all my life but never like clinically.  No panic attackes, etc.  Cypionate got rid of about 50% of it and just in the last couple of months I'd say another 30-40% got knocked off.  I am very relaxed now and I'm not sure if it is the DHEA or the anti-aging regimen I am taking.  Those are the two changes that I can think of. 

But, to answer the question, I was often anxious prior to cypionate from what I remember and I also pretty sure I was low T for decades.

I think a year on Propecia accelerated everything also.

[xrayguy]

I'm absolutely convinced that my low testosterone caused my anxiety, although the anxiety was accelerated by a bad life experience. My situation progressed like this:

- Was getting tired all the time. Could not keep up at the gym and felt like I was dragging energy wise. Got my T tested and it was low but no doctor wanted to touch it.
- Difficult life events occurred and my sleep started to be affected. Tried different sleeping meds.
- Sleep got even worse on the sleeping meds (benzodiazepines). Later I found out this is because benzos will knock you out but they block delta waves in your brain so you never get stage 4 or REM sleep. So even though you sleep, you never feel rested.
- Started getting some mild depression due to what I thought was lack of sleep. Started feeling nervous about losing a job and starting a new one.
- Got a major anxiety attack (panic attack) a few days before starting my new job.
- Panic attacks increased in frequency and duration over the next several months. Tried various psych meds and they all made everything worse. T was tested again, and it was low but again, nobody would do anything about it.
- Continued to get much worse over the next several months and eventually ended up off work a total mess. Agoraphobia, depersonalization, derealization. Just unreal. Been off work for 7 months now.
- Tested T again, still low. Tired of using SSRIs and benzos so weaned off all of them. Benzo withdrawal was the most horrifying experience you could ever have.

- The SSRI's definitely affected sexual function negatively for me and never made me feel any better. Benzos actually helped me to feel more relaxed sexually, but they were awful in that they destroyed cognitive ability and made me feel very emotionally unstable.

- Finally off ALL medication, and started T therapy. Six weeks into it now and starting to see some improvement in anxiety reduction but certainly not completely gone. No all out panic attacks at least. Of all the symptoms I have, the anxiety was the absolute worst.

My thoughts: If you go from a normal person to completely out of control with debilitating anxiety and your T is low, don't let doctors ignore this as it can definitely be the cause I believe. SSRI's and benzo's will only bandage the symptoms (that's IF they even work), but can also make things much worse.

[fun2drive]

My T is within range but too low to build muscle mass. Used T cyp to increase my T and did but PSA rising has stopped me from taking T cyp. My T crashed to 234 and I have been using HCG to get it back and will retest. Throughout all of this I have never had anxiety of any kind or felt better or worse either. I just feel the same.
Maybe because I exercise and eat fairly well that this helps. Also strong Christian faith may play a part in this.

When guys on here report how bad they feel or good or have anxiety I feel fortunate to not have this issue...