The best self-improvement decision I ever made: repalcing all my hormones

[Thingsvarious]

Self-actualization is not possible without great hormones. I replace all of them. I am a medical student and replace ALL of my hormones. my energy levels went from the 5th percentile to the 95th percentile.

In early twenties my life was starting to go down the gutter. My life started to fall apart in every domain, basically at the brink of suicide. I was severely depressed. At one point I considered suicide. I found out that multiple of my hormones were very low. I started multiple hormone replacement. Whereas before my life was a nightmare, it has been a dream ever since. I have been doing this for some years now.

I started to dream again. I found purpose. Something I want to contribute. Now I also have the energy, mood and health to keep working on my dreams, to enjoy working on my dreams.

If you are interested I wrote about my story here. How my life went to shits and how multiple hormone replacement gradually turned it around.

My dream is to live in a world where no one is held back from living an at least decent life the way I was. Even though not my fault, it is my life. And thus my responsibility. Without accepting and acting on that I just don´t know where I would be today. For sure I wouldn´t be writing this.

Biological vitality is the single most important condition in my life. In your life. Vitality determines to a large extent the way our lives turn out, not just our outer lives, but our inner lives as well.I experienced how a reduction in biological vitality can send you on a relentless downward spiral. The stronger the decrease in your vitality the steeper the slope.

In its wake over months to years my life, the only life I can be sure of having, went to shits. Many people are unsuspecting. Unaware of these invisible forces exerting their power relentlessly every single day.

"Living life to the fullest" is just not possible without great hormones.:Life is like poker—you can get a good hand, play it perfectly, but still end up with a bad outcome. A great vitality is the ass in your poker game of life. Even with an immaculate vitality you can screw up the game, but chances are you do so much less likely. The two most important factors determining your vitality are genetics and hormones, the latter you can negotiate.

Why do I post all this? Trying to provide value: My purpose is to raise awareness. People need to know that there are biological shackles many of us carry. Shackles which make it much harder to live a life we like. Because it does just cost me a little time but perhaps can help others out a lot. Had I known what I know now, it would have saved me lots of money, happiness, effort, researching, experimenting. And suffering.

What I take. But what works for me might not work for others.

Everyone is different, but the target range I aim for is in the upper tertile of the youthful reference range. Just falling somewhere within the reference range is not “optimal”. The reference range covers 95% of the population. Certainly more than 5% of the population have hormones bad enough to warrant intervention.

• TRT: Test Cyp (50mg subQ 2x/week), HcG (250iu subQ 2x/week), anastrozole (0.25mg 1x/week), dutasteride 0.5mg 1x/week (as my androgens are high I don´t need the DHT).
• cortisol: cortisone acetate (20mg/d HC equivalent) (split into 4 daily doses)
• thyroid: 1.5 grains NDT 
• GH: 1 iu genotropin pfizer (aiming for IGF1 of 250) prebed
• fludrocortisone 01.mg/d morning
• melatonin: 0.25mg sublingual prebed

Other stuff I do: keto/paleo, HIIT, weekly rapamycin, a bunch of supplements (all of them together less worth than a slight alteration in hormones), some exercise every day, sleep around 6h (wake up refreshed without alarm -before HRT I needed 8+).

You can´t outdrug/outbiohack/outlifestyle a bad hormonal profile.

For more practical stuff I wrote a guide Here. It took 1000s of hours to figure out. Hopefully some of you will find value in it.

Many of you guys will say that I am screwing myself. Well, to them I say that I am aware that this is uncharted territory. I am aware of the risks. But to me the cost-benefit analysis is a no-brainer. If I had to, I would sign a contract to rather live 10 more years with my new vitality and then die instead of living to one hundred with the dreadful state I was in before. Life is about filling time and not passing it.

What does this mean for you? My guess is that around 1-2 out of 5 of you has a hormonal imbalance/deficiency severe enough to warrant intervention. Hormones have an INSANE connection to depression. Unfortunately they are VERY neglected. If you have been depressed for a long time it might be worth looking into your hormones. ANY hormone deficiency (GH/IGF1, sex hormones, thyroid, cortisol) will cause brain fog, subpar cognition, lethargy, anhedonia, low motivation, low mood -> all of which over time evolve into depression. Certainly you don´t have the necessary energy/mood/motivation/health to be improving yourself to the best of your ability. Please consider getting a blood test done. The risk and opportunity cost of not doing it is huge.

[Applegarden]

Right, but isn't there like a more basic aspect to handle most of the hormonal regulation in the body? Like a healthy diet with thr right frequency?

[PurpleTree]

Ok well good luck, i hope it all goes well

[UDT]

Dope! Down for an interview?

 

[Michael569]

Have you ever been diagnosed with hypogonadism or hypopituitarism? 

Sounds like it worked perfectly for your situation but for a healthy person that sort of hormonal cocktail could easily turn out to be fatal. Hope it works for you over long term. 

[Thingsvarious]

10 hours ago, UDT said:

Dope! Down for an interview?

 

Sure!

[Thingsvarious]

On 10/17/2020 at 10:36 PM, Michael569 said:

Have you ever been diagnosed with hypogonadism or hypopituitarism? 

Sounds like it worked perfectly for your situation but for a healthy person that sort of hormonal cocktail could easily turn out to be fatal. Hope it works for you over long term. 

I have been diagnosed with partial pituitary insufficiency. But really the hormones that are not clinically low are all borderline on the cusp of below reference range. Sometimes slightly but mostly below. Endos however are reluctant to treat these. Being a medical student I took matters into my own hands. I just got one life

[UDT]

Highly recommend this interview with Thingvsvarious: https://anchor.fm/highenergynutrition/episodes/How-A-Med-Student-Fixed-All-His-Hormones-12-elb2bc

If you find interest in this topic. It´s fascinating!

[kag101]

How long have you been feeling well? 

For how long did you feel depressed and suicidal? 

Where did you about learn about all of this hormones replacement? 

[Thingsvarious]

7 hours ago, kag101 said:

How long have you been feeling well? 

For how long did you feel depressed and suicidal? 

Where did you about learn about all of this hormones replacement? 

about 2 years well; suicidal just 1 or 2 days; felt extremely like shit for 3-4 years; internet and medschool and selfexperimentation

[Thingsvarious]

Update: New Guide Here. https://thingsvarious.medium.com/hormone-replacement-therapy-the-only-guide-you-need-2904aa48b7bd

Unfortunately I can´t edit my posts

 

[Michael569]

A lot of what you are recommending on the blog are pharmaceutical drugs that need to be self-injected. Things like cortisone acetate, human chorionic gonadotropin or fludrocortisone acetate are not accessible to the general public and may not necessarily be safe to take over the long term. Corticoids have a lot of long-term side effects. 

People do not have access to these things without prescription and I think most people don't need to go down this road. I appreciate this worked for you but I think people need to be empowered to fix their health problems without using synthetic hormone replacements with the exception of those diagnosed with hypopituitarism, hypogonadism and other cases of idiopathic endocrine deficiencies. 

I think this needs to be specified in the article that this is a protocol for people with pituitary deficiency and that nobody should be administering this sort of protocol without medical supervision. 

 

 

 

[systematic_chaos]

Very interesting. I just recently got diagnosed Hypothyroid. My TSH is only 2.25 mIU/L but my antibodies are way up and I had all the symptoms. NDT helps but I found it works less over time, probably dosing it too high.

One thing I found that helps is to increase my core temperate artificially with warm clothes, heat lamp or any external heat source and insulation. It's like training over time I can maintain 37°C for longer stretches without the external heat source. When I first found out I was hypo my core temp was 36.3°C after lunch which is a sleeping temperature and now I can maintain 37°C peaking at 37.2°C after a hot meal.

I'm in my mid to late 20s and I had actually forgotten how much energy I had when I was 18 until I got 80% of it back again.

Still not 100% back though so looking to find out what other hormones might be out of whack.

Where do you find the reference ranges and distributions? I cant seem to find a canonical source.