Hello to everyone,
One simple fact remains: Any and all men MUST have sufficient levels of TESTOSTERONE in their body to maintain good health and overall well-being.
Obviously, LUPRON and other drug therapies like it are designed to reduce and delete as much Testosterone from your body as they can. Of course, the above is predicated on the fact that Testosterone will feed the living and growing cancer cells.
Actually, there remains some uncertainty about how much Testosterone or at what levels of Total and Free Testosterone will actually feed and increase the growing of cancer cells.
As a result, one is placed in a dilemma. If I need a certain amount of “T” to maintain good health and well-being, how much is too much of a reduction of it through LUPRON and other therapies that are trying to accomplish the exact opposite thing then maintaining an appropriate level of “T” in the body?
I had been on “TRT,”Testosterone Replacement Therapy for 12 years before I had to stop in order to prepare for my Radical Prostatectomy. Of course, once you’ve been diagnosed with cancer, you must stop with your “TRT” because you don’t want it to feed the current and present cancer cells.
Every patient is different and there are a lot of considerations that go into making the ultimate choice of surgery versus radiation to treat your Prostate Cancer.
I just turned 69 years old and have been severely debilitated from CSF/ME, FIBROMYALGIA and had surgery to correct my CHIARI MALFORMATION back in 2001.
Without being on my “TRT,” my Total “T” is between 20-90 when the normal range for men 50+ years in age is about 250/300 to 700/800. Some scales of measurement are different but the above are good ranges for this conversation.
I literally don’t have a life nor can I function with my “T” levels that low while already dealing with severe and debilitating symptoms of the disease states I previously mentioned. For those and other reasons, I chose the Radical Prostatectomy over Radiation.
Taking Lupron and following the protocols associated with it were by far the worst choice for me personally.
The 6 months I had to discontinue my “TRT” were awful and horribly limited my ability to function day to day. If I don’t maintain an average of about 450 to 550 of Total “T” I don’t have a life to live other than exacerbating my already debilitating symptoms and being mostly bedridden and home confined. If I am really not “living a life” while alive, what’s the point? I’ve already and continue to experience 32 years of severe, life altering debilitation.
The point I am making is that there is no “Right Answer!”
Some men can continue to function okay or alright while on LUPRON and others experience a measurable loss of energy and overall strength, endurance and well-being.
Based on the above, you can understand that there isn’t much chance or opportunity for somebody on LUPRON to work out or increase their exercise program if their Testosterone levels are insufficient. Realizing of course that different men will react differently to below average “T” levels or even worse.
The only observation you can assess for certain is that you feel better and stronger or you don’t, regardless of which medical protocol(s) you’re following.
After many years of accepting insufficient and inaccurate information with very little research underlying it, physicians and surgeons were very reluctant to place a former Prostate Cancer Patient back on “TRT.” However, today’s considerably increased research and more numerous patient studies have “debunked” the old, out of date “T” controversies.
In FACT: Many surgeons and physicians are placing men on “TRT” to assist them with their recovery following a Radical Prostatectomy.
In my own particular case and others. If there is and remains no more Prostate Cancer due to having the Prostate removed and no more perceptible PSA, ( mine being and remaining for the first 11 months after surgery at < 0.014). Then essentially, I have the same numbers and perceivable markers as a man who never had Prostate Cancer.
As one doctor wrote and was quoted as saying, “If we prescribe “TRT” for men who suffer from Hypogonadism under the assumptions of it being alright with only the possible side effects of most other treatment protocols, remedies etc, why would we tell or treat a man who no longer has any detectable Prostate cancer in his body or detectable PSA differently by telling him he has a higher risk into recurring cancer as the man who’s never had cancer? By far, there’s a greater number of men getting Prostate Cancer that have never been on “TRT” than those that have. Continuing the above thought and strategy of continuing “TRT” after achieving remission. Why prevent a man in remission from having access to or returning to “TRT?”
Regardless of any post surgery or radiation treatments that render a man into remission with no detectable traces of cancer, there’s still a 30%-40% chance that their Prostate Cancer will come back or return within or up to the first 5 years following his initial treatments and following remission.
The FACT remains clear to us all. One is never totally cured of Prostate Cancer. You either remain in remission or you don’t! Like all patients, if our cancer returns we will address it then and at that point assess and determine what kind of treatments to utilize to eradicate it again.
In the end, we can only do the best we can to manifest the best overall health and well-being we can in order to live and enjoy the best quality of life that we can.
GODSPEED to us all