I recently had my blood sample taken and results reviewed by the Men's Health Clinic. They couldn't do anything for me because my testosterone levels were in the 'normal' range (specifics below). To be honest they didn't take me seriously from first contact due to me not being in the 50+ age bracket, but they were more than happy to take a £200.00 payment from me for a blood test.
I'm 27 and have always struggled with masculinity. As I don't have any siblings and I didn't meet my father until I was 24, I never really had a male role model or even any male company growing up.
I experience a lot of symptoms linked to hormone imbalances, and despite my best efforts (weightlifting, decreasing my bf% from 30% to 16% this year, teetotalism, increasing exercise frequency, supplementing vitamins, regulating my diet and sleep), I have not observed any noticeable changes to my masculinity concerns.
I am currently supplementing:
• Zinc (25mg/day)
• Vitamin D3 (4000iu/day)
• Omega 3 Fish Oil (1000mg/day)
• Vitamin E (400iu/day)
• Creatine Monohydrate (5g/day); and
• P-5-P (50mg/day)
My levels [normal range]:
• FSH 1.4 IU/L [1.5 - 12.4 IU/L]
• LH 5.2 IU/L [1.7 - 8.6 IU/L]
• Oestradiol 186 pmol/L [41 - 159 pmol/L]
• Testosterone 21.3 nmol/L [8.64 - 29 nmol/L]
• Free-Testosterone 0.425 nmol/L [0.2 - 0.62 nmol/L]
• SHBG 38 nmol/L [18.3 - 54.1 nmol/L]
• Prolactin 359 mU/L
[86 - 324 mU/L
]
At this point I just feel lost and like I'm drowning in this insecurity. I've contacted every other reputable clinic in the UK and also been denied any kind of treatment, so I can see why other men my age take the matter into their own hands (i.e. self-administering intramuscular injections with testosterone sourced online) and honestly I'm considering it myself but I have no experience nor had any professional guidance.
Does anyone else feel like this? Should I start injecting test, and is there somewhere/someone I can contact to guide me so I'm not risking my health?