I've recently been diagnosed with moderately severe Sleep Apnea (OSA) following a sleep study. After a week of experimenting with mouth/nasal masks on the CPAP, I have found the Nasal Pillow to be the most comfortable and it appears to be dramatically reducing my apneas and providing me with some much needed sleep.
I also received a low Total Testosterone (181) result following recent blood tests (I am a 56 year old male, and I "feel" like I'm 15-20 years older than I really am, with out the drive & vitality to function optimally with good cognitive function. My conventional MD prescribed intra-muscular T injections (every two weeks) which I have not yet begun. I have read up a bit on the subject (Abraham Morgentaler's new book "Testosterone for Life") and reviewed info on the BodyLogicMD sites related to Bioidentical hormone replacement.
My question is this: there is evidence to show that my lack of sleep may be contributing to my low T results. From what I understand, without the necessary sleep, my body can't produce enough Human Growth Hormone (HGH) to produce adequate levels of testosterone. Am I better off waiting 2-3 months to see if the CPAP machine has the indirect effect of raising my bioavailable Free T, at which point I can have an Analog Free T blood test; or will it be too long a wait before my T reaches normal levels (if indeed, this actually is a common response)?
Should I just go ahead and take the T injections? Or, if moving forward with some kind of Testosterone Replacement Therapy is called for (rather than waiting), what are the advantages of taking a bioidentical cream vs. the injection. What are the possible risks with both these avenues?
Thanks! (DJC)