new here

[jb1128]

Hello guys I am new here and would like to tell my story here maybe you guys could tell me if this happened to anyone else as I never heard of this happening to anyone.

About a year and a half ago my doctor started me on a gel for low testosterone <sp> and I was using it for about 7 months when one morning I was woken up to some breast pain they felt swollen and as the hours went by the pain got worse (that swollen feeling)4 or 5 days later I noticed that my breasts where swelling,at that point I thought about going to the doctor,but you know us guys I waited to see if it would get better on it's own,another week goes by and now the pain is real bad and my breasts got really big ( about the size of grapefruits )so now I call my doctors office and tell the nurse on the phone whats going on,she give me an appointment for next week,I wait the week the have not gotten any bigger  but the pain was still there and it was bad,
 The day comes to see the doc it's the middle of June and I am sitting in the waiting room covering my self with a heavy coat,they call me in and I sit in the exam room waiting for the doc,he comes in the room and asks whats going on,I drop the coat and point at my chest and say WHAT THE darn DOC,with this real strange look on his face he says   WOW and asks does it hurt, I say you have got to be kidding me doc of course it hurts,he starts exam in me ( I think he wanted to cop a cheap feel) he is lifting them up he is squeezing them looking real close at my nipples asking does this hurt or dose that hurt and then says I think this is a side effect of the gel he gave me but never heard of it getting this bad then tells me to stop using it and then he scares the crap out of me by telling me he wants to run a bunch of tests for cancers (all came out negative thank god) I say okay doc but what about these cupping my giant boobs he says they should go down after you stop using the gel for a while but the bad news is they MIGHT not go away all together ( now I am getting pissed) (trying to make a long story short here) well what about the pain they hurt like hell ( I have a really bad back from a car accident and have had 3 surgery's so far to fix it)well I cant give you any pain meds because you already have for your back put ice packs on them but doc when I walk or hit bumps while driving my truck they bounce and when they bounce they hurt really really bad he tells me to wear a bra with good support that should help with the bouncing.......fast forward to now..........it's been about 11 months since I stopped using the gel and the painful swelling is gone but I can put on a 40 B sized bra and the cups fill out tight and here I am....

[jb1128]

I have to say sorry,my grammer or puncuation was not at it's best when I wrote my post

[xelnaga13]

Welcome to the board. I have been involved in the bodybuilding community for about 13 years, so I have a great deal of personal and group experience with the use of hormones and their side effects.

Gyno on testosterone gel is rare when compared to the risks of injections or implants. The primary reason is because absorption rates are very low.

Did you discontinue the use of the gel when you started experiencing breast pains?

Here's my theory. It's possible that your body was metabolizing your testosterone (gels) into estrogen at a higher than normal rate. This can be caused by excess fat (via aromatase enzyme) or possibly some of the pain medication. Your liver may be bogged down filtering out other medications that it stopped efficiently clearing excess estrogen; leading to a build up. Your gyno began to flare, so you stopped the use of testosterone. With the removal of testosterone ( and DHT ) there are no male hormones in your system to inhibit massive breast tissue growth. With out your testosterone gel you would effectively be suffering from temporary estrogen dominance.

The proper solution would have been to continue the testosterone gel and add an estrogen control medication.   I would find a good endo and get your hormones situated. It's possible that the reintroduction of male hormones combined with the mitigation of estrogen conversion could have some positive impact on your chest size. Either way, you will need to find a long term resolution for your low T, get stable, and possibly consider saving up for surgery.

[jb1128]

@xelnaga13...Thank you so much for your reply,to answer your Qusetion no I did not stop the use of the gel when the pain first started because I did not know it was the cause of the pain,I did not stop untill the doctor told me too,as far as your theroy,I think you might be right as I was using the gel for about 7 months when the pain started, my doctor did put me through a lot and I mean a lot of tests for all kids of things and all results came up as either normal or negitive,as far as seeing a surgeon that scares me,I have had 3 back surgerys (2 major) and I had part of my colin removed because I have whats called diverticulits, so going under the knife again (so to speak) is a pretty scarry thought besidesI have come to accept the fact that I have boobs dont get me wrong I would rather not have them but haveing them dont bother me,I have accepted it and have learned to live with them,I do how ever thank my lucky stars they did not stay as big as grape fruits...