Hi Doctor Frascino,

I'm in a bit of a situation. I am a 38 year old very healthy hiv positive person,no o.i's for the last 15yrs.I am on sustiva,ziagen,epiver. I had a friend who offered a a couple of box's of testosterone patches to me he no longer needed. I wanted to see if it boosted my energy and appitite and increase my mass. I was aware of having to cycle off,and not go cold turkey once I did go off. I had great results,but made the mistake of not steping down my use of them before going off(I ran out thinking I had more) Very long story short,how can I get my natural production back to normal again? My doc says my testosterone levels are fine,but of course no way to know what my natural levels where prehiv.(tested in normal range months and months after quitting) It has been at least 7 months now,my energy levels are okay,but my sex drive and sexual sensation are horrible,and no I have added no new meds of any kind. I have tried 7-keto,zinc,selenium. I am looking for a prescription or something that would help me get my levels back without supplementation. Everything works okay,but don't have much interest and not much sensation at orgasm. When I was on the patch,everything was much much better,great orgasms. Any ideas of what I can do? thanks Alan

Hey Alan,

If you only used a "couple of boxes" of patches, chances are you have not significantly or permanently decreased your body's own production of "love potion #9."

However, we HIV-positive guys have a very high incidence of hypogonadism (low testosterone). You mention that your testosterone level has tested in the "normal range" months and months after you finished your patch experiment. However, that normal range is impressively broad. If, for instance, you are a 38-year-old Italian stallion, you would be expected to have a much higher "normal" range value than, say, Strom Thurmond. Also, you might want to check out your "free testosterone." Testosterone can be fractionated to measure both the "free" (active) and "protein bound" (not active) components. These 2 are added together to get "total" testosterone. If your "free" is low, but "total" still in the normal range, supplementation would still be warranted. If your free and total are really both in the mid to upper range of normal for age-matched controls (other guys your age), then supplementation is not warranted. Your physician or the laboratory where your blood tests are run should be able to get these age-matched normal range values for you. If your levels are low, there are no prescriptions to goose up your natural production levels. However, supplementation, if warranted, is convenient and reasonably safe. You might want to consider AndroGel - a topical testosterone gel. I found it much more convenient and comfortable than patches.

You might only need a relatively small amount of supplemental "vitamin T" to get your mo-jo back in the groove. Discuss it with your HIV specialist.

Good luck, Alan.

Dr. Bob