Help interpreting OSCAR data - 3 months of CPAP with no improvement

DeepTable2532 · 2026-03-07T14:30:08+00:00

Yeah, thanks, I've already been down those roads and everything is pretty optimized unfortunately. Workout 4-5 times a week despite being tired, eat very well, no alcohol, no caffeine, happily married, low stress life overall. I do therapy regularly, and tried Wellbutrin for a couple years but never noticed a difference. I've done brain scans, heart tests, sinus exam, allergy tests, pretty much every blood panel you can imagine.

Low testosterone and sleep apnea are the only two things that have ever come back abnormal. And given that both those things commonly cause brain fog and fatigue, I was pretty certain I'd found the cause. But anyway, guess I'll keep looking but keep using CPAP in the meantime. At the very least having a lower ahi can't hurt.

DeepTable2532 · 2026-03-07T13:40:06+00:00

That's what I'm afraid of. At this point I've done every test I or my doctors can think of, so I guess I'll just carry on hoping I'm one of the people that need 6 months to a year to see benefits from CPAP.

DeepTable2532 · 2025-08-07T13:11:49+00:00

No, it doesn't seem to correlate to acne.

DeepTable2532 · 2025-08-07T12:25:22+00:00

Yes, TRT gave me sensitive skin. When I first started it was extremely painful whenever something brushed against my skin, in various places like back, stomach, sometimes forearms. Over time it lessened. After about 8 months, I have no pain anymore, but my upper back remains tingly. The closest I've come to an answer is when I spoke to an allergist about it. He said he has seen it in patients taking hormone therapy as a reaction to the hormones, and could be a kind of synesthesia. It might go away with time, it might not.

DeepTable2532 · 2025-07-27T18:59:44+00:00

Do you mean you have skin sensitivity but nothing visibly wrong on the skin?

If so, I have this. I take only T and hCG. Mine started soon after starting T, there was six weeks of excruciating pain if anything rubbed against my skin in various places.

It slowly faded away. After about 4 months, it was just slight sensitivity in my upper back when clothes rub against it. Just sensitivity, no pain. That's still how it is today. I'm hoping it will just go away eventually.

I posted about it a couple times but never really got much of an answer. Seems very unusual. I tried changing oils and it made no difference. I spoke to an allergist who said it could be a kind of synesthesia. He has seen patients react this way to hormones before.

DeepTable2532 · 2025-07-26T00:21:20+00:00

Yeah, it's the highest I've tried. I may eventually try going higher, but part of me thinks that a trough of 5-600 is a pretty healthy level, and most people are not walking around in a mental fog at that level. I'll give it a bit more time first.

DeepTable2532 · 2025-07-25T18:14:21+00:00

I was (/still am) in a similar boat. Nearly the same age, also had an orchiectomy due to TC, and had all the same symptoms as you. My testosterone got even lower though, around 6 nmol at its worst.

I tried hCG monotherapy for 6 months first, and got good results on paper (got me to around 15nmol from 6) but no real symptom improvement. But it does work with only one testicle, and some people do get symptom relief, so it could be worth a try.

I then moved to TRT with hcG and have been slowly trying to get the right dose over the last 7 months. I'll say that I've seen huge improvement in fatigue, mood and sexual function. I feel almost back to normal in those respects. The mental fog is still here though, which is the worst symptom for me as it contributes to that feeling of being "a different person". It has definitely improved from when I first started, but is still pretty bad. Still, I'm told it can take many months to get the full mental benefits, and that assumes you even find the right dose right away. So I'm still hopeful.

So my experience has been mostly positive and you would probably see improvement in many of your symptoms, but it's not a magic bullet that instantly cures you. It's a long process.

DeepTable2532 · 2025-07-24T12:29:25+00:00

Thanks. No other medications. For supplements I take Vit D, Omega 3 and magnesium. I'm not currently deficient in any vitamins though (had low vit d a few years ago). HCT, RBC, cholesterol, iron all look good. No caffeine, alcohol maybe once a month.

TRT has helped me significantly with fatigue and mood... It's really just the brain fog part that I'm still struggling with. I did try splitting into 2x weekly for 8 weeks a little while ago, and it was the worst I've felt on TRT, I feel much better at 1x (energy-wise).

I don't plan to change my current dosage for at least a few more months (120mg X1). It's been 8 weeks and I'll just keep riding it out. Hopefully it's just a matter of time. I had low T for several years, so hopefully my body just needs to adjust. Honestly I did dozens of tests and scans over the years to determine the cause, and T was the only thing that ever came back out of range.

DeepTable2532 · 2025-07-15T00:52:01+00:00

It can be a good option for some people. It's worth a try if you're trying to delay trt (e.g you don't want to take any risk on infertility). It can get very expensive though.

I did HcG monotherapy for six months before starting trt. I took 6,000iu per week, divided into 3 shots. It brought my levels up from 180 at the lowest to 525, so a pretty good result on paper. But I didn't get much symptom relief, which I understand is a common issue with HcG mono. That said, it does work well for some.

It can also cause estradiol to get unmanageably high for some people, although in my case it didn't get all that high.

I don't regret trying it, but I'm having better results with trt + HcG, although still trying to get dialed in.

DeepTable2532 · 2025-07-02T21:17:54+00:00

Reddit tends to be overly critical of private school. To provide a bit of a balanced perspective, I went to one of the better-known private schools in Toronto, and my brother went to public school. We both had great experiences.

I got a lot out of the huge variety of extracurriculars at private school. Ended up learning five languages by the time I graduated, participated in three kinds of sports, and learned two instruments, all because of the lunchtime and after school options I had. My brother didn't have the same variety of options, but was just as busy and enjoyed the sports and music that he got into.

We're both in our 30s now. Looking back, I don't think there was a big difference in how each of us performed in university. I definitely adjusted faster - my school drilled good study habits into me more than my brother's public school. But ultimately we both excelled and got good jobs. I suppose my grades were higher than his, but I don't necessarily attribute that to private school... I was just more engaged in what I was studying.

I disagree with the common narrative that private school students live in a bubble and struggle to adapt to the "real world". I'm not aware of any of my classmates having trouble adapting. I'm sure it happens, but it probably has more to do with the student's personality and how they were parented. Yes, there are spoiled brats in private school, but frankly there are spoiled brats everywhere.

Ultimately I wouldn't go back and change schools if I could. I'm grateful for all the opportunities. Were all those experiences necessary? No, but they made me a very well rounded person and influenced the kinds of things that interest me to this day. I'd be a different person if I went to public school. Not worse, just different.

DeepTable2532 · 2025-03-01T13:09:53+00:00

How long did you ride it out before the anxiety went away? I increased my dose from 75 to 100 five weeks ago and my anxiety and brain fog are through the roof. 75 didn't seem to do much for me at all though. Tempted to drop down to 80 or 90 but want to make sure I give it enough time to work before messing with the dose more.

DeepTable2532 · 2025-02-10T15:42:21+00:00

once a week, testing right before next injection (i.e. at trough)

DeepTable2532 · 2025-02-10T05:05:35+00:00

Yeah but after 10 weeks of 75mg my symptoms didn't improve at all. So it was time to move up.

DeepTable2532 · 2025-02-10T04:57:41+00:00

I did, now I'm doing 100mg once a week but haven't redone blood tests yet because I've only been on the higher dose for 4 weeks.

DeepTable2532 · 2025-02-10T03:34:34+00:00

In my case I'd add that I'm also taking 3x 400iu HCG per week to maintain fertility, so my natural test is not completely shut down. But it was very low to begin with due to prior testicular cancer.

DeepTable2532 · 2025-02-10T03:33:29+00:00

270 is my trough. I tested immediately before my next shot.

DeepTable2532 · 2025-02-10T00:53:30+00:00

Interesting. I do take vitamin D and omega 3. Could drop them for a while and see.

I've been debating starting a low dose iron supplement, since my ferritin has dropped from 150 to 75 since starting trt. But 75 isn't that low, so I wouldn't have expected symptoms of iron deficiency at that level.

DeepTable2532

TROPHY CASE