Low testosterone?

[Wesley Snipes]

Anyone here have/had low testosterone? Any improvements with cpap?

[PaulaO2]

Huh. I did a Google search and it is an interesting topic. Sleep apnea can cause low testosterone levels but treating it by adding testosterone could maybe perhaps kinda make sleep apnea worse, depending on who you ask. Using CPAP *might* increase the level if sleep apnea is the single cause of the decrease. But a study showed that weight loss worked better for increasing the level than using the CPAP. That is if I am reading it right. Not been to bed yet (5am) and I'm a wee bit foggy.

Non-scientific site:

Before undergoing testosterone therapy, men with low testosterone should consider seeing a doctor about sleep apnea since the two conditions can be interrelated.

Testosterone levels rise during sleep, and increase the most during REM cycles, but sleep apnea lowers the amount of REM sleep in patients with the condition. Men with sleep apnea have disrupted sleep and experience both lower quality and quantity of sleep. Testosterone therapy may seem like the answer to the problem, but it can actually worsen sleep apnea and the vicious cycle continues. Men with low testosterone should talk to their doctors about sleep apnea, and whether or not they should be tested for a sleep disorder. Treating sleep apnea will improve quality and quantity of sleep, which will in turn help restore testosterone levels.

Pubmed article:

Plasma testosterone levels display circadian variation, peaking during sleep, and reaching a nadir in the late afternoon, with a superimposed ultradian rhythm with pulses every 90 min reflecting the underlying rhythm of pulsatile luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion. The increase in testosterone is sleep, rather than circadian rhythm, dependent and requires at least 3 h of sleep with a normal architecture. Various disorders of sleep including abnormalities of sleep quality, duration, circadian rhythm disruption, and sleep-disordered breathing may result in a reduction in testosterone levels. The evidence, to support a direct effect of sleep restriction or circadian rhythm disruption on testosterone independent of an effect on sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), or the presence of comorbid conditions, is equivocal and on balance seems tenuous. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) appears to have no direct effect on testosterone, after adjusting for age and obesity. However, a possible indirect causal process may exist mediated by the effect of OSA on obesity. Treatment of moderate to severe OSA with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) does not reliably increase testosterone levels in most studies. In contrast, a reduction in weight does so predictably and linearly in proportion to the amount of weight lost. Apart from a very transient deleterious effect, testosterone treatment does not adversely affect OSA. The data on the effect of sleep quality on testosterone may depend on whether testosterone is given as replacement, in supratherapeutic doses, or in the context abuse. Experimental data suggest that testosterone may modulate individual vulnerability to subjective symptoms of sleep restriction. Low testosterone may affect overall sleep quality which is improved by replacement doses. Large doses of exogenous testosterone and anabolic/androgenic steroid abuse are associated with abnormalities of sleep duration and architecture.

[cant_sleep_in_nj]

my doc told me low test can definitely effect sleep. he immediately got me on a treatment and it helped right way.

[DeepBreathing]

Interestingly, there was an article published today which suggests testosterone treatment may help diabetes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-11-te...sulin.html

[Sleepster]

The thing is, if you have sleep apnea there are so many benefits from treatment with CPAP therapy, and so many problems associated with not treating it, that the testosterone issue doesn't matter. In other words, if you have low testosterone and sleep apnea, you definitely want to treat the sleep apnea regardless of what you do about the testosterone issue. Hopefully you'll experience the usual improvement in libido and performance that comes with CPAP therapy. Just getting rid of the sleep-deprivation issue alone causes many health issues, both physical and mental, to improve. In many cases the improvement is so dramatic that some of the problems are eliminated.

[Sleeprider]

Anyone here have/had low testosterone? Any improvements with cpap?

How low?

Hypogonadism that is severe enough to qualify for treatment with hormone replacement therapy (<250 ng/dL) is not likely to resolve through use of CPAP or exercise alone. Less severe cases do respond to weight loss, exercise, nutrition and quality sleep. So the answer to your question is...depends. For those on TRT, the patient becomes nearly completely exogenous, and supplemental gels, injections or pellets cannot be withdrawn without some pretty significant consequences. CPAP will not enable one to stop such therapy.

[Mosquitobait]

Small note: if you regularly drink mint tea, stop drinking it. Mint tea, drunk regularly, will reduce testosterone in the blood. Great for women, not so good for men. Mint tea is actually a pretty good treatment for excessive facial hair in women. Works better than the prescription drugs.

[trish6hundred]

Hi Wesley Snipes,
WELCOME! to the forum.!

[PollCat]

Interesting topic. Having been born with Klinefelter's Syndrome, I naturally had/have low T. Though I was born the same year Klinefelter released his study, my condition was not diagnosed until I was 26 and Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) of supplemental T was not prescribed until I was 51. Having been using a cpap since the age of 49, no doctor ever mentioned a correlation between the two issues. Oh, and I developed type 2 diabetes at the age of 55.

So, like SleepRider stated, the answer to your question is "depends" on the individual.