Stopped ADT , recovery ? How long?

User

Posted 09 Jan 2025 at 13:29

Afternoon all

long time since I last posted, lots of water under the bridge, I have updated my profile.

Stopped ADT ( Zoladex ) in June 2024.

effectivity was for 3 months.

so 4 months have passed.

generally feeling more with it, although I still have afternoons when I need a rest! Usually after changing a front set of brake rotors and pads on one of the cars! Too much maybe. At least the winter has stopped the hedges growing.

i do feel better in myself, and the desire to shop is diminishing, as is the need for new shoes.

psa at last test < 0.1, so that’s good.

wierdly lost most of my body hair during adt, including backs of hands and underarms! Still not returned !

at some point my libido took a holiday, I think it’s relocated to somebody else.

had to have another body scan on 23/12/24, because my go panicked about some alkaline phosphatase results! He apparantly could not be bothered to check the cancer centre blood tests ( been raised since RT started and everything else ok.

so now waiting for those scan results and wondering when I can enjoy the look of a shapely ankle or leg again?

anyway and help / advice much appreciated. Good luck to all the newcomers, especially John who I met in Rosemere in Weds last , he is a newcomer.

Take Care, Stay Safe, TH

User

Posted 09 Jan 2025 at 19:25

I had RT with 3 yrs of Zoladex (plus 2 yrs abiraterone,enzalutimide,prednisolone on trial). The HT finished summer 2018; the effects very gradually wore off but at least they did and treatment has done what it was supposed to. I can't remember timescale of when things improved but I do remember libido etc returned suddenly summer 2020? I think. Other effects were still there but all were easing off, it certainly takes a while and its suggested it takes as long as you were on HT for effects to go.

Peter

User

Posted 09 Jan 2025 at 21:33

Tinhat, although I only had 9 months of zoladex I had that same loss of body hair. It slowly came back, but slowly starting in the pubic area. Only after 2 years do I have much underarm hair, and that is finer (almost baby-like) than it used to be. Libido still isn't what it was, but at least it exists.

But looking positively, most of the weight I put on during ADT has come off and I have regained some of the strength/stamina/fitness - and to be fair, if I am not quite where I used to be that may simply be being older.

User

Posted 10 Jan 2025 at 00:18

It's really useful to have Testosterone level added to your PSA tests when you finish HT, until your Testosterone has returned to a new stable level. This way, you can see how your recovery is going, and if you still have a prostate, you expect your PSA to rise to a new stable level in response to Testosterone return.

My graph is: here.

You can see it took 9 months for my Testosterone to return after the last Zoladex ran out (that was after almost 2 years on HT - the longer you're on it, the longer recover takes, but it varies from one person to another). It took another 3 months after that for my body to respond to it.

If you want consistent Testosterone level tests, do them all first thing in the morning as fasting tests, since it varies over a 24h cycle.

Edited by member 10 Jan 2025 at 00:20 | Reason: Not specified

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