A recent tweet by Mens Wellness Center @MensWellnessCtr took me to an article that explains some things I’ve gone through in the past year. I have to point out that it mentions studies and reports the results statistically. Just before reading the article I had read a blog post from @K_Ghislaine on her blog BreakingAwayFromMonogamy.
I may be guilty of confirmation bias as far as my reaction to the article about testosterone replacement. I don’t often fall into that bias as I’m not usually in the main part of the statistics. My brother-in-law who was trained in math and physics, even though he used his degree to become a religion teacher, stated it the best when I was discussing it with him one day. I mentioned I had gone to a doctor with the current upper respiratory infection. The doctor mentioned he was going to prescribe the antibiotic he would usually go to if things didn’t improve with the first treatment choice. I asked why. He said he had noted I didn’t usually respond to the first choices. My brother-in-law said the doctor had noticed I am outside the first standard deviation when it comes to medical treatments.
During all those years I spent as a teacher I was practicing the art and science of teaching. The science was in the form of collecting data on my classes and reading about studies others had done. The art came in seeing when my classes, or even a specific student, fit the data and when they were outside the standard deviation and needed a different approach. I’m sure that doctor didn’t calculate the statistics but observed a pattern in the data on me and artfully changed the treatment to fit that pattern.
I’m surprised I fit the trends the TNation article linked by Mens Wellness Center so well. Usually I’m somewhat away from the mean. Perhaps my difference with this treatment came from the high levels my testosterone jumped to for that first blood test while on the therapy. One year ago I was coming out of some counseling to deal with some psychological challenges that my therapist didn’t describe as depression but more dealing with old traumas. Though I seemed to be on an even keel, I was really hoping for winter to end. Last year this area had far fewer storms than this year. I was getting more sun light and other things I haven’t gotten much this year, yet this year I’m in a far better mood. Last year my wonderful wife wouldn’t let me just sit and watch TV all day, it seemed that is what I was wanting to do. This year I’m hoping for winter to end not so much to get out of the rotten mood, but to put the energy I’m feeling to use. I’m better able to concentrate to read books and articles, and write blog posts.
This site and blog aren’t just about TRT. The title includes “sex positive.” This brings me to the BreakingAwayFromMonogamy’s blog post. There are many people blogging about all sorts of things. Krys blogs about another blog that purports to know a great deal about women’s orgasms. It seems the other blogger has a very set view that all women should be like her. Krys calls her out on this. I agree this kind of attitude needs to be called out.
If you are wanting some counseling on changing something in your sex life, don’t just accept any sex coach. I will admit I started looking into this sex positive idea when I was having some problems. I started with a sex coach that billed herself as a sexologist, and had the PhD. to back up that claim. Some of the help I’ve received came from her, some from a psychologist, and now some from a medical doctor. All three of these have been using the scientific method to understand studies that have been done to use their art to make recommendations to me. Someone that just bases everything on their own point of view or just their own experiences should be avoided. Also, don’t base a decision to go on TRT just from my experience. There are some concerns with this, just as there are some concerns with just jumping into a different way of expressing your sexual side. Please don’t let anyone control you on any of these choices. Find ways to get information from different sources and make informed decisions. Science exploring facts and patterns, emotions helping us find our hopes, desires, and fears, and our ability to use both science and emotions to guide our choices, are what will make our lives the most fulfilling they can be.
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