I wrote out a response to you last night and lost it.
This is all simply conjecture and guessing as far as why he may have had a problem. Pure bro science with a little common sense(maybe)
The guy isn’t a heavy steroid user. That I can see. Traps and rear deltoids are always the give away. Those areas have the most androgen receptors. It’s hard to see rear delts on that pic, but his traps are underdeveloped compared to the rest of his upper body.
Mind you, steroid user and trt are simply a border someone crosses like with any medication or substance. If you have two drinks a day and never have any problems the days you don’t have any, and it doesn’t have any ramifications, you’re not an alcoholic. Same with pain pills and anything else. If you amp up your use and start buying shit on the street, you’ve becomes a drug abuser. If you become a day drinker and NEED a drink, you’re an alcoholic.
You take a 100mg once a week you have the hormone panel of a 22 year old. If you shoot 1000mg a week and take three other things, you’ve become an abuser and have a hormone panel no human has. He probably is the first, he isn’t the second
Obviously he’s gay and there are risks to that.
If those risks didn’t get him, I’d bet on clots. Most people don’t read their bloodwork. Their doctor tells them if anything is abnormal. I’m a curious person and read every number on mine. Always did. If a test has a normal range of 2.0-8.0, my rbc has always sat at like 7.8. Docs wil just say everything is normal.
I wanted to know why I’m so close to being high. They basically said I have thick blood in layman’s terms. This has always been the case.
So trt can raise blood pressure, rbc, and have an adverse impact on cholesterol, though it’s slight with the latter on trt doses. If you already have blood pressure problems or cholesterol, you want to be incredibly careful. I’d advise against unless you’re willing to spend more on monitoring than the therapy itself and take more medications. That’s a personal choice. I wouldn’t.
There basically isn’t any way to be a heavy steroid user healthy. Doesn’t mean it will kill you, like you may smoke until 100 and never get lung cancer, but the odds are heavily against you. Bodybuilding as a profession and even on the amateur and local levels is a very sick sport. It’s basically a full time job of drug cocktails to combat other shit outside the lifting. The expense outweighs any gain. It’s essentially a lot like what I think trannies or eating disorders are. A dysmorphia. A girl will be 80lbs and look it the mirror and think she’s fat, a 250lb guy looks and thinks he’s small and needs to get bigger, or a boy is convinced he’s a girl .
To this guy.
No nurse is going to walk around with unchecked blood pressure. It’s simply the easiest thing in the world to check. He checks peoples all day.
You can go from right in the middle of that rbc range to above normal quickly. That requires blood work to monitor and most people don’t really know that. Everyone knows the more common risks but most don’t know that one ime. Even if you know it’s a risk, unless you’re getting blood drawn in a consistent manner, your blood is going to get thick and high rbc. That’s an oversimplification as red blood cells are made up of multiple different cells, but catching a clot is a real risk.
I keep hearing ER docs talk about treating this thing. They keep talking about the clotting problems. That broadway guy lost his leg from clot. A large percentage of patients end up on anti clotting medications with low success. It’s been a real pain to them. They describe the lung elasticity as poor.
This article and I’m sure a thousand others describe it.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01403-8
Even if this thing spikes really high, I don’t ever expect them to run out of ventilators at this point. The trend is away from them and treating it like altitude sickness or a clotting disorder. Ventilator as last resort. They are viewing this disease from a different viewpoint now
Even the MSNNC doctor at home still on oxygen had to medically refuse ventilation. All the forward thinking ER guys where this has hit hard are moving away from them except as last resort. Ignoring readings they’d normally go right to ventilator on and waiting to let oxygen therapy try to improve the condition. In relatively youngish people, they were finding people with 60 pulse ox readings just slightly breathless. They started monitoring the organs for damage, but waiting.
Clotting though is a huge issue. I’m no doctor, but they seem befuddled by this clumped mess surrounding lungs and elsewhere.
If this guy wasn’t HIV positive or something, yet was on trt, wouldn’t shock me if they struggled to combat clotting issues. That seems to be the main issue with youngish people who don’t die, but have a rough go. If I had to bet on his lifestyle creating the problem, that would be my bet assuming he doesn’t have hiv. I’d still need big odds on that bet as I’m just guessing.
I’m to the point I think lung scarring and clotting and shit is a far more rational concern than death if you’re 35-55. I keep seeing that talked about. People still on oxygen after being home a month. Hitting even healthy people.
Everything I’m writing is pure conjecture and just guessing with what I think is a little common sense thrown in.
I saw an interview with a doctor showing lung scarring on film. Said it was hitting more healthy people harder than the sick.
I thought about my health issues. I had adhesions really bad in abdomen. Constant gnawing pain on right side. Took years to figure out. Those are more prevalent with women who’ve had female surgeries. Hysterectomies, c-sections, other procedures.
Not many dudes have five abdominal surgeries between 29-31 like I did. They eventually did lysis procedure, and pain disappeared forever. They told me I was young and healthy and it was essentially an overreaction from immune system.
I don’t know if lung scarring is the same. Your wife would be a better resource than I would be. I’m just guessing.
It just made me wonder when I read and saw doctor saying it was hitting younger fit people. They’re more likely to have strong immune system.
But if it was related to some hormone, and I had to bet, I’d bet on clotting. Two months is a long road. I’m just guessing they were running into issues they found hard to combat and he lived because he’s young.
You have young kids iirc. I’d stay away unless your wife was on board and wanted to constantly monitor you. Most ER docs and family docs are super conservative. Only endos see the value in male HRT, and even that’s not without risk. You need to have the right genes for it to be close to zero risk. . Basically super healthy heart and low inflammation markers.
My .02 and that’s legit all it’s worth