Can you join while on testosterone replacement therapy?

[Bluetiger434]

Does anyone have experience around this?

Also does anyone in the forces get prescribed testosterone therapy if their levels are low, for general health?

Thanks

 

[ModlrMike]

You have asked a question that nobody here can, or will answer. That being said, the treatment of a chronic condition is not, in and of itself, necessarily grounds for refusal. There are a myriad of medical challenges that people face during their application process.

If you do apply, ensure that you have access to a regular physician and an appropriate specialist who can respond to requests for more information. The better you build your case, the greater chance of achieving the desired outcome.

Just remember though... everyone gets to apply, not everyone gets to join.

 

[stellarpanther]

I once had a doctor who was involved with approving recruiting medicals and I asked him a question about a medical condition my friend had.  His response without elaborating was that some people are way to open about things.  Answer the questions honestly but sometimes the way a person answers the question can make the difference was all I was told.

edited to highlight an important part that not all noticed.

 

[Harris]

I once had a doctor who was involved with approving recruiting medicals and I asked him a question about a medical condition my friend had.  His response without elaborating was that some people are way to open about things.  Answer the questions honestly but sometimes the way a person answers the question can make the difference was all I was told.

So your advising people to be less than truthful when applying?  Shake your head.  I've had to deal with troops who were less than truthful and guess how that ended?  A lot of admin and they were either RTU or released.  True story, I had a soldier on two separate Infantry BMQ's, one was allergic to dirt and the other was allergic to sun.

 

[CBH99]

I understand what stellerpanther was trying to say, and I agree with him.  (In that I think I was understanding him correctly?)


He didn't suggest anybody lie or be untruthful about their medical issues.

He did suggest that some people are way too open about certain things, and therefore create unnecessary hurdles for themselves in the recruiting process.



Allergies that can affect your service, asthma, medications you rely on for serious medical conditions, etc, etc - absolutely disclose them.

Some recruits mention EVERYTHING & ANYTHING, and in turn do create unnecessary hassles for themselves.

 

[stellarpanther]

So your advising people to be less than truthful when applying?  Shake your head.  I've had to deal with troops who were less than truthful and guess how that ended?  A lot of admin and they were either RTU or released.  True story, I had a soldier on two separate Infantry BMQ's, one was allergic to dirt and the other was allergic to sun.

Please relook at what I wrote.  I am not telling anyone to lie.  Be honest and if you indicate any sort of medical issue, make sure you explain it to the person doing your medical.  Don't leave the option for the doctor to misunderstand what you are saying.

edit: as I was to harsh in my previous comments.

 

[PuckChaser]

No, shake your head. You either need an eye exam, new glasses or improvement with reading comprehension.  I bolded the part you should look at again.

Did you need the personal attack or would a simple clarification suffice? I had to re-read your message to get what you meant, CBH99 had a good clarification.

 

[stellarpanther]

Did you need the personal attack or would a simple clarification suffice? I had to re-read your message to get what you meant, CBH99 had a good clarification.

I hate the personal attacks on this site and meant to come back and clean it up but got caught up in the election drama.  Not an excuse but the "shake your head" comment ticked me off.  I will say that people who know me personally will say that if nothing else, I am honest to a fault.  It's something I pride myself on.

 

[Harris]

OK.  I'll say my bad for the shake your head comment.  Not required.  But you ticked me off with your comment about being too open. "some people are way to open about things.  Answer the questions honestly but sometimes the way a person answers the question can make the difference was all I was told."  Since none of us (with very few exceptions) are Doctors when we join the CAF, Isn't it better to tell the Dr. interviewing you everything and let them judge whether it was a factor or not?  As for the way a person answers a question makes a difference statement, I'm not sure exactly what your getting at here.  Can you give me an example, because the way I took it was you were advocating to tell the Dr. the minimum so that your application isn't impacted.  If this is not your intent please elaborate how two different answers can make a difference.  Personally I don't believe anyone on this site should be giving any advice to perspective recruits about medical issues/concerns/interviews.

 

[stellarpanther]

OK.  I'll say my bad for the shake your head comment.  Not required.  But you ticked me off with your comment about being too open. "some people are way to open about things.  Answer the questions honestly but sometimes the way a person answers the question can make the difference was all I was told."  Since none of us (with very few exceptions) are Doctors when we join the CAF, Isn't it better to tell the Dr. interviewing you everything and let them judge whether it was a factor or not?  As for the way a person answers a question makes a difference statement, I'm not sure exactly what your getting at here.  Can you give me an example, because the way I took it was you were advocating to tell the Dr. the minimum so that your application isn't impacted.  If this is not your intent please elaborate how two different answers can make a difference.  Personally I don't believe anyone on this site should be giving any advice to perspective recruits about medical issues/concerns/interviews.

To try to answer your question I will use a personal example.  When my son was young he was hit with a baseball and suffered a concussion, because of his young age the doctor at the hospital didn't want to do a CT scan because of the radiation but wanted imaging done and instead was able to quickly get an MRI within a couple hours.  Thankfully he was fine.  Years later he started getting headaches which doctors diagnosed as  tension headaches and a second MRI was done to make sure there was nothing going on.  Again, nothing found. 
There is a question on the medical that asks if you suffer headaches and if yes, is selected you explain.  He explained about being hit with a baseball when he was 7 and having a concussion and the way mentioned, the doctor who is basically reading a paper thought it was a recent injury.  Luckily, I had a good repour with my MO who was good friends with the (RMO?), recruiting doctor and called him and explained the situation better and after that doctor called my son the issue was cleared up in a few minutes.  What they are looking for in that question is whether these headaches are occurring for an unknown reason and will they affect you from doing your job.  Everyone gets tension heads, some more often than others but it's rare that they would result in a medical denial.  The doctor told him he should have just said no because the cause had already been diagnosed and his doctor was not concerned.  Sometimes too much info is a bad thing.  The doctor made that comment.

I hope this clears up my original comment.

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

To try to answer your question I will use a personal example.  When my son was young he was hit with a baseball and suffered a concussion, because of his young age the doctor at the hospital didn't want to do a CT scan because of the radiation but wanted imaging done and instead was able to quickly get an MRI within a couple hours.  Thankfully he was fine.  Years later he started getting headaches which doctors diagnosed as  tension headaches and a second MRI was done to make sure there was nothing going on.  Again, nothing found. 
There is a question on the medical that asks if you suffer headaches and if yes, is selected you explain.  He explained about being hit with a baseball when he was 7 and having a concussion and the way mentioned, the doctor who is basically reading a paper thought it was a recent injury.  Luckily, I had a good repour with my MO who was good friends with the (RMO?), recruiting doctor and called him and explained the situation better and after that doctor called my son the issue was cleared up in a few minutes.  What they are looking for in that question is whether these headaches are occurring for an unknown reason and will they affect you from doing your job.  Everyone gets tension heads, some more often than others but it's rare that they would result in a medical denial.  The doctor told him he should have just said no because the cause had already been diagnosed and his doctor was not concerned.  Sometimes too much info is a bad thing.  The doctor made that comment.

I hope this clears up my original comment.

I had a similar issue when I joined so I can also relate.  I suffered a lacerated spleen playing ice hockey as a 16 year old (Essentially had a hole in it but the membrane was intact and it healed so I didn't need to have it removed).  I brought it up as an injury even though I did not end up losing my spleen and it had completely healed (after 2 months of bed rest and no activity for an additional 8 months).  There was nothing physically wrong with me and I was cleared to play all contact sports again with full function of my spleen. 

I mentioned this during the medical and it caused immense problems for me.  I needed multiple doctors notes, etc to get accepted. At the time I was 18, could run a 13.5 on the beep test, crank out 70+ pushups but was a "huge risk" apparently! There was nothing wrong with me and my doctor even mentioned to me to "not be so open" about these things next time I go looking for work.  Looking back on it, it makes me laugh, especially considering some of the people I've run in to that the Military has let in.  You know, the walking band-aid, broken on entry types, who happen to have a "perfect" health record because they have spent their entire lives sedentary.

 

[BDTyre]

I have sort of a similar story. I had asthma has a kid; it slowly faded away over the year to the point that when I signed up I had no problems doing physical activity and had not used an inhale in about five or so years. I mentioned that I used to have asthma and it took my a further two years and multiple tests to get sworn in.

 

[Blackadder1916]

I have sort of a similar story. I had asthma has a kid; it slowly faded away over the year to the point that when I signed up I had no problems doing physical activity and had not used an inhale in about five or so years. I mentioned that I used to have asthma and it took my a further two years and multiple tests to get sworn in.

There's a reason for that.  A quick response would be to direct you to a non-academic article on WebMD

Childhood Asthma Often Recurs as Adult
One-Third Will Relapse By Their Mid 20s, Study Finds

By Salynn Boyles
FROM THE WEBMD ARCHIVES

May 22, 2003 -- Many children with asthma appear to outgrow the disease by their mid- to late teens. While they may seem to be cured, a new study suggests one out of three will have a recurrence of asthma symptoms by their mid 20s.

"It is likely that during adolescence, asthma subsides to the point where airway inflammation is minimal and does not cause symptoms," lead researcher Robin Taylor, MD, of the University of Otago School of Medicine says in a news release. "Patients who have a relapse likely have had a change in environment that provokes airway inflammation to the point where asthma symptoms recur."

Some 17 million Americans have asthma -- caused by narrowing airways and airway blockage from inflammation. Allergy triggers and other environmental influences often trigger asthma attacks.

Taylor and colleagues followed more than 1,000 New Zealand children from birth to age 26. More than 170 of them had asthma during childhood -- but 40% of these were free of asthma symptoms by age 18. The findings were reported at this week's American Thoracic Society International Conference in Seattle.

However, by age 21, one in four of the symptom-free young adults reported a recurrence of their asthma, and roughly 35% had relapsed by age 26.

The young adults who had a history of allergies seemed to be the ones most likely to relapse, says Taylor. This tendency towards allergic reactions appears to make the airways in the lungs sensitive to allergy triggers in the environment.

"What we are learning is that asthma is a chronic disease, and even if a person is symptom free it does not mean that the ongoing inflammation that causes the disease isn't still happening," American Thoracic Society president Homer A. Boushey, MD, tells WebMD. "People with a history of asthma need to be aware that they are at risk for recurrence, even if they think they are cured."

. . .

And a couple of academic articles

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3949175/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6603154/

Just because someone is asymptomatic after childhood asthma doesn't necessarily mean that "new environmental factors" (plenty of those in military service) won't trigger a recurrence.

 

[BDTyre]

Blackadder, that's interesting as I'm nearing 40 and have not had a recurrence. I have noticed, however, that my hayfever has been worse in the past few years (although I'm not the only person I know to have experienced this). But anything I used to do that would trigger my asthma doesn't seem to pose an issue.

I have been told that it could come back, although I was told this was something that would likely occur at a much older age. The mid-20s is news to me (I was definitely at my most active between the ages of 21 and 35).

Thanks for the info though! This is definitely something I'll have to keep in mind.