You're suggesting my fatigue would have been better treated by lifestyle changes? Thing is, I tried that. I tried graded exercise as prescribed by a consultant. I saw a psychiatrist. I worked on diet and stress management. I tried supplements and probiotics. For 4 years I tried, in good faith, everything suggested. Then, at my own instigation, I was tested, diagnosed hypogonadic and prescribed testosterone, and now I am fully cured.
There's a certain frustration to being told your condition is a "lifestyle issue" by someone with absolutely no knowledge of your lifestyle. In my original post I linked an Imperial College paper about a potential mechanism for permanent testestorone reduction after COVID due to death of GnRH system neurons. What lifestyle change do you propose that would cause these to regrow?
Infertility shows up with both low and high levels of testosterone. So for some people taking testosterone actually increases sperm production while it harms others.
The issue with these kinds of discussions is people talk about “low T” without defining a specific number as low and normal.
Very true about the lack of a number, but that's part of the problem domain. A number that is healthy for one person is associated with symptoms of hypgonadism (that respond to treatment) in another. Complex dynamic systems are involved, and serum testosterone level is a single, crude measurement.
That's why I'd recommend anybody to get their levels of testosterone and other hormones checked periodically, so that any sudden change can be identified (and perhaps we can collect data to better understand the epidemiology of such sudden changes).
Some things are systemic.