How it went
Did it last?
- No one said the benefit wore off.
- 2 of 7 needed to keep doing it to stay well.
Read from what people wrote. A story that ends without a follow-up counts as lasting, so treat these as minimums.
| Outcome described | Accounts | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Full recovery | 2 | 29% |
| Near-full | 0 | 0% |
| Substantial | 2 | 29% |
| Partial | 3 | 43% |
| Relapsed | 0 | 0% |
| No benefit | 0 | 0% |
Only 7 accounts. Treat these percentages as anecdotes, not rates.
By how ill people were
| Severity at worst | How it went | n | Recovered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Severe | 4 | 25% |
3 accounts don’t say how ill the person was.
Who published these accounts
Right-hand number: share describing a full or near-full recovery. Pages that sell something, and advocacy sites, tend to publish only the successes.
How often it comes up
Posts that mention Testosterone, per 1,000 posts each year. Hover a point for the count.
Show as a table
| Year | Posts mentioning it | All posts | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 0 | 184 | 0.0 |
| 2010 | 2 | 682 | 2.9 |
| 2011 | 7 | 704 | 9.9 |
| 2012 | 8 | 1,491 | 5.4 |
| 2013 | 18 | 1,708 | 10.5 |
| 2014 | 2 | 2,352 | 0.9 |
| 2015 | 8 | 2,158 | 3.7 |
| 2016 | 1 | 1,431 | 0.7 |
| 2017 | 4 | 3,110 | 1.3 |
| 2018 | 6 | 2,201 | 2.7 |
| 2019 | 1 | 1,075 | 0.9 |
| 2020 | 10 | 2,581 | 3.9 |
| 2021 | 8 | 1,867 | 4.3 |
| 2022 | 0 | 1,166 | 0.0 |
| 2023 | 0 | 1,000 | 0.0 |
| 2024 | 13 | 1,237 | 10.5 |
| 2025 | 4 | 1,019 | 3.9 |
| 2026 (so far) | 2 | 840 | 2.4 |
Posts in the forum threads we archived, 26,806 in all, counted per year. A mention means the post names the treatment, not that the writer took it. These threads all contain a recovery story, so they show what those communities discussed, not everyone with ME/CFS or long COVID. All trends
All 7 accounts
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How I got in remission/cured my ME/CFS
Ali_Mardiyev, disabled for 1.5 years with POTS/dysautonomia/severe fatigue/PEM, layered a stellate ganglion block with beta-blocker, a testosterone course, several psychiatric medications, intermittent fasting and a slow graded-exercise ramp starting April…
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Testosterone resolves fatigue and inflammation
This poster credits testosterone, added on top of ongoing antiviral treatment, with improving energy, recovery and joint pain, calling it icing on the cake and naming it one of his three essential treatments alongside an antiviral and a sleep aid. Dose and…
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My Experience of Long COVID and Changing Hormones, with Dr Marianne Tinkler
Topical estradiol gel, one pump daily increased to two pumps, started roughly 8-9 months after a March 2020 COVID infection when cyclical 28-day symptom flares began. She had been severely debilitated by long COVID: unable to work, sleeping most days,…
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I replace ALL my hormones. This brought me back to life.
thingsvarious systematically replaced testosterone, cortisol, thyroid, growth hormone and aldosterone after years of "nightmare"-level fatigue, largely managing it himself because, in his words, "many endocrinologists are shit." He says his energy moved from…
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OI/POTS and the menopause
Combined bioidentical hormone therapy - a "healthy dose" of bioidentical progesterone plus topical estriol, topical testosterone, DHEA and pregnenolone - fine-tuned using DUTCH hormone testing. She is a cancer survivor whose ovaries and uterus were removed,…
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Vasopressin/ADH ... My Story
Added low-dose vasopressin (half pill twice daily) on top of thyroid medication, cortisol, aldosterone, testosterone and DHEA. Says he stopped over-urinating (previously about twice the volume he drank), fatigue improved, and his bench press rose sharply…
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John Bochenek's Recovery Story
Relayed by forum member sometexan84, John Bochenek credited full recovery from ME/CFS to a hormonal protocol of testosterone with anastrozole plus cinnamon/chromium and L-lysine. The original ProHealth article could not be fetched directly (it returned only…