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HRT & Excercise
Hello all
I have a question about the effects of HRT on excercise.
I’m riding in the Around the Bay in a Day road bike race in October. Now, I’m no fitness guru and don’t really have “base fitness” – if such a thing exists – but I am in a training regime which is building up slowly. I’ve never riden this far before – this is a big milestone for me.
I’ve been on HRT for about 2 months now – all going well.
What I’m wondering is what the effects of the changes in my body’s hormones might be on my endurance. I understand muscle mass reduces and am doing some strength work on the bike to hopefully help with this
any experience or advice out there?
cheers
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4 Replies
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Hi Sarah, I’m a regular cyclist who has been on hormones two months and have been considering getting up to Melbourne for the Around the Bay ride. I have a post op friend down here who is late 40s and still reckons she could break me. She tells me this often. She competes in mountain bike races with the women. Some got stroppy when she won her last event but she asked, “Well has anyone else dome 5000km of training”? (She was a men’s state champ before).
Thats’ a bit of an aside, but she has told me that you lose about 20% of your explosive strength but stamina is largely unaffected. So we’ll lose on the sprints and uphill but will still be spinning them at the end of the day.
Message me if you want to talk bikes-and anyone else for that matter.
Cheers from your sister in lycra, Felicity
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Hi.
This will depend on a number of factors ,
Age how old you are when takeing meds .
& how long youv been on them ,If you are on other meds as well & if you have health problems.
strength wise what you can ecpect to lose ,
& as each of us are different & the long term effects.
we can not compare each other as we react differently. so really its very hard .
some have lost 70 % strength others may be 10 % .im 63 allmost , mine went down 15 %,
health wise good & fit no other meds .
& clean no other drugs ,What you may find is you can do the long distance if you pace your self , go hard out you may struggle . i did running walking & bikeing so do know what its like slow you breathing down just take more in if you time your breathing & keep a riythm you should be okay . just remember if your on a low dose it still effects you two months is not long 6 months to a year will tell more ,
try 6 years like me you do know ,
oh yea it does effect your breathing & youll find out when you push hard ,
any way have a good time ,…noeleena…
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Hi Sarah. In reference to your question I’ll say this: I’m 40 years old right now and started HRT when I was 39. Heaps of people told me that I would lose strength but I haven’t and that is the truth. As you might remember from other posts here, I fix and drive garbage trucks for a living and this job proves to me that I haven’t weakened at all. I’m still even stronger in the workshop than guys half of my age and I’m still capable of the same tasks that I’ve been doing through the last 24 years. As for running around all of Sat. nights for 12 hours in and out of a truck emptying bins that I have to pull to the truck myself (just the weight of a household 240 litre bin in this job will make you freak, let alone 1100 litres!) I do not have an issue at all. Even at the end of the night I’m still running around chasing bins. My T. count went back up recently but I had never used blocking meds. until then and my endo. even said that the excercise was good for me, maybe he doesn’t realise how hard I work but my future blood tests will monitor my levels anyhow.
You’ve not long started HRT to my memory Sarah. It will take a bit of time to work out what your correct needs will be medication wise and so keep fit and monitor your levels about every three months to establish a baseline and keep going with your life. HRT won’t stop you from being fit, bad diets and lack of excercise etc. will, even my doctors have told me that.
Peta A.
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Thanks so much for your replies. Much appreciated (sorry it has taken me a while to respond – I don’t get much time online)
So far, I haven’t lost any performance due to the meds’ or any other reason I can pick; still slowly increasing the distance I ride and about to add some cross country mountain biking, which I haven’t done much of for a little while.
I’m in my early 40’s too (already!!), but that hasn’t had any affect I can pick either – other than I’m healthier, fitter and happier than I was at 30!
Felicity, I think the 210km loops are full – did you get in? Great to hear about your MTB friend as well – good for her!
Cheers and wish me luck in Oct!
Sarah
