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FOR years, Dr Max Draper admits he was living under a “relentless and unforgiving” fog.

The 39-year-old suffered , slept 14 hours a day, and was signed off work.

Dr Max Draper admits he was living under a ‘relentless and unforgiving’ fog until testosterone replacement therapy change everything – helping him to lose 20kg (pictured now)Credit: Supplied Dr Max did a single blood test which revealed his testosterone levels were crashing (pictured, before weight loss)Credit: Supplied The 39-year-old, pictured with his family, is now 20kg lighter and the ‘happiest he’s ever been’. He’s pictured in 2022, after beginning treatment, with wife Katy and two of their childrenCredit: Supplied

Desperate for answers, the resigned himself to the idea that he was having a crisis.

But it didn’t sit right – there was something more at play.

The dad-of-three, who lives in just outside of , tells Sun Health: “I thought my experience of life had been ruined. I didn’t understand what I could do to get better. That was when I felt really defeated.”

He got so low that he told his wife of eight years, Katy, also a GP, he no longer wanted to be here.

It wasn’t until a check-up that a single blood test revealed the truth – his .

“I was a qualified GP,” Dr Max admits, “and yet I had almost no real understanding of how critical testosterone was to a man’s .”

He says (TRT) “absolutely changed my life”.

Now he’s , is sleeping better, more present with his kids and the “happiest he’s ever been”.

“I know there will be loads of men suffering in silence across the UK,” Dr Max, who now works in men’s health, says.

“You don’t have to be as bad as I was to have a problem.”

Testosterone is a male sex hormone, which as levels drop, can cause low mood, , , weight gain and more.

Men can lose testosterone as a result of age, , medications and testicular damage or surgery.

Dr Max was diagnosed with in October 2016 that saw him undergo surgery to remove his left testicle.

He was declared -free and so when he found himself plagued by anxious thoughts and crushing exhaustion, in 2019, he thought it was lingering viral , for which he had needed hospital care.

‘Total overwhelm’

“We’d just had our second child, and I’d been discharged from hospital for meningitis when my life, internally at least, just fell apart,” Dr Max says.

“While some things linked to the viral meningitis were improving, others were gradually getting worse. Things stayed like that for nearly two and a half years.”

The most debilitating symptom was fatigue, causing him to up to 14 hours a day and take additional naps.

“It was relentless and unforgiving,” he says.

“I was also getting aches and intermittent headaches. We’d tell the kids [two sons and a daughter, aged one to eight] ‘Daddy’s got a poorly tummy, that’s why he sleeps’.

“I didn’t know what the hell was going on anymore.

If the kids were shouting or having a tantrum – completely normal for a toddler – I would feel like I was standing on the edge of a cliff looking down

Dr Max Draper

“If the kids [daughter, eight, a son, six, and another son, one] were shouting or having a tantrum – completely normal for a toddler – I would feel like I was standing on the edge of a cliff looking down. Just total overwhelm and loss of control.”

Dr Max was signed off work with post-viral fatigue for three months. He returned to work on reduced hours, but his mental health nosedived.

“I had these compulsive, repetitive, anxious thoughts that were very noisy and distracting,” he says.

“A lot of them were about losing control. I had this fear that I was losing my mind. Another was that I was going to have a – but I’ve never had one.

The result showed Dr Max’s testosterone was 7 nmol/L, outside the NHS ‘normal range’ of 8.6 – 29 nmol/L. He is pictured with his wife on their wedding day in 2014Credit: Supplied Dr Max went from feeling anxious and depressed to running six to 10km three times a week thanks to the treatmentCredit: Supplied Dr Max, pictured with his youngest son, says: “If the kids were shouting or having a tantrum I would feel like I was standing on the edge of a cliff looking down. Just total overwhelm and loss of control.”Credit: Supplied

“I resigned myself to this being about my mental health.”

Dr Max was diagnosed with severe and mild and started seeing a private psychiatrist.

“I thought the antidepressants would ease things over time,” he says.

“They probably quietened my mind a little, but they also numbed me. It wasn’t the answer.”

I was in tears and said to Katy, ‘I don’t want to wake up anymore’

Dr Max Draper

Dr Max and Katy, 38, spent hours trying to make sense of it.

“We explored every possible avenue. Was it childhood trauma that had resurfaced? Work stress? Nothing seemed to give us answers.”

At his lowest point, he broke down.

“I was in tears and said to Katy, ‘I don’t want to wake up anymore’. She said, ‘You have to give me five years.’ She stood beside me when I couldn’t see a way forward and believed in me when I no longer believed in myself.”

The turning point came in 2022 during a cancer follow-up at The Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, when a nurse suggested a testosterone check for the first time.

‘Lost myself’

The striking result showed Dr Max’s testosterone was 7 nmol/L, outside the ‘normal range’ of 8.6 – 29 nmol/L.

Dr Max started using prescribed testosterone gel, a form of , in which synthetic testosterone, identical to the body’s own hormone, is used to correct deficiency.

The effect was almost immediate. About ten days into treatment, he went for a jog.

“My legs didn’t feel so heavy,” Dr Max says.

“I had a bit more drive. When I got home, I said to Katy, ‘I feel something’s changed’.”

Over the following months, improvements snowballed. Dr Max was running six to 10km three times a week and doing sessions in his garage.

At his worst, he’d reached 105kg, but the weight slowly melted off. He later switched his TRT to injections, administered every other day.

“Over about six months, the repetitive anxious thoughts just faded,” Dr Max says.

Low testosterone is rarely just one thing – it’s a culmination of internal biology and external stressors

Dr Max Draper

“I think Katy was completely overjoyed as I was. I remember going to the beach as a family and she said I was smiling, playing with the kids, in the moment.

“I’d stopped talking about intrusive thoughts because they weren’t dominating me anymore. I think she was overjoyed to have me back.”

Today, Dr Max wants men to be made aware of a condition even he didn’t know about as a GP and cancer survivor.

“Removing one testicle predisposed me to lower testosterone, but I didn’t crash straight away,” he explains.

“It was only when , poor sleep, creeping inflammation and possibly post-viral immune dysfunction accumulated that things tipped over.

“Low testosterone is rarely just one thing – it’s a culmination of internal biology and external stressors.”

He works as a lead clinician in men’s hormonal health and urges people to see their GP if they are concerned.

“I thought I’d lost myself forever,” he says.

“I didn’t realise something biological was driving so much of what I was experiencing. To go from the worst period of my life to now feeling content and genuinely happy again has been genuinely life-changing.”

Today, the dad, who is pictured in the grips of his mental health spiral, wants men to be made aware of a condition even he didn’t know about as a GPCredit: Supplied

• Testosterone Decoded: Understanding Testosterone, TRT and Male Hormone Health (Hammersmith Health Books), by Dr Maxim Draper, is out now.