[chrishoney]

I have the Androderm 4mg patches, and nowhere in the product info sheet does it mention breast growth or even tenderness as a side effect.

Puffy nipples and gynecomastia are well known side effect of taking anabolic steroids such as testosterone or it's analogs. In the body building community, they are called "bitch tits". Some body builders not willing to give up steroid use, opt for surgery to "correct" their puffy nipples/gynecomastia. This happens because the endocrine system has feedback mechanisms that attempt to maintain testosterone within certain limits--too little and the testes are signaled to produce more, too much and they get the signal to produce less, way too much and excess testosterone is aromatized into estradiol which causes the gynecomastia.

It could be that your chest is not providing proper absorbtion, keeping it all locally, and causing an irritation or some similar effect due to improper use.

Sorry Patti, but absorption in specific areas just does not happen as you described it. Fat tissue does tend to act as a reservoir for certain types of substances such as fat soluble anesthetics and steroids. But it does NOT hold on and not let go Applying it to the chest and arms would not impede it's distribution throughout the rest of the body, at least not in any substantial way. This is mainly due to the abundant capillary beds in the dermis which any topically applied drug must first pass through before reaching underlying tissue, i.e. breast tissue.

The main issue as I see it, which I hope the OP's doctor discussed with him, is that use of exogenous testosterone will completely (and eventually permanently) shut down your testes. The testes will stop producing any testosterone since the feedback system detects enough from the androgel. This happens in chronic steroid use by bodybuilders and any man using testosterone cream for a long enough period. One of the side effects of steroid abuse is testicular atrophy. Basically, once you start using Androgel, you will be using it for the rest of your life, if you want the effects of testosterone.

Hope this helps clear things up a bit.