T Nation

7 Weeks into TRT Protocol

T Replacement
#1

So I’m 33 years old, in September I was 120lbs, dealing with depression from a break up. I had been living a horrible diet of maybe 1,500 calories a day. I’d have back sweats when it was cold out, hot out, horrible sleep, anxiety, life was just rough.

I decided I wanted to turn my life around. I got a gym membership, started meal prepping, eating 3,000-4,000 calories a day. I also decided to start on TRT. I originally was tested w/ TT levels of 348.

I started at 1cc 200mg 1x weekly. After 3 weeks I switched based on what many here were doing to .5cc evey 3.5 days.

I’m now 156lbs, I feel great, little anxiety and no depression. My back sweats entirely went away. I wouldn’t have chills when it was 70 degrees. That was about two weeks ago. Fast forward to now and my back sweats and chills have started again. It’s 72 degrees right now inside and my toes are ice cold. Could this have been from switching to every 3.5 days?

I also have added .5 cc of 200mg Nandrolone every 3.5d as well to help with my joints. Looking for any pointers.

#2

The cold feeling and hot feeling almost sound like a thyroid problem. Have you had your thyroid checked?

#3

I have , many times and found to have no issues. My dad has thyroid issues. The fact I was a grown man and 120 lbs and never able to gain weight also indicated a Thyroid issue to me. I had a physical in July in which my main concern was my thyroid and I was told everything was good. As I sit here and type this it’s 70* in my showroom and my back is drenched. I normally switch undershirts on my lunch break each day.

#4

Do you have any other symptoms?

#5

Time for follow-up labs.

#6

You made a change so you went into flux. It should resolve itself, or you could simply go back to what was working but dont make sudden changes wait til week 12 to get a good idea of what is happening. I raised my dose and then back down after a short test cycle and I began to have sleep issues. Im going to to stick with the new protocol and hope it resolves itself or I will have to see what is different in my labs to correct anything that is off. But no more changes unless my labs point me to it.

#7

Where can I find relatively cheap labs? My clinic wants outrageous amounts and doesn’t even pull half the stuff I see you guys post. IE: Free T levels.

#8

Such as? I don’t think so. Just these sweats. I had them like crazy before TRT. Changing my diet, working out, and trt seemed to fix them but they are back.

#9

or
#10

It would be best if you found a TRT clinic which has a volume rate and the lab charges the clinic directly.

For example, the Basic Male Hormone Optimization Panel was $649 through the privatelabs.com. We get all of that, plus more, through Quest, for $254. It’s $2500-2600 through them if you are paying cash. Of course, an insurance company would never pay that much, or even close. Quest gives us those rates because we give them volume and we pay them monthly, no insurance, no denials, no “incorrect” coding, no “test not indicated”, no “test not covered in plan” no fighting for their money.

I think most TRT clinics have these types of arrangements.

#11

I may have just been lucky, but at Defy they let me try to run labs through insurance and so far they’ve covered 100% of everything. Even rT3 and DHT, etc. Stuff that a regular doc isn’t going to run very often, they’ve paid. Not sure if something like that is an option for you but there’s my experience.

#12

I am currently with Royal. They cover my labs in my monthly fee but do not pull detailed labs. Also I cannot switch clinics till I hit 6 months as they have crazy cancellation fees.

#13

Can I go through Defy just for labs? If not I only have 3 more months to ride out with current clinic and I can walk away free of charge.

#14

Do you know exactly which tests are included in the monthly fees?

#15

Do you get an EOB? I’m always curious to see what is billed, what is discounted or written off, and what is actually paid. I’m assuming you did not have a co-pay or % that you are responsible for paying?

#16

What is an EOB? All I know is with Royal its $295 every 2 months which includes labs once

labs
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. I attached the labs that I had done when I first started (before trt), these are the lab tests they pull.

#17

Explanation of Benefits

It will show the amount billed by the doctor or facility, the negotiated discount if the provider is in network, the amount allowed, the patient’s portion, if any, and the amount paid. For example:

Radiology services: $200
Provider’s responsibility: $145
Amount allowed: $55
Your responsibility: $20 (co-pay or % of bill)
Amount paid by plan: $35

I can only see one page of the labs, the CBC and CMP.

Sounds like you are getting concierge services. Depending on what labs you actually can get, and how often, it may or may not be a good deal.

#18

Yes, I’ll post a few so you can see them

My insurance has 100% coverage on labs, so co-pay, etc. doesn’t apply. Not sure if that is common or not but it’s been nice this year. The discount my insurance gets, even if I had to pay, is pretty insane on most of them. Semen analysis for example was like $200 normally and I think they pay $9 for it if memory serves

Defy originally told me they recommended me buying their “discounted” labs through them because it was so much lower than what insurance would make me pay if they decide to deny coverage on anything. Maybe that’s true, maybe it was a sales tactic… not sure. But for me it’s worked out better to just do them through insurance.

#19

Here’s one… the downside is they use the codes instead of the actual test names but you probably know what they are. The rest is a copy of the report for that particular set of labs. They might be out of order, not sure, had to screenshot them to get them to attach here

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#20

I am not sure. Defy charges I think $250 for the initial visit, then they can order labs for you… and there’s no guarantee insurance will cover it. I may just be getting lucky, I’d hate to tell you to go that route then you end up getting a big bill for labs. It is worth looking into, though, as I know it has worked for a few people