Cialis is great stuff. I’m convinced most in their late 30s would benefit. I take 6mg ED. No need for anything more if all else is well.
TRT is tricky beast for some of us. For me it’s been real challenge to get it dialed in and not get over zealous. Paying close attention to free T and E2 I think has been the key. You want to get it dialed in to the point where you’ve eliminated it as an issue. My amateur opinion is that getting both in the 20s should provide a good baseline and allow you to test for and address other issues. For me adrenals and thyroid. You don’t want to keep playing with T levels if it’s just masking other issues.
Yes the 1MG 2x weekly was advised by my doc, but he took blood and was very open to dialing it in much lower. Not sure why he started so high, but we’re getting it worked out… My venus leak symptoms seem to be declining, but don’t seem to be gone yet 100%…
Been improving for awhile since dropping my AI dose, but still having days here or there where I crash. It’s strange that I can have days with good morning wood, followed by days with absolutely nothing in the morning. Regardless, my morning wood doesn’t seem to be good enough to have sex – and goes away quickly after waking up.
A couple of notes I wonder if other guys experience?
I do find that if I abstain from sex / masturbation – I am definitely more virile and have good MW. I find that pretty bizarre, considering that sometimes on TRT – I feel like I could have sex 5 times a day without issue…
Also, I’m experimenting with wearing looser fitting underwear and seem to be noticing positive results with that. It seems like if I wear briefs, it can really mess with my erections. If I wear loose boxers, things seem to be better for me. Is this in my head!?!
I’ve started working out again, a couple weeks ago – and am hoping that will help as well. I really haven’t had any cardio in my life for a couple of years now, so figure this will be good. My goal is to get my blood pressure to the point where I can go off of BP meds. I am worried that the Amlodipine I am on is impacting me sexually.
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Blood pressure meds are most definitely notorious for causing sexual difficulties. If your BP is not very high, PDE inhibitors such as Cialis will also lower blood pressure without causing the sexual difficulties of the other meds.
[quote]seekonk wrote:
Blood pressure meds are most definitely notorious for causing sexual difficulties. If your BP is not very high, PDE inhibitors such as Cialis will also lower blood pressure without causing the sexual difficulties of the other meds. [/quote]
Duely noted and agreed… I think I may work with my doc to come off the BP med for a couple of weeks to see if it positively impacts my TRT and ED issue. It’s strange though that I’ve had a few weekends on TRT and the BP med where I seemed to be greatly improved, then I would decline again shortly after.
Another thing I’ve read about to consider is T to E ratio. I understand from working with my Andrologist that he really believes that the higher T to E ratio, the better. So while I am at about 800 to 20 right now, he mentioned before I may want to get my T level up to 1200 or so and then see how I feel. The problem with that is thick blood though, and I don’t really want to start having to donate blood every month because quite frankly it grosses me out.
At 800 to 20 there is nothing wrong with the T/E ratio - that’s higher than most healthy men’s, so I am a bit stumped as to why he thinks that should be treated further. It’s more likely that the problem, if any, lies somewhere else.
Both the high blood pressure and the soft erections may be the result of too high of a T dose. I can’t believe they put you on blood pressure meds instead of first reducing your T dose. I would rather significantly reduce the dose and see if these issues improve. You are not going to have any better sexual function at 800 ng/dL than at, say, 400 ng/dL (there are actually some studies showing this). It is a common misconception that libido is proportional to T dose; in reality it is more like an on-off switch that lies somewhere between 250 ng/dL and 350 ng/dL.
That was just a thought. He is happy where I am now for sure. I have another component mixed in which some guys have here, and that is insulin resistance. I was diagnosed with Fatty Liver right about the same time I was diagnosed with low-t several years ago. I am in the process of finally losing weight, bettering diet, and incorporating more cardio into my routine in the hopes that will will help also from that side of things. I know diabetes (which I don’t have yet) can influence ED and T for sure. In some of the books I have read on Fatty Liver, Dr. Sandra Cabot draws direct connections between that and insulin resistance to hormone problems.
Interesting stuff, because of the epidemic of low T sweeping our nation right now, and how there is also a silent epidemic of fatty liver disease in our country as well. My doctor has mentioned to me that within the next 10 years, Fatty Liver will overtake all other causes as the chief reason for liver transplant in our nation.
Went back to the doc recently, and told him about the highs and lows I have been experiencing. He gave me a scrip for HCG, however it’s not covered by my insurance – so I’m weighing whether or not I want to go out of pocket for it. Apparently there is a pharmacy that partners with my andrologist, who sells it for about $75 per month for cash buyers.
Still thinking it’s my Adex dose that is messed up though, and if I could get that dialed in – I would be able to maintain a better level of well being. More to come as I fine tune, and decide if I’m going to go on HCG next.
2 weeks now with no Adex, and feeling no better. Feeling like absolute shit actually, on a scale of 10 getting zero to a 3 in the morning wood department, and libido of zero to 2. Erections are subpar, and orgasms are tough to achieve.
My theory was that because my E2 level was so low (9) when the doc asked me to cut my Adex dose in half, it never got back into the sweet spot (Around 20) – and it’s been too low ever since, so I decided to go off of Adex all together to let it rebound a bit. Hoping that as it rises through the sweet spot, I’ll be able to feel a difference – and I can resume a small dose of Adex at that time to keep it from rising any higher. Also have a theory that since I’m only injecting .3 of T twice a week, not much aromatase is occuring anyway, so wondering if it will take awhile for my E2 to bounce back? Hmmmm…
[quote]hakrjak wrote:
Went back to the doc recently, and told him about the highs and lows I have been experiencing. He gave me a scrip for HCG, however it’s not covered by my insurance – so I’m weighing whether or not I want to go out of pocket for it. Apparently there is a pharmacy that partners with my andrologist, who sells it for about $75 per month for cash buyers.
Still thinking it’s my Adex dose that is messed up though, and if I could get that dialed in – I would be able to maintain a better level of well being. More to come as I fine tune, and decide if I’m going to go on HCG next.[/quote]
Thanks for the tip! I’m still not convinced I want to start HCG, but am leaning more in that direction the last few weeks – as I’ve crashed again hard on TRT, and feel I need to try something new to try to smooth out these hills and valleys in my sexual function. My doc tells me he had one guy who was much worse off than me that tried HCG, and it straightened him out – literally.
Any other guys out there experience the same types of problems, and find that HCG was the missing link to getting back on track?
HCG provides a bit of a boost with respect to mood and libido. It’s not a bandaid for jacked up E2 levels though. You need to make sure you’re dialed in too.
Well, after much hand-wringing – I’ve decided against HCG for now because of the cost, and because it seems to be a pain in the ass… (i.e. EOD injections, and having to refrigerate it… I travel a lot, so that sounds like a royal bitch…) – Although I may come back to it at some point.
In the mean time, I went off of Adex completely for 3 weeks to clear it from my system, and started up again with a smaller dose. No massive euphoria this time, but I did have a slow uptick in sexual function. Started getting morning wood again, and even had it actionable a couple of mornings, where if I wanted to have sex – I could have. Most of the time it is there, and goes away quick upon waking up though! Was able to have sex with the wife the other night with no help from anything, and rated it an 8 or 9 on a scale of 1 to 10 – surprising myself! Going to continue with this regimen awhile and see how it goes…
[quote]hakrjak wrote:
Well, after much hand-wringing – I’ve decided against HCG for now because of the cost, and because it seems to be a pain in the ass… (i.e. EOD injections, and having to refrigerate it… I travel a lot, so that sounds like a royal bitch…) – Although I may come back to it at some point.
In the mean time, I went off of Adex completely for 3 weeks to clear it from my system, and started up again with a smaller dose. No massive euphoria this time, but I did have a slow uptick in sexual function. Started getting morning wood again, and even had it actionable a couple of mornings, where if I wanted to have sex – I could have. Most of the time it is there, and goes away quick upon waking up though! Was able to have sex with the wife the other night with no help from anything, and rated it an 8 or 9 on a scale of 1 to 10 – surprising myself! Going to continue with this regimen awhile and see how it goes…[/quote]
And I’ve crashed again, about a week later. Zero on the 0-10 Morning Wood scale for the past few mornings. Penis feels pretty numb, and not very useful. Libido is in the gutter. Confidence is shit.
Asked my doc for a standing order to measure T and E so I can check it now, and hopefully again when I’m feeling better to see if this is related to my E level. Need to get the Adex dialed in better I’m thinking.
Stressing because I’ve got a vacation coming up with the wife, and need to be able to deliver the goods on demand for a week. Thinking I’ll have to go back on Cialis and mix in some Viagra if all else fails. Although when your hormones aren’t dialed in, those meds are never a guarantee either…
Another important update. Got my doc to write a standing order for T&E so I can troubleshoot. I haven’t had time to go in yet, since the labcorp is across town – but yesterday I experimented with a slightly higher dose of T than usually (I had been injecting .3ml twice weekly) – so I went to .4ml, and woke up this morning with totally actionable morning wood that stayed with me even after I got up and went to the restroom, etc… Libido has been back to a 9 today from a 2-3… Been 6 months since I’ve seen that. Stayed with 25mg of Adex. Will see how long this lasts…
It lasted a few days, then I caught a cold – so not sure how much that played into things, but morning wood is gone again and erections are pretty poor. I know the body is capable of working because I have these periods like above where things are corrected from a dosage change, etc – but it NEVER lasts. So damn frustrating…
Any immediate improvements from a change of regimen are never going to last. Due to the long half life of the drugs involved and the time it takes for the body to adjust to new levels, at the correct dosing any lasting improvements would take a few weeks to become noticeable. If you have an immediate improvement from an adjustment of T dosage or AI, the new dose is almost certainly wrong. There are a lot of people who keep changing their regimen based on how they feel from day to day, and the one constant is they never stabilize.
Need to get more blood work to determine that catfish, good thought though.
Good comments seekonk – Just weird I guess that sometimes your well being can change from day to day. Just to note, I’m not crazy irresponsible where I am changing my dose daily/weekly – but have changed it now twice in 2 months, giving it 4 weeks each time to settle in. I haven’t made any further changes, and things seem to have improved for me again. Had sex with a rating of a 10 last night with the wife, and didn’t use anything to help – So that was good. Just weird that I also woke up with zero morning wood yesterday, so I guess I proved that is not a good determining factor for me of sexual well being.
Another update – Went to the regular doc recently for a physical, and he took my blood to find that my blood sugar was a bit elevated (106) – So he’s having me come back in a couple weeks for a 2 hour glucose test to confirm if I an per-diabetic. That wouldn’t be a huge shock since I’ve already been diagnosed with a fatty liver sometime ago, and my triglycerides and cholesterol panel look like someone with metabolic syndrome. ED can often be one of the first signs of diabetes I have read, along with Low-T – so this could be all tied into the reason why I’m on TRT to begin with. Interesting stuff… I’ll report back after diagnosis is official.
Just weird that I also woke up with zero morning wood yesterday, so I guess I proved that is not a good determining factor for me of sexual well being. :([/quote]
Yeah, MW is a bad gauge. You could have been hard all night until just before you woke up and you wouldn’t know it. Too many guys start to worry about MW unnecessarily when all that is happening is that they just don’t wake up while at the wood part of the sleep cycle.
