Doc Started Me on 2ml/400mg, Feel Like Crap

Hey everyone.

This was the 4th doctor I’ve been to. He looked at my TT and FT levels and said these are way too low for a 33 y.o male, 5’11, 163Lbs. I’m at 311 total, and 63.8 for free T (LabCorp). I was told by 3 other doctors that these levels are within range, but I learned that…shitty doctors will say this. Anyways, didn’t even ask for T, doctor offered it. Sure, why not. I have all the symptoms. If it helps me feel better… So he prescribed me 200ml/400mg once a month. I take full responsibility for not educating myself properly before agreeing to that as I understand this is reflective of a schedule a doctor would prescribe who is not well informed on TRT. But hell, at least he is willing.

So, I took that injection 3 days ago, and I feel like absolute dog shit. I guess the best way to describe it is like a sugar/caffeine crash times ten, constantly. Oddly enough, I have trouble sleeping at the same time, despite always being tired. The brain fog is something fierce. Typing this out is a bear.

What could be going on here? I have some labs incoming, that I asked for when I saw him – he did not volunteer these, but he didn’t put up a fight when I asked. He just seemed perplexed. The labs are Progesterone, E2, CRP, Cortisol, FSH, LH, Pregenelone, TSH, T4 Free, and one or two more I can’t remember. I don’t know what these all are for but I read it’s a good idea to have them and I figure I can learn what they’re for later. I’m just so damn tired all the time I haven’t found a chance to study up like I want to yet. Please don’t confuse it with being lazy, it’s just, I am almost physically incapable. Pure exhaustion.

The information I have managed to retain suggests that I shouldn’t start TRT until after I have tried working out. So I’m going to do that. It’s not too late to dump the Testoserone Cypionate and start lifting weights is it? Also, considering my T is already pretty low, what are the chances that will get me up to where I need to be? Surely just working out/exercise won’t triple my numbers? Or will it?

I’m not trying to bulk up, a nicer physique would be a good bonus. But guys, I’ve been struggling with depression, anxiety, brain fog, ED, zero libido, mood swings, just…awful. Desperate for relief and I’ve just been miserable. The T shot made it f’in worse.

Please let me know if any additional info would be of any help. Sorry if I come across as sporadic, my focus is gone. I’ll have those labs as soon as I get them.

All your doctors are clueless because testosterone cypionate has a half life of 7-8 days so injecting once monthly makes no sense. There is no doctor in sick care that specializes in this area of medicine, more often than not you will always find clueless doctors in the sick care setting.

You need a doctor who isn’t hogtied by the sick care system, a doctor unbound and who enjoys more medical freedom and these doctors tend to be experts in their field of medicine. They typically do not take insurance because they got out of that business for the reasons mentioned above.

They do not want to deal with the insurance bullshit. SHBG should be considered before any TRT protocol is chosen and if lower, you may need smaller more frequent dosing.

I has low SHBG and feel best injecting 8-10mg daily, your injecting once monthly and are way off course. No need for anastrozole for high estrogen, just inject smaller more frequent doses. The levels you were scoring are indicating more than just poor lifestyle choices, it’s indicating you are past the point of no return.

You do not recovery optimal levels scoring at these lower levels, so if you are thinking you can get testosterone into the high normal ranges naturally, wake up because you’re dreaming. Most natural optimal men can only raise testosterone a little and hold onto it longer as they age, but it’s coming down do to aging anyways and there’s no way to stop it from declining.

Most men are closer to 100-160mg weekly split up based on SHBG levels, unless a hyper metabolizer or hyper excreter, these men need higher dosing. Based on your Total T and Free T ratios, I would guess your SHBG is close to mid range which is good.

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Hi systemlord,
Thank you for your detailed response. So, all of what you say I agree with. I just didn’t learn about the dosing until after the first injection. I don’t believe SHBG is one of the tests ran. I can’t believe doctors are so in the dark about this…

So what do I have to do to feel better, as I have only had one shot my entire life so far, 3 days ago. I feel worse today than I did yesterday. Do I need to take another smaller one? Do I need to have testosterone checked again? Why did the 400mg make me feel so much worse? After reading up before I got hit with a ton of bricks, i had settled on trying the 400mg split up 4 times / month, 100mg each time. So, with the half-life, 50mg end of week 1, 75mg end of week 2, etc, and slowly build up.

I was thinking more about lifting weights, and I realized there’s no damn way I’d have the energy to actually do it anyway. Not the way I currently feel, no way.

I found a program via Google that supposedly will do everything privately for $199 / month, but I need to look at reviews(with a grain of salt) and small print before I sign my life away to them.

If it’s just a matter of taking another testosterone injection, I mean, I’d gladly do it if it will help me feel better. I have it here at home. Is it possible the 400mg was too much, or not enough?

You won’t need another injection for at least two weeks giving you enough time to do more lab testing. You don’t need to recheck testosterone, it was already scoring where most elderly men score and should never be this low.

Medical school doesn’t teach sex hormones or TRT, no doctor in sick care would consider it as a field of medicine, TRT is low cost, low profit. You are expected to become estrogen dominant after the second week, we clear testosterone faster than estrogen, creating estrogen dominance when doing these infrequent injections.

Are you suggesting that you predict my E2 levels are going to be high when I get those labs, and that I feel so much worse because I need an AI? Or are you suggesting that because we clear T faster than estrogen, another injection is needed because of that around 2 weeks out at max? From what I understand, if I have high E2, introducing more testosterone should lead to me feeling the same. I’m trying to ascertain why it feels like my mind and body are literally shutting down after I introduced 400mg of T into my body.

Here are some labs I had previously. They aren’t the labs I referenced earlier though. I’m still learning how to interpret them.

Lab Report: Vit D 25 OH
2019/01/11 VIT D 25-OH 9.22 ng/mL vitamin D 25-hydroxy, serum
Lab Report: Folate
2019/01/11 FOLATE 19.60 ng/mL 3.10-17.50 H folate, serum
Lab Report: T4,Free
2019/01/11 T4, FREE 0.98 0.70-1.50 thyroxine, serum, free
Lab Report: TSH
2019/01/11 TSH 1.25 u[iU]/mL 0.36-3.74 thyroid stimulating hormone, serum
Lab Report: Lipid Panel
2019/01/11 C-LDL/C-HDL 2.9 0.0-3.5 LDL/HDL ratio, serum
2019/01/11 LDL 118 0-130 Cholesterol in LDL [Mass/volume] in Serum or Plasma
2019/01/11 HDL 41 40-60 HDL cholesterol, serum
2019/01/11 TRIGLYCERIDE 150 30-200 triglyceride, serum, fasting
2019/01/11 CHOLESTEROL 184 140-200 cholesterol, serum
Lab Report: Comprehensive Metabolic
2019/01/11 EGFR 128.26 mL/min/1.73m2 Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (calc)
2019/01/11 CO2 28.00 mmol/L 21.00-32.00 carbon dioxide, venous blood
2019/01/11 CHLORIDE 105.00 mmol/L 98.00-107.00 chloride, serum
2019/01/11 POTASSIUM 4.20 mmol/L 3.50-5.10 potassium, serum
2019/01/11 SODIUM 138.00 mmol/L 136.00-145.00 sodium, serum
2019/01/11 PROTEIN, TOT 7.30 g/dL 6.40-8.20 protein, total, serum
2019/01/11 BILI TOTAL 0.50 mg/dL 0.20-1.00 bilirubin, serum, total
2019/01/11 SGOT (AST) 15.00 U/L 15.00-37.00 aspartate aminotransferase (SGOT), serum
2019/01/11 ALK PHOS 55.00 U/L 45.00-117.00 alkaline phosphatase, serum
2019/01/11 ALBUMIN 4.10 g/dL 3.40-5.00 albumin, serum
2019/01/11 CALCIUM 9.30 mg/dL 8.50-10.10 calcium, serum
2019/01/11 CREATININE 0.75 mg/dL 0.70-1.30 creatinine, serum
2019/01/11 BUN 9.00 mg/dL 7.00-18.00 urea nitrogen, blood
2019/01/11 GLUCOSE SER 84.00 mg/dL 60.00-99.00 blood glucose
Lab Report: Vitamin B12
2019/01/11 B-12 324.00 pg/mL 211.00-911.00 B-12, serum
Lab Report: CBC with AutoDiff
2019/01/11 % BASO AUTO 1.00 % 0.20-1.20 basophils as percent of blood leukocytes, automated count
2019/01/11 % EOS AUTO 1.30 % 0.80-7.00 eosinophils as percent of blood leukocytes
2019/01/11 NRBCS/100WBC 0.00 % 0.00-0.20 nucleated red blood cells as percent of blood leukocytes
2019/01/11 BASOPH COUNT 0.07 103/mm3 0.01-0.08 basophil count, blood
2019/01/11 EOS COUNT 0.09 THOUS/UL /mm3 0.04-0.54 eosinophil count, blood
2019/01/11 MONOSCT AUTO 0.59 0.30-0.82 monocyte count, blood, automated
RReessuullttss
2019/01/11 MONOSCT AUTO 0.59 0.30-0.82 monocyte count, blood, automated
2019/01/11 LYMPHCT AUTO 1.67 10
3/mm3 1.32-3.57 lymphocyte count, blood, automated
2019/01/11 NEUTRO COUNT 4.18 103/mm3 1.78-5.38 neutrophil count, blood
2019/01/11 MONOCYTE % 8.80 % 5.30-12.20 monocytes as percent of blood leukocytes
2019/01/11 LYMPHS % 25.00 % 21.80-53.10 lymphocytes as percent of blood leukocytes
2019/01/11 PMN % 62.90 % 34.00-68.00 neutrophils as percent of blood leukocytes
2019/01/11 MPV 10.00 fL 9.40-12.40 mean platelet volume
2019/01/11 RDW 11.90 % 11.60-14.40 red blood cell distribution width
2019/01/11 PLATELETS 271.00 THOUS/UL /mm3 140.00-440.00 platelet count
2019/01/11 MCHC 33.70 G/DL % 32.30-36.50 mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, RBC
2019/01/11 MCH 33.30 pg 25.70-32.20 H mean corpuscular hemoglobin, RBC
2019/01/11 MCV 98.80 fL 79.00-92.20 H mean corpuscular volume, RBC
2019/01/11 HCT 40.30 % 40.10-51.00 hematocrit, blood
2019/01/11 HGB 13.60 g/dL 13.70-17.50 L hemoglobin, blood
2019/01/11 RBC 4.08 10
6/mm3 4.63-6.08 L erythrocyte (RBC) count
2019/01/11 WBC 6.67 10*3/mm3 4.23-9.07 leukocyte count, blood

If you need trt you can self inject 100 mg a week. Then after 2 months see how you feel and do labs. The hard part is waiting it out 2 months. Then do adjustments if necessary. Some also split the 100 in 2 injections per week - every 3.5 days.

You have the script for 400 mg a month so that is good.

Hi charlie,
Yes, that’s what I plan on doing. I have been reading up quite a bit, and I think I’m going to just jump straight to E3.5D. I felt a lot better today than I did yesterday though. Anxiety wasn’t as bad, fatigue not as bad, head in the clouds not as bad. Also, my leg feels a hell of a lot better where I did the first injection. I was limping yesterday and I consider myself to have a moderately high pain tolerance.

I’m still waiting on my labs. I plan on starting a journal when I get those. Hope you drop by.