Doctor Managing Injections

Happy Sunday y’all!

I’ve bee on TRT (1ml Test C 200 EOW) for about 4 months now via my PCP and have an issue. My doctor only provides the TRT if I take my vials of Testosterone C directly to his office and then go there every 2 weeks for injections.

Having some issues now though where every other week I feel worse than I did before I started TRT, and the doctors office/nurses not being willing to do anything at all with that information. Add to this now they appear to have “lost” my last vial of Test (have done 5/6 doses I gave to them back in December) and my local pharmacy won’t refill the prescription for another week putting me 3 weeks after my last shot.

I feel I’ve given this doctors office enough of a chance to get this right and they’ve lost my Testosterone now, ignore my issues (nipple sensitivity/puffiness, feeling like total garbage every other week) and am being “forced” into bringing my Testosterone to them to pay a $20 co-pay every other week while they ping my insurance for an office visit.

Am I just being overly sensitive because I’m 2.5~ weeks after my last shot or does this sound like a bad situation? I’m considering Defy Medical and just going out of pocket for treatment to get with an actual TRT clinic to get proper protocol and care but would like everyone’s input.

Thanks and have a great rest of your weekend!

I think Defy will get you going in the right direction.

They may try to put you on hcg, but I’d skip that unless you need to be fertile; they may also bring up an ai (aromatase inhibitor) skip that also, the general consensus here appears to be you don’t need to control estrogen.

Either way I agree you need a new doc, what you’re having to do is untenable.

You should find another doctor. This isn’t working for you, plus you should be allowed to do your own injections. You’ll probably need a TRT clinic for that.

Has there been any follow-up lab work?

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This sounds like a doc that has very little experience with TRT. You should be able to find another doc fairly easily that will put you on a weekly dosage schedule with more autonomy. There’s no reason you should need to go in for injections besides him wanting to milk you for every dollar he can get.

An anti-aging style clinic is going to give you more freedom at the cost of oversight. A place like defy is going to be more expensive but you’ll have more oversight (somewhat of a middle ground). I prefer the anti-aging clinics since I’m able to deal with everything myself for cheap but you’ll have to make that decision yourself.

I’m afraid your experience is not too uncommon, some of us are forced to seek the care privately. There has been studies for done on 200mg every 2 weeks 15 years ago and are known as hormonal roller coasters, any doctor handing out these protocols is almost useless.

Defy is a much better choice to manage your TRT, but I agree with others that TRT should begin in isolation with no other drugs or compounds. To dial-in your TRT protocol adjust doses and injection frequencies to resolve side effects.

I would take the time to include all pre-TRT labs and perhaps I/we can make some recommendations on a TRT protocol.

No! I’d run as fast as I can from this guy. First, he’s taking you, or rather your insurance company, for a ride. Each visit = Billable Office Visit = $$$$, even if the nurse gives you the shot.

Secondly, 200mg every 2 weeks if from the stone age of TRT. There are lots of opinions in this forum on frequency and dose, but I’m in the camp of at least twice per week of much smaller amounts. The overall dose is actually on target, but that 200 mg needs to be broken up into at least 4 injections of 50mg. This also makes for a paradigm shift in thinking for needle size. A dose of 50mg from a 200mg/mL solution is 0.25mL, which can easily be self-injected from a 28G insulin syringe into the quadriceps muscle. No more having to bend over and have someone else jab you with a harpoon in the butt.

I prefer an every 3 day (E3D) dosing schedule but that is less common in this forum. I like it mostly because the intervals between injections is always equal, which makes getting labs easier.

Thank you all very much for your responses. I’m feeling like my thoughts are on point to find a specialist clinic at the very least to manage this and your replies around the 200mg every 2 weeks being a roller coaster certainly align with how I’ve been feeling. As much as I like(d) my PCP in general his support for this specifically has left a really bad taste in my mouth as far as being helped.

I’m having my initial consultation with Defy soon and will be doing my blood work with them. I’m 4~ months in to TRT and kept my initial labs from back in November to reference with the clinic once I get connected with them.

Mostly I’m going with them due to convenience as I just started a new job and don’t want to start off with asking for time to go to a doctor and wait to be seen when I can afford the large out of pocket cost right now.

Thank you again everyone and I hope to keep posting here and learning!