I am 20 and have been on TRT for 5 months now, my treatment is one 50mg/5g Testogel sachet a day (in the morning). My general mood has improved over this time as well as my strength. At the start of my treatment my testosterone level was 5 nmol/L and now I am at 21 nmol/L and in good health.
The problem is that my doctor wants me to stop my treatment so that he can run a test (forgive me I forgot the name of this test!), for this test to be useful my endocrine system must be functioning naturally (i.e. off treatment). The date of the test is next June, and he has advised that I reduce my dosage incrementally between now and the start of March (when he wants me to have stopped altogether). He has given no additional guidance. My recent blood test showed that my LH and FSH is at 0, so I assume a drastic drop in my dosage would be a disaster for my mood as my natural testosterone production is nil.
So basically my problem is that I need to be off my testosterone by start of March, but want to minimise the effect of this on my mood and strength.
Can anyone advise how I best approach this? Would PCT, such as Clomid be of any use?
reducing testosterone wont kick start you natural production it will only make you feel worse, it would be better if you quit one month before the test.
you can use clomid or nolvadex but the doctor might not want you to be using them before the test.
if you already have low testosterone using serm would only benefit you as restart attempt or trt.
if the doctor will test for testosterone try using nolvadex for a month or two then stop for a month and do the test
Your LH and FSH are 0 because your system is completely shut down, which is expected using exogenous T. Being 20 your Dr. is most likely looking out for you as your fertility, and probably many other areas for young guys, may be at risk. If this is a new Dr. his requests sounds reasonable to me. Plus you’d get the benefit of some very useful info. If your new labs confirm you are shut down/primary, then you’d just continue injecting as usual. If your system bounces back then other treatment options like Clomid come into play which may benefit you long term. Read the HPTA restart sticky for more info. Another way to look at this is 1 month is nothing. Now that you’ve entered the TRT world you are playing the long game…you’re 20 now but you need someone with insight to help frame your next 60 years.
If you decide to stop, prepare yourself. My Dr. and I agreed to stop TRT to run baseline tests after a miserable and misguided first attempt at treatment. We stopped for ~6 weeks, and I’m not going to lie, it was a terrible terrible experience. The first few weeks were ok, but once week 3-4 hit I became desperate to the point I had to take time off work cause I was a wreck.
However, I made it. Was it the right decision to stop cold turkey…probably not. But I’m grateful I gave it a shot and saw it all the way. What made it great for me is that I work with a great Dr. He was upfront with me and told me what to expect, and didn’t pull any punches. Once we got baseline labs we were able to more clearly identify my issues and develop a treatment plan that we both agreed to. The elimination of variables also made me more confident and brought a lot of clarity in understanding my own body.