So through a few missteps this last year pharmacy supply and forgetting to call my Rx in I had to go without for a few weeks. Sucked but I didn’t die obviously.
Then it dawned on me, what happens if I can’t get it for an extended amount of time? With Covid this year it got my family concerned about supply shortages and our plan if I was ever able to not reliably get my T. I take about 140mg a week split in half twice a week. I am prescribed a 3 month supply which usually lasts me about 3.5-4 months.
I would be able to put back about (1)200mg vial every 3 months if I just renewed my script on exactly the 3 month mark. I could down dose myself to 100mg a week and could double my supply every 3 months but would prefer to stay at the 140mg mark. If the situation arises where it’s hard to get my prescription it would also be the situation where I would prefer my T to be at peakish levels.
I would prefer to have a year supply stored and have my regular 3 month be rolling inventory. I could easily make a year supply last 2+ years at probably 600ndl(currently around 9-1k average).
How do I get a deeper supply legally. I’m willing to pay full market price but don’t know how I do that if my regular doc won’t Rx it to me.
You could probably find a clinic somewhere that would prescribe without asking many questions then you could order each month or however often and save it while still getting your regular prescription as well. I’m not sure how legal that is, sounds like double dipping to me.
UGL would be easier for sure, esp if you want to have a years worth
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I know this answer is going to seem a little too easy, but if the goal is to have a year’s worth of something as a backup supply you can simply buy a year’s worth of that thing. Testosterone is cheap and plentiful, so you could have many year’s worth if you could come up with the necessary $200 to do so.
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I’ve had this same concern because HCG has gone drastically in production more than doubled in price for me, going from 120 bucks to 300.
T cypionate lasts 5 months for one vial with a prescription of 100 mg per week. My doc is great and reliable and I’ve seen him for 20 years.
However, with my admitted theoretical prediction of America eventually devolving, there will be drug and food shortages. So I’ve considered building a stash of T in the way that I can get it. It is very cheap, so one can acquire a large stash easily.
My wife and I are low-level preppers, so we have a stash of water, food, and other needed supplies. We made an impressive backyard garden last year.
I read that the shelf life of T Cyp is three years. So if one built up a good stash for medicinal amounts some might be expired by the time it is needed.
Legally? I think you’re looking at getting refills as frequently as possible and maybe underdosing the rx to hold some back. As testosterone is a CIII drug, pharmacies must be careful when it comes to refills. They like to see 70-80% of the rx used before providing a refill. We’ve had requests refused because they were not close enough to finishing the vial. It’s not unlike having a 30 day supply of oxycontin, and calling in a refill after one week. Not going to happen. Maybe not a good example as they will require a paper rx for oxy (CII), which you will not get, but you get the idea,
We keep some at the office for training guys to give themselves injections and for the times they forget to call in their refill. Can you just go to the office and get your injections?
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You don’t. That’s literally the point of prescribing you the dose they do and re-upping it the way they do it. You either use less, which doesn’t seem like a great plan if you need your current dose, or you do what the rest of us do and you acquire it elsewhere. They designed a system explicitly to keep people from stockpiling this stuff. This is neither the first nor the last time this particular issue has come up.
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That’s what I did for about a year, Rx was for 280mg weekly & I only took 175mg, have about 1.5 years in reserve now. It’s the easiest legal way to do it.
Otherwise just stock up on some UGL, or buy the UGL now and use it, then stockpile the Pharma stuff.
Agree with purchasing from an overseas supplier is probably the easiest and fastest way to build up a stockpile. This is what I do. There are many choices of products available. I get lab results that are consistent with what I expect when using my prescribed Pfizer Depo Testosterone.
A big HOWEVER, is that you need to make sure you are dealing with an outfit you can trust. I got stiffed once for an order of HCG from a supplier I will never use again. So, start with smaller orders and build up confidence in your supplier. Wish I could tell you who to avoid and who I trust, but I believe that posting of sources violates the forum rules, so I won’t.
Oh, you probably will want to open a Bitcoin account and use it for money transfers. Most of the larger suppliers take it. I started doing this several years ago and purchase a supply of Bitcoin when it is undervalued and then purchase product when Bitcoin is high. With this long-term approach, I’ve pretty much have been able to buy all my stuff just on Bitcoin profits, making the product ‘free.’ However, at the moment, Bitcoin is sky high and I think way overvalued.
Edit out the brand names or else the whole comment will get taken down.
No those are just the rules old man
Nope, just saving Chris the trouble of doing it. Your comment was useful, so rather than losing the whole thing I figured cleaning it up would be the best option.
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Can someone please point me to the location of the forum rules? I found this: Terms of Use - T NATION, but it’s pretty general and does not discuss use of brand names of products. Would like to avoid any further issues with posts. Thanks!
This post reminded me to go get my new bottle!
I usually will put in my refill request right before my Dr follow-up. His office calls in a new order after our meeting and I get that one too. Also, you can short dose yourself prior to your labs and then he will bump up your amount. Stay at your previous amount and you will build a stock.
The general rule is you don’t name a brand if it’s a UGL or if you’re discussing non-medical use of a pharmaceutical brand.
In other words saying your pharmacy gave you X instead of Y and then asking about the differences is probably acceptable. Saying you bought Snorblax T400 from Darren’s Dark Web Bathtub Brewhouse is not. It’s less of a letter of the law and more of a spirit of the law thing.
Yeah we’re about a 8-9 on the Homesteader scale and about 7-8 on the prepper scale so much overlap but yes we share your concern. My life would be hell in short order if I ran out. I’ve made the decision to down dose from 140mg weekly to 100mg over the next few weeks just so I am used to a lower dose. This is already down from 185mg I was taking about 6 months ago. My Rx is technically 120mg a week but I used to not waste it and in the last years of my military service jacked it up to 180mg thinking more was better. All it did for me was seriously jack up my iron loads and make my hematocrit get to almost 63%. That’s now all under control and I am retired so I dont have to be at that peak anymore. That hopefully won’t bring my trough levels too far down. If I remember right when I was originally on 100 mg my levels were about 6-700ndl. If down dosing and doubling my supply every 3 months gets me a good static T level ok with that. once everything falls apart I’ll have a better idea if my quality of life has a timeline or if Ill be able to maintain.
Also, if the package gets intercepted they will probably just discard it. If you have a large package intercepted, your odds of trouble go up.
Agree. I generally do not recommend using overseas suppliers. I simply wanted to get a year inventory of all my prescribed TRT meds in case something were to happen to my doc and I have to start the search for a new doc that does not live in the stone age of medicine.
Also I am concerned for supply chain interruptions. This happened recently with HCG. My script has been on backorder for over a month. I suspect it has something to do with the pandemic. Fortunately, I have a reserve supply to fall back on, but I suspect it will be many more months (years?) before the domestic supply chain fills back up.
In this hypothetical scenario you could stock up on other preparations of test. Gels, patches etc (if you have the means to procure them). Methyltestosterone/fluoxymesterone are also FDA approved to treat hypogonadism, though I highly doubt they’re still prescribed due to issues regarding hepatotoxicity/dyslipidemia. They’re oral/c-17 alpha alkylated androgens.
Otherwise black market testosterone is cheap, but highly illegal in the USA with fairly steep penalties associated with mere possession if I recall correctly.
Also, do you guys get HCG in America as adjunct therapy to TRT if the DX is secondary hypogonadism? We don’t get HCG+T in Aus
You could look at finding a different doc that would pricribe a higher dose so you could store up at a higher rate.