I found out I have high hemoglobin and hematocrit recently so I quit testosterone cold turkey. My dr. wanted to lower the dose and I should have listened to him because my withdrawl symptoms are brutal. I wanted to share my experience and I understand that everyone has a different experience. For me I am experience dizzy spells, imbalance issues when walking, fatigue, low heart rate (found by ekg), severe depression and or anxiety, blurry vision, dry mouth, burning mouth syndrome. I have been off for 1 month and was taking 100mg a week. I have since started taking testosterone again and may start to take 80mg a week and donate blood periodically. It should be noted that many of these symptoms I never had prior to starting testosterone and I had low levels.
On an scary note I found a study by Rush University that show Parkinson may be connected to a sudden drop in testosterone in mice. Nobody really knows everything testosterone can do for your body but this proves it plays a major role in the central nervous system and quitting cold turkey is horrible and very dangerous.
Evaluate your overall thyroid function by checking oral body temperatures as per the thyroid basics sticky. Thyroid hormone fT3 is what gets the job done and it regulates mitochondrial activity, the source of ATP which is the universal currency of cellular energy. This is part of the body’s temperature control loop. This can get messed up if you are iodine deficient. In many countries, you need to be using iodized salt. Other countries add iodine to dairy or bread.
KSman is simply a regular member on this site. Nothing more other than highly active.
I can be a bit abrupt in my replies and recommendations. I have a lot of ground to cover as this forum has become much more active in the last two years. I can’t follow threads that go deep over time. You need to respond to all of my points and requests as soon as possible before you fall off of my radar. The worse problems are guys who ignore issues re thyroid, body temperatures, history of iodized salt. Please do not piss people off saying that lab results are normal, we need lab number and ranges.
The value that you get out of this process and forum depends on your effort and performance. The bulk of your learning is reading/studying the suggested stickies.
I have been on a roller coaster with different doctors and treatments. This process is a difficult one that requires you turn to the internet for answers. You also have to be careful what you trust on the internet so you go through a trial and error process. I am currently back on Testosterone Cypionate but I have learned more and I am sure I still need to learn more. I have decided to start with injecting twice a week (every 3.5 days) 40mg of Cypionate. I think 80mg is a good start weekly. I was on 100mg weekly the last time but I think this is a good start considering I am splitting the dose now. I am going to give this a few months to see how my body adjusts then do labs. This process shouldn’t be this difficult but because most doctors are clueless then you are left to your own devices. I am grateful for this forum because I have pieced together my own game plan based on the information provided here. Each person has their own opinion on this subject but i think injected at a lower dose twice weekly seems like the best game plan to start.
It should be noted that I made the decision to quit because my doctor told me nothing bad would happen if I did. He was not aware of the withdrawal symptoms you can get when you quit. When you do something like this it sends your body spiraling down. Once you get on Testosterone its for life and I simply need to dial in the proper dose to try and avoid some of the side effects. I notice a lot of guys searching for answers and everyone’s body is different. I think its smart to split the dose and inject every 3.5 days. I think it’s smart to start with a low dose and give your body time to adjust. I notice many guys making changes to their protocol too soon and making more than one change at a time. i notice many guys starting at too high of a dose. This is a very confusing subject simply because the medical community has no clue on how to treat it.