Hello everyone.
I am a 27-year-old male, 5’7" at 189 lbs.
Lots of thick, dark, fast-growing facial hair.
Plenty of hair on my head. Plenty of hair on my body.
Tons of fat in the belly (sides and front) and chest area. A relatively small amount in cheeks, neck, butt, and thighs, and almost no visible fat anywhere else. My biceps, triceps, forearms, shoulders, thighs, and calves are hard as a rock when I flex.
No idea what my bf % is, or what my waistline is.
I drink maybe once every few months, if that, in case that is relevant.
Doctor only tested for total testosterone, which was at 218 out of 280-900 ng/dL.
I have experienced depression, anxiety, insomnia, fatigue, lack of sexual interest, adult ADHD-PI, for many years.
ADHD meds have only been destructive, so I do not take them.
Benzos helped anxiety and sleep but destroyed memory, worsened fatigue, etc.
SSRIs helped anxiety and depression somewhat, but completely destroyed all interest in sex.
Ditched my psychiatrist about a year ago because he only seemed to make everything worse.
Went to GP a couple weeks ago, and he wanted to test my testosterone levels, which seemed out of left field to me.
Test results came back with the results reported above (218 ng/Dl out of 280-900 ng/dL), and he immediately wanted to put me on TRT. He pushed hard for injections. I obliged, but insurance would not cover it. Now I am on 5g/day Androgel 1%, and this is day 3. I have considered going back and asking for more hormone tests, but I am tight on cash and do not want to keep paying copays etc if it is unnecessary.
I have felt some very mild improvements in mood and energy levels, but not much else.
I know TRT can take a while to be effective, so I am not tripping on that.
What I am tripping on is the speed and ease with which my doctor’s conclusion was reached. No free test measurements. No other hormone measurements.
Just total T, and I have a prescription. Is that normal? Adviseable? Safe?
I used to lift quite a bit. Went through a 2-year stint of 5x/wk splits. Body looked alright, but my lifts never impressed me even after 2 years. I could not even put up 170 lbs on the bench, which at that time was the only lift I truly cared about (though I did many more).
Late last year I got back into it with full body workouts similar to SS. After 6 months of 3x weekly full body progressive workouts, I could only complete 3x5 squats at 185 lbs, 1x5 deadlifts at 215 lbs, 3x5 benches at 165 lbs, 3x5 overhead press at 115 lbs. This is with daily creatine, beta alanine, and plenty of protein shakes and protein-rich meals.
Progress ground to a halt, and the pain/time/fatigue hardly seemed worth zero gains and maintaining such a low strength level. Most men I know who barely worked out at all had similar, or in some cases, better performance. So I dropped it a few months back.
Is all of this pretty typical of low T? Am I putting myself at unnecessary risk by accepting TRT based on total T alone?
Will 5g/day do anything other than shut down endogenous production?
Do you think it would be enough to help me get past the limits I previously mentioned in the gym?
I loved working out but putting in so much effort only to be at what seemed to be a near-baseline level for most men really put me off.
I would also appreciate any general advice. At this point, I am completely lost as to whether or not this is a good idea, what benefits I can expect, what drawbacks I can expect, etc. There is a lot of info on the web, but a lot of it is very conflicting.
If TRT is the right choice, are there any ways to get around non-coverage for injections of Test C, which is what my doctor really wants me on anyway? The pharmacy’s price was completely outrageous. To pay it with the dosing schedule my doctor wanted would be much more expensive than making payments on a brand new car. Not an option…