Need Help Low Libido

Really need some help/no libido but great levels, low progesterone

Before I start these are my recent labs and everything on paper seems great.

TT 28.2 nmol/l 812 ng/dl

E2 135 pmol/l 36.7 pg/ml

SHBG 15 nmol/l

Prolactin 199 mU/l

TSH 1.77 miU/l

Free T4 16.3 pmol/l

Albumin 46.1 g/l

Progesterone <0.7 nmol/l

DHEA 9.38 umol/

Dose:
Test E 25mg e3.5 days
HCG 140iu eod

Problem is I have absolutely no libido at all and mentally feel pretty flat.

I also am prescribed Prozac for 8 years well before trt for anxiety and I do have mental issues so not sure if this could be a dopamine issue or mental issue?
My numbers seem near on perfect.

Also my progesterone is <0.7 nmol/l

Is this bad? I’ll be honest it’s hard to find any good solid data on it for men but I thought that HCG restores or raised this, I do have pregnenolone tablets 100mg but haven’t taken them as I don’t want to add something else to the mix.

Also when I first started TRT last August I started through the NHS and was put on Nebido 1000mg and then another shot after 4 weeks as I crashed big but I felt incredible on Nebido but haven’t felt anything like that on Test E.

I just can’t make sense of this and what the missing piece is here or how I can fix this and fix myself, I just want to feel good and feel the benefits of TRT but right now I just feel flat mentally like I did before TRT but physically I’m feeling good.

Anyone any input or advice or up to date with progesterone in men?

Thanks

How long have you been on your current protocol of Test E?

Since November 2019, was only on Nebido for 3 shots and switched to private treatment and test e

And your libido isn’t any better than when you started in November? Morning wood?

I get morning wood and can get hard but have to really stimulate.
I wake up regularly with morning wood but it’s upstairs I feel nothing, it’s just like a hard bone with no desire or mental libido that you would associate with morning wood.

It comes and goes to be honest, more goes lol but every now and then I’d feel it

Some men don’t do well on HCG, actually the number one complaint is low or no libido.

You probably do well when your hormones are flat and even which is what nebido does, the ethanate is going to create more of a spike followed by a trough and some men don’t respond well when hormone levels are up and down with bigger peaks and valleys.

I have seen over the years some men need these big peaks and troughs to feel good on TRT while the other camp needs hormone levels that are very steady. I need swings not too steady and not too big, I’m somewhere in the middle.

Your SHBG is low and free hormones may be in excess which might be causing problems with libido.

I think you’ve absolutely hit the nail on the head, my free hormones are crazy high and we’re worse actually, this is me on reduced dose so doing bloods next week and will reassess and can reduce further if needed.

Any advice? Possibly lower HCG further and increase Test dose slightly to compensate?

Also any advice on how to improve metabolic rate? To improve SHBG? High integrity cardio or fasting?

That’s not something you have any control over, take me for example pre-TRT my SHBG was always 10-13 for years and 2-3 weeks on TRT it’s 24 the last two times I’ve test it, twice within the last 6 weeks.

You could switch to a vegetarian diet which is known to increase SHBG, but don’t know if a vegetarian diet is ideal for you.

You may not need HCG, it’s redundant as far a raising testosterone is concerned, you want more T, inject more T. You just might break even by decreasing T and increasing HCG.

This will increase SHBG within 24 hours of a workout, but is temporary.

Thats low E2 relative to T symptoms.

Wrong. Do add the HCG. It will increase E2, and your flat emotionless low libido state will vanish, to be replaced with feeling, emotion and libido!

If @anon4088051 has a dopamine deficiency and more estrogen will do him little good. I doubt estrogen is his problem.

I think @anon4088051 would feel better injecting daily or EOD getting those hormones more steady, smaller peaks and valleys similar to his nebido experience.

Getting blood test tomorrow so hopefully will shed some light further.

If it’s a dopamine problem then I don’t know how I can sort it.

I might take your advice and go EOD to see if that helps.

Any advice on how to improve dopamine? I’ve also been on Prozac for 7 years.

Daily mindfullness meditation, proven by MRI to increase:

  1. dopamine receptor density (amount)
  2. dopamine receptor sensitivity
  3. dopamine

Studies proving and methods are googleable.

Meditation (not necessarily mindfulness meditation) will increase grey matter, increase size of prefrontal cortex (responsible for focus), increase size of corpus callosum (the link between brain halfs) and much more.

You want to increase muscle you train weights. You want to vastly improve brain function, you meditate.

Interesting and really appreciate this, how does one meditate?

I will look up how to mediate but I don’t want to do any dodgy stuff like yoga or Buddhaism lol!

I’m on Prozac for anxiety and ocd/intrusive thoughts so I think what you just said could benefit me in many ways.

So I’ve posted on here quite a bit, I have to say here seems the best place to get the best advice and people have the best knowledge.

I’ve been on TRT about 8 months and I just don’t feel any real difference at all, despite all my numbers looking good on paper, everything from blood count to lipids to thyroid to hormones now I’m on TRT.

When I first started TRT I was on Nebido through NHS and the first three weeks after I got my first shot at my doctors I felt incredible and the best I had felt in years, it’s like I could feel the testosterone in my body and coursing through my system, my mood was lifted, sex drive back, everything.

After two shots of Nebido I switched to a private clinic and was put on Test E and HCG.

About 8 weeks into Nebido I noticed my testicles shrinking and I lost all feeling in my penis and was basically castrated, hence why I went private to get HCG and a decent protocol.

The HCG worked and has worked in restoring my testicles size but I still just don’t feel how I did.

I mean I’m gaining good size and strength and more body hair and good physically but I just don’t feel that testosterone in my system like I did at the start.

Like you read all these stories on here and around the web of people feeling incredible on TRT and even people who are just on Test only and their testicles have shrank.

I just don’t get it, as I say my numbers are perfect, I’m on Test E every 3.5 days and HCH every other day. I get a bit tired of posting my numbers too and I know that’s what everyone asks but is there perhaps another reason for this?

I’m thinking that maybe TRT just isn’t for me, before TRT my test was very low but if I’m honest I was kind of just the same as I am now only without the same strength and endurance but mostly I was hoping that TRT would help me mentally and it did at the start.

I just don’t understand it, the testosterone is there in my system but it’s like I just can’t feel it.

Even when I have sex or get an erection that drive just isn’t there and I don’t feel that urge down below or that feeling that you want to bust a nut.

I will also add that I’ve been on Prozac for 7 years for anxiety and ocd intrusive thoughts.

When I started that as well it was incredible and it actually increased my sex drive.

So I don’t know whether this is perhaps a mental thing I have or to do with Prozac but I never had problems before having low levels while on Prozac with oragasms and busting a nut.

I have all I need to come off TRT, HCG and Clomid but I’ve just been holding off and holding off hoping that some day everything just changes and I get that drive and testosterone urge back again.

I just don’t know what to make of it, like I’ve read many studies recently about HCG and it doesn’t actually back fill the other hormones like everyone says it does.

Could this be a reason?

Maybe when I first went on Nebido all the natural hormones were still functioning and everything else was good and then there’s this sudden testosterone added in and that’s why I felt so good?

Now it’s like I’m just on synthetic testosterone and a synthetic LH analogue which isn’t even LH.

So it’s just like you have testosterone in your system but everything else like progesterone, pregnenolone and all the precursor hormones are just dead?

Also as I’m in the UK I can’t get tested for a lot of the back filling hormones.

On my last lab I had <0.7nmol/l progesterone which I know is made from pregnenolone so maybe that’s low?

Like guys are walking about solely on testosterone and feeling amazing, what about guys who have no testicles or have had them removed? Like how are they on injections and feeling incredible?

I just don’t know to be honest and if there’s anyone out there that can shed some light on this and help I appreciate it so much.

That’s a very small dose. I would drop the HCG and try 120-150mg T per week. Give it 6 weeks.

It seems like TRT is working and the lack of metal benefits suggests there are other reasons where you aren’t experiencing the mental benefits.

Wellbutrin it increases dopamine, maybe what you have is a dopamine deficiency. TRT influences dopamine and if you were already low pre-TRT, that might explain why you only had a positive experience temporarily.

On another note I have noticed over the years some guys only respond to testosterone cream, not injections in the long term. The creams also are known to increase libido, more so that on injections.

When I used to take it HCG, my libido was strongest the day after I took it injected 500 IU.

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I always wondered about that as well. These hormones have functions that go beyond being precursors for testosterone, so them being low on TRT can likely have an effect on ones health.