You need to self-inject 50mg twice a week and better if you inject subq over legs or belly fat with #29 1/2" 0.5ml insulin syringes. “25” is 0.25ml and that would be 50mg of 200mg/ml. Injecting IM in your butt is a bad idea, too many major nerves and blood vessels. With subq as described you can do that easily yourself and can see what you are doing and avoid surface veins if you can see them.
You need to do a lot of reading. Your doctor is a typical idiot when it comes to TRT and you need to know what you need and why. Passive with TRT does not work.
You will probably need to manage E2 with anastrozole. And 250iu hCG subq EOD will prevent shrinkage/atrophy of your testes if you and/or wife care about such things.
Your history of stress puts you at risk of adrenal fatigue. That creates or amplifies low thyroid function. If you have not been using iodized salt, you are deficient. See “oral body temperatures” below and post BOTH sets of temperatures.
When thyroid function is poor, energy can be low as metabolic rate slows down, and you get fat and depressed, low-T certainly contributes as well. Then starting TRT increases/restores metabolic rate/demands and if your body cannot sustain that because thyroid function is low, you can feel as you describe.
So T and thyroid are major players in you vitality and mood. Cortisol is also very important. With stress, cortisol increases but adrenals can fatigue from that then cortisol can drop later on. You need to do lab work for “AM Cortisol” and do that at 8AM or 1 hour after waking up. Do not do later on.
If Ambien is dragging on the next day, it could make you a zombie and could amplify depression. Ask to try Trazodone 150mg and these are scored to break at 50 or 75mg. Try 50mg. $40 per year [360x150mg] at Walmart. After a 30 pill trial, get script for 360 tablets and pay the $40 cash price out of pocket.
Melatonin should be 5-6mg time release, look for it. Fast release melatonin wears off in ~4-5 hours and dropping melatonin is exactly the mechanism of waking up.
Please read the stickies found here: About the T Replacement Category - #2 by KSman
- advice for new guys - need more info about you
- things that damage your hormones
- protocol for injections
- finding a TRT doc
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.