Thanks for helping me! Unfortunately e2 sensitive test for males is not available in my country but I am sure I have quite high e2 levels because I am overweight and I have physical symptoms like puffy face and water retention. It’s interesting what you said about testosterone being adrenergic because the antidepressant I am on (cymbalta) acts on norepinephrine levels as well,I also now that it doesn’t let your body get rid of the excess e2 so that’s another reason for anxiety I guess. I guess the best thing I have to do right now is lower my dosage down to my initial dosage of 50 mg twice per week and see how it goes. Also progesterone is a very good option because as far as I know it has antianxiety properties and if not mistaken it antaginises e2 a bit. Finally another option I guess would be to switch from cymbalta to a pure ssri like lexapro. As you said I will do one thing at a time so that I know what works or not.
Hi again! I looked into progesterone a bit and it seems that it has many benefits in anxiety and cognition as well which are some of my major problems. So I am thinking of staying on 120 mg per week divided into two 60 mg dosages and adding a very low anastrozole dosage 0,125 mg after each injection plus the progesterone cream the way you told me. My plan is to feel even better cognitively and in terms of anxiety so that I can lower cymbalta dosage in half in a couple of months (which I know it affects my cognition negatively). I also have another symptom which is very annoying, I get watery eyes most of the time. Do you think it has to do sth with high e2 levels? Also I would like to try pregnenolone later!
I was on klonopin for 30 years and I can attest to the difficulty coming off, actually it’s why I need TRT because coming off destroyed my sleep cycles.
Good plan. I’d avoid the ai at least for a couple of weeks. Don’t mix and match. You won’t know what’s done what.
Hey @Billy7. Yes Ive experienced some anxiety on TRT and it happens when my RBC goes up. Its the only thing that has affected me in a bad way, and now I donate twice a year in order to keep things in check. HCT is not a concern for me. But if RBC goes up, my breathing becomes labored and heart rate goes up. The best analogy Ive heard is that your arteries are filled with x amount of pickup trucks that carry oxygen throughout the body. More pick up trucks mean more oxygen so your body creates more. The problems is that if you have too many pickup trucks the oxygen begins to have delivery delays. So the excess Red Cells are now in a traffic jam which creates a hypoxic situation for me, I hyperventilate, Heart pounds harder and faster and sometimes panic would cross my mind but I never succumbed to that part. After having this happen to me at least 4 times I started donating blood and it has not happened ever again. What a mess!
Interesting, thanks for sharing
Hello my friend again! I am very interested in using progesterone cream and pregnenolone pills as part of my trt regimen. Since progesterone can induce sleep in some cases and pregnenolone can promote alertness wouldn’t it be a nice combo to use pregnenolone a small dosage in the morning and progesterone cream at night, what do you think? Also do you know if there are any interactions between them and cymbalta (60 mg at night now)? Finally I would like to ask you if progesterone can lower e2 levels or at least their action in the human body and brain and if you have to suggest a specific brand for these (hormones - supplements). Thanks in advance and sorry for so many questions!
For anxiety, I would personally take both twice per day together as I mentioned. Once in the AM and once late afternoon.
Progesterone can block some of e2 actions, but does not lower it.
I just used Amazon to buy a highly rated pregnenolone 100mg per capsule. For the progesterone, it’s hard to find a cream that’s less than 20mg per pump, so you’ll have to estimated half a pump to get close to the 8mg dose.
I do not know if there are any interactions with Cymbalta. I would look to get off those medications in a tapered fashion if possible.
I would start here and adjust if needed after a few weeks.
I really appreciate your help my friend!People like you are much more helpful than psychiatrists that brought me on the verge of suicide! My plan is to come off of cymbalta completely, I have joined many groups on Facebook but they tend to do it extremely slowly, so far I have tapered (faster than what these groups recommend though but much slower than the ignorant psychiatrists) and even cold turkeyed many psychiatric medicines and never had problems if anything I felt even better. I will incorporate progesterone cream at first in my trt regimen as I want some aid with sleep as well. I am not gonna change many things at the same time because I want to figure out what works and what not, so I am gonna follow your initial advice and start only progesterone cream at first with slightly less dosage of testosterone per week (120 mg split into two 60 mg injections). I am also gonna have some hormones checked next week (progesterone, prolactin, e2, total and free testosterone, dhea and prolactin). Something else that I noticed is that caffeine and smoking increase my anxiety (especially caffeine) while before (when on high dosage antidepressants and antipsychotics) I could handle huge amounts of caffeine even stimulants (ritalin, concerta, modafinil). I will try to switch from regular to decaffeinated coffee and reduce smoking even further to see if it helps as well. Thanks again for your time replying to me!
What is your e2, tst, shbg levels? How many mg daily?
E2 39
TT. 1259
SHBG 10
T dose 30mg daily
Are you on an aromatase inhibitor?
I second stimulants contributing to anxiety. Caffeine metabolism is highly individualized but with me, if I start going much over 400mg per day, I start feeling worse over eventually. Same thing with yohimbine, which can be great with a pre-workout or before sex, but it cranks up adrenaline too.
The biggest lesson I’ve seen proven true in my life over and over now that I’m almost 40, is that almost everything has some kind of a cost and I’m not just speaking monetary cost.
I was also able to cold turkey all of my meds almost 20 years back. The only exception was Xanax. That stuff is a nightmare to get off of and was one of the only ones I had to slowly taper down before I got off completely. I think it still only took me a couple of months. That one was hard.
I think it’s a good idea to get blood work in the near future too.
Good luck, you’ll be OK.
Let us know how your progress is going.
No AI.
Sorry to revive this post , I’ve seen you post about using oral pregnenolone for anxiety, and I have previously tried to use klaire labs 100mg pregnenolone to help with anxiety but I think it gives me some odd side effects? I was wondering if you still used this protocol and what brands you used.
Sorry for the slow response. Im not very active here anymore.
This is the one I “feel” the most.
Nutricology 100 mg micronized lipid matrix scored tablets.
Some other tweaks that really help have been lowering my T dose to around 40 mgs per week and adding masteron, but that addition may not be an option.
You can also try progesterone cream, typically half a pump twice per day totaling 20mgs.
Also, try purchasing potassium bicarbonate and take 1 teaspoon 3 times per day.
Cumulatively, these may be too sedating, so try one at a time and introduce more as needed.
What are your levels on that dosing??? 40mg of T only? And how much Masteron?
Middle to low range. Its really there because some is needed and i need some to convert to estrogen too. Testosterone is adrenergic, and some people are more sensitive, especially considering natural progesterone production gets shut down which increases thebfeeling of tension. Progesterone increases gaba. Masteron is about 600mg per week.
You ever supplemented progesterone? Or had it tested on blood work?
Yep. I rub on a 20mg pump of progesterone before bed every night.
It made me feel funny when i was first on hrt, but now that ive been on for about 8 years, its an improvement.