Very long post so apologies in advance but hoping some experienced individuals can help me out.
June 20th I started my HRT. A little background on why I started. I am 40 years old. I have been getting full panel bloodwork done since the age of 30. From 30 to 35 my test levels were always very good yearly when checked ranging from 750-850 (Dr range on test was 290-1100). Not sure about my free test levels. At 36 I started to get a lot of anxiety for no reason. Bloodwork time came around and it was around 550. I did not think much of the drop. The next year came around and my test levels dropped to 310. I started wondering if the daily anxiety that was getting worse was related. I kept ignoring it but I started to slowly get more and more issues over time from 37-40.
Issues I am referring to are:
Complete lack of energy at times sometimes lasting weeks at a time. And not the I am tired I feel lazy but I am so tired I don’t even want to stand up to the bathroom.
My libido completely went away. ZERO desire despite my wife being gorgeous.
Year after year my muscle mass slowly kept diminishing. I have always been a smaller guy but always shredded so it was very obvious to me I was losing muscle. At 37 I was 144lbs 5%ish body fat and at 40 down to 137lbs. Even during a bulk I could not put the muscle back on.
Anxiety and moderate depression getting worse and worse year to year
The straw that broke the camels back was this past December it started feeling like my penis was not even connected to my body anymore. It literally felt lifeless and dead. After talking with my Dr suggested seeing a endo but I bypassed that and went to a hormone Dr who put me on a HRT protocal.
My starting protocal was:
200mg test 1x a week
1mg anstrozole 2x a week
50 units HCG 2x a week
I started to feel great again. I literally felt like I did in my 20s. I started to experience a couple issues though roughly after 2 months in. One was that I was tending to hold a lot of water on and off…typically the day after test injection around my midsection that would last for about 2-3 days. The other which was my major fear was hair loss. I initially was losing hair on my legs which I could care less about but then my scalp started to thin. And it was happening fast! My father has a full head of hair at 70 and very thick and my grandfather when passed had a full head of hair as well. I have always had thick hair but not anymore. It is very thin and sparce now.
After 3 months he wanted to recheck blood work. Well my test levels skyrocketed.
I went from 310 to 3036
Bloodwork Results
FREE T3 2.5 (range 2.3-4.2 pg/ml)
Estradiol 44 (range <or = 39)
DHEA 795 (range 61-1636)
5-A-Dihidrotest 71 (range 16-79 ng-dl)
Test 3036 (range 250-1100 ng/dl)
Bioavailable 1232.4 (range 110.575)
SHBG 46 (range 10-50)
Test Free 612.2 (range 46-224)
Albumin 4.4 (range 3.6-5.1)
So since then he has changed things up. At first he had me go to (changes underlined):
150mg text 1x a week
1mg anstrozole 2x a week
50 units HCG 3x a week
My water retention increased, my mood has seemed to be all over the place and my sex drive not only went away again but I could not keep an erection again. He then told me to start taking 1mg anstrozole 4x a week . That has not seemed to help. Sex drive still low again since his initial change, water retention the same and mood still all over the board. I just made the switch on my own last week to injections 2x a week dividing each one in half. I wanted to give it a month to see if it helped splitting it up. Today is only the second week second injection so I still think it is too soon to see if it is working. Again I will give it a month to assess.
Any advice on hair loss, water retention, moodiness and most importantly sex drive would be great. Not doing this for aesthetics at all but who wants to lose hair and hold a ton of water if they still are not feeling optimal. Sorry for anything I have left out that may be helpful info. Just ask and if I know I will let you know.