Also, I’m twice your age and have been dealing with these symptoms for 25 years. So I decided if I’m gonna poke myself 4 times per week forever, I’m shooting for the top 5 percentile for FT!
Yea of course, if you’re injecting might as well most of it while keeping it at an healthy young guy’s level.
I talked with the doc today, will do 125mg a week now.
Sounds good. I hope it helps.
Had a couple of bad days, probably due to the stress of TRT not showing decent effects. I’ve been having regrets about the potential that I did not need TRT despite all my symptoms and blood work pointing towards low T. I just do not understand why I’m not feeling any change. I seem to be healthy other wise. I will get off and do an HPTA restart after revaluation in a month. If no change in symptoms, I’d prefer to live a low quality of life without simultaneously injecting myself 5 times a week.
Bummed.
Sorry to hear that Eq. I went through a brief honeymoon phase. I feel mostly the same as before except for increased energy, slightly, and physical effects. I’ve gained 4 lbs and lost 4% body fat in 6 weeks based on my frequent follow ups. The mirror shows it too.
Hey @KSman,
I am here. As you can see my latest labs seem good but i have not seen a response to TRT in the 7-8 weeks i have been on. I am still fatigued, my mood had severely dampened during the diagnostic process and i am quite depressed still, morning wood is there more often , gotten back acne.
I am very confused as to what to do, whether to stick with it or try a restart and see if i can get somewhat better T levels and move on. There should have been more of a response if T was the sole reason of my malaise.
My symptoms though are identical to hypogonadism, my thyroid seems to function decently and cortisol labs are fine. I do not understand, if not T, then what is causing my problems!
Is there a possibility that all the initial mood swings that you felt when you first got into this and your e2 was high. Could it have just put you on an emotional swing that is not necessarily hormonal anymore or should I say it’s more serotonin then testosterone or estrogen? Did you ever have swings like this before you started your hormone therapy? Did stress ever cause this before? If so look that direction, if not that’s the only suggestion I have.
Plan old standard depression is a wicked beast but it’s treatable. If it’s not a lifetime thing it can be made to go away and not necessarily with drugs. Knowing what it is tends to help a lot. Not knowing just adds to the stress good luck
I have been depressed after being diagnosed due to the understanding how my quality of life had been struggling over the last few years.
Generally, I wouldn’t say I have been depressed. I have been before when I suspect my problems started, I was a bigger mess then. After that, I have been experiencing mood problems more identifiable with Low T than clinical depression, it’s more of an apathetic, listless and Just general mood being below average and not responding to stress well along with libido issues. But yes, stress does make me like this but usually the stress passes in a couple weeks and I recover, this as you can see has been more of a battle.
At this point, I have given thought to what you’re saying but I just do not relate to depression to be honest. Right now, sure, but overall in the 3-4 years I have had other associated problems, I don’t think I’ve been particularly depressed. Fatigue and Low libido itself induced some mood problems.
The fact that your testosteron levels were a mess gave you years of depression. Now I’m guessing you have adapted to that state. Fix your body but the emotional part of it is more that just the hormones you have corrected. T started the fire but now it is both a mind set and serotine levels. Work on that keep your body healthy and work on your depression separately. It will improve as well. Call it a lagging symptom.
In other words treat the symptoms separately, keep working on what you’re working on don’t give up. the moods could be a separate issue. Treat both
I wouldn’t want to be on anti depressants at 25 though, when my depression usually hasn’t been crippling.
My emotional instability is also to a good extent due to the uncertainty. I was borderline Low, have been having second thoughts of continuing or not, provided more than a few months could be messing my system more. I haven’t been able to string out usual work days since a couple of months and that itself causes overthinking, going over thoughts and amplify mood issues. If it Helped to some extent, I would accept that I’m on for life and my mental issues can be worked on with regular activities.
@KSman, still awaiting your opinion!
Also, I have had muscle wasting/lack of progress in the gym that also pointed towards T.
I think I’ll give TRT 12-14 weeks, then I’ll try a restart and see here that leaves me. If I recover to a good extent, I’ll be in knowledge that T is not my main issue and work on getting back to life and dealing with other problems.
I’m not say it is not a T issue. Just do not rely on your testosteron levels to elevate your moods. They will do that, but that is not the only reason you can be emotionality down
I appreciate your views, however I haven’t yet found improvements in other aspects of testosterone as well, I didn’t have ED, but my libido is still bad to okay, energy levels are still down. If I had experienced other factors associated with T improve, I would look into other factors. However I think my mood issue is caused by this instead of just being there.
No one knows you better than you.
Okay, so after afleast a decent week of not being a mess, I got massively emotional, body aches and generally wound up. My doctor said lets run blood work again to see what’s the problem.
Labs:
TT: 951
FT: 21
SHBG:37.5
E2: 43
My protocol:
Test E-125mg/ week split into two injections
Arimidex .75mg/week
HCG - 250 iu EOD
E2 has shot up from 22.9 which was tested 3 weeks back and was 18-19 before that on a similar dose of T. How is this possible? Though I wasn’t feeling good by any means when it was near 22 but it was 6-7 weeks of treatment and sometimes it takes time to feel effects.
I am increasing my arimidex dosage to 1mg a week and retesting next week to see if further dosing adjustments are required.
Someone with any views ? I was edging on stopping treatment and doing an HPTA restart prior to this blood test as I am not thinking I want to do this for the next 40-50 hears feeling like crap! Now I will hope I feel better with reducing e2 and getting somewhere finally. If not, I’ll wean of T and live this life without injecting drugs that do not help me.
Just a few random thoughts.
Maybe you’re getting a lot of aromatization in the testes from the hcg? Possibly consider changing protocol to E3D?
Definitely increase Adex to 1mg/week.
Maybe your E2 sweet spot is not 22?
Anyway if I were your age I would NOT give up so soon. You are so young and have time on your side. I realize now that I have been dealing with these symptoms for many years. If I could have those years back, my life would have been much better. I would commit to this line of treatment for a year and totally dismiss the thought of quitting.
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I would Nash, but it depends on getting returns. I got on TRT cause I wanted to get rid of the symptoms bad enough but mentally it makes things worse when symptoms don’t get better, I have invested almost a year into all this. Finding a doc,educating myself about so much, I know so much about this that I don’t about my education in real life. Persisting with it too Long would only make going off more and more problematic and worse to recover from mentally.
On the topic, it’s not intra testicular aromatase as I have been on hCG from day one and I have had to reduce my arimidex dosage a couple of times to actually being so Low. Only change recently has been going from 100mg/ week T to 125, a couple of weeks ago.
Ok, I get it. Obviously, the ultimate decision is up to you. You are also young enough to revisit this process in the future. This just goes to show that having good T levels doesn’t guarantee a successful outcome.