Read an interesting article on a failed trial of this. It was cut short because of the relatively high incidence of side effects (only 10%, shockingly…read on.)
A key point jumped out at me:
“Every eight weeks the men were given a testosterone injection…”
Jesus, no wonder they had terrible side effects. Their T probably went from 2000+ to near-zero every 8 weeks. No wonder they were miserable and the trial was cut short. Almost anyone on this board could have predicted that. Why do medical professionals do such foolish things? It’s almost as if they were out to disprove the concept!
Personally, I’m interested in this concept since I’m already on TRT. All it would take is dropping HCG, or maybe just using it occasionally to maintain some function (and using a backup method for some period of time afterward). It is of course a compromise, I’m not willing to accept total atrophy or even the risk of future fertility being compromised. But I may come off the HCG and test my sperm.
I’ve read up on this a bit, and for some reason (if I remember correctly) the therapy seemed to be only of use in Asian populations (and those of asian descent). Not sure why that is.
I could be misremembering, or it could be that they happened to be the only ones that had a proper injection protocol.
No wonder the therapy isn’t that effective since your T levels are close to Zero for some of that 8 weeks.
What’s really scarier other than every 8 week injections is there is a product (Nebido) used overseas that only requires injections every 12 weeks!!!
Interesting. I still may do my own trial (checking sperm counts several times and consulting a doc before I rely on it), but it seems I may no longer be married in the near future (not gonna turn this into my sob story) so it’s back to condoms anyway. So maybe I won’t bother. HCG seems to help my mood anyway.
It really sucks that so many men go on these terrible protocols and probably come off them because they feel worse than when they started. Then they naturally think TRT is bunk, or just doesn’t work for them, when the fact is their protocol was bunk and not the underlying theory. All because people naturally don’t like shots, and especially don’t like having to go do the doctor to get them, and the pharma companies know this and so market their products in an unrealistic and HARMFUL way.
I know absolutely from personal experience that twice a week is better for me than once a week…I ALWAYS felt fatigued and down the last couple days before an injection. I can’t imagine what an 8-week or 12-week protocol would do to me. Once you get over the fear of injection and it becomes part of your routine, it’s not a significant hassle to up frequency. It’s 3 minutes out of your day. I would inject EOD or even every day if I thought it would be a significant improvement, but my labs and mood are totally satisfactory with twice-weekly.