Hi All,
I have a question relating to upkeep for those of us making use of a T Cyp protocol:
I started on TRT as a 22 y/o, and I just turned 29. I started on TRT in grad school and had regular bloodwork done up until the time I graduated, which ended up being age 26. I was in grad school at Yale at the time and had very good doctors. I started then and have since continued since doing the typical .5mL/week Test Cyp protocol, with my T levels staying roughly in the 700s.
My first year post-school, I was working so much that I never had the chance to make an appointment to continue comprehensive bloodwork, much less get an endo in my new city (I have been in a professional field working 80+ hour weeks fairly regularly for long stretches). And getting a good endo in my city is very difficult. I received a prescription for Test Cyp from my general practitioner after presenting various bloodwork history from grad school and have maintained that prescription since.
My second year, I ended up suffering something of a serious medical event that resulted in most of my colon being removed, a three week hospital stay, and subsequent surgeries resulting from a very large abscess. During this time I was doing continual general bloodwork that included limited hormone panels but, again, not of the comprehensive fasting/etc. variety that were the norm for me during the earlier years. But again, combining this life change with work obligations, have not set up getting an endo or doing the type of comprehensive bloodwork I did in my first few years of use.
My question is this: I am looking to transition employers in the near future to a situation that will afford me more time. I’ve been continuously taking the Test Cyp for these years without any noticeable changes or events that correspond to needing anything in particular relating to it.
Should I now, with more time available to me, go back to the endocrinology protocol of my grad school years, being seen a couple of times a year with the comprehensive labs and such, or do those more comprehensive labs serve a primarily diagnostic purpose as opposed to a maintenance one? It’s not that I’m averse necessarily to getting the tests, but they (at least in the past) are very time consuming (and expensive depending on insurance) so I want to see whether they are something that are more appropriate for someone in the earlier years of their use of the medicine versus someone who is just “trucking along” as I am.
Thank you for your time.