Totally New Here, Need Help

Naw, I got decent 6 cylinder Altima.

This is the internet brotherā€¦Think BIGGER!!

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They charge that annually first year. It includes blood tests and consults year round. Thatā€™s 175 a month if you paid monthly. Itā€™s jsut paying the annual fee sucks. Year two itā€™s 1500.

This guys one of the best docs in HRT right now. Not a clinic. You get what you pay for :slight_smile:

Man my phone keeps giving me typos hahaā€¦ varo

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Iā€™ve heard there are guys out there who are really on top of their game. Iā€™m glad you guys are around. Iā€™m getting a hell of an education. Iā€™ve been bouncing all over threads watching your discussions.

Thereā€™s a guy in Manchester TN (which is pretty much BFE) who is cheap, allegedly good at what he does, but is 2 hours from here. My NP is a 15 minute drive from my house so I feel like Iā€™m getting off pretty cheap.

What your paying is dirt cheap. Stick with it. Once dialed in you donā€™t need any better. Just stay pro active.

If it doesnā€™t work then find a better doc. I would stick with my clinic if I felt it was working. Itā€™s not and I just donā€™t want to keep testing and retesting till it works. God knows if there are other issues preventing me from trt benefitsā€¦ anyways you get the idea

It sounds like a lot of people here have spent a lot of hard earned money and hard earned time to get what everyone whose dealing with low T deserves. A lot of you are pioneering the road ahead for others.

Whatā€™s been your long term experience, ups and downs? How long have you been on a protocol?

I pay $30 a month for T-cyp. So $360 a year is my total cost for drugs. It probably costs me $50 a year in needles and syringes. I generally get two blood tests on my own through Quest, the first one is a Male-Aging panel @ $184 and the second one usually just E2 or something else for under $100.

All in all its under $700 out of pocket.

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Thatā€™s really not bad at all. Weā€™re in a similar boat then.

Iā€™m only 2 months in. I just read and listen to videos and absorb everything possible. You catch on quick. I turn on tot revolution videos while driving and absorb what I can.

I have had maybe 3 days of feeling good . The rest has been worse or same fatigue and depression than before trt. This weekend Iā€™m starting to feel good but still brain fog and tired. Itā€™s like there is still No life within me to go enjoy the day. Itā€™s creeping back thoughā€¦

Appointment with new doc tomorrow.

I also stopped hcg a couple weeks ago and a handful of side effects dissapeared with that removal. I think I need more T to take the hcg place.

What I donā€™t understand is DHEA, Preg , thyroid.

Youā€™ve absorbed massive amounts of information. I thought youā€™d been on it for several years.

I donā€™t know about these either. But hell, I donā€™t mind asking these guys either. I understand some of the functions of the Thyroid (theyā€™re in the Hypothalamic Pituitary Axisā€™s) exchanges but not as they relate to trt. All I know about Pregnenalon is that itā€™s the parent hormone for all the other sex hormonesā€¦itā€™s a step between the conversion of cholesterol to Test, Estrogens, and Cortisol.

As far as the Thyroid goes. I believe the process is part of a loop like the other hormones produced by the Hypothalamic Pituitary Axisā€™s. I donā€™t know what signals the Hypothalamus but it signals the Pituitary which produces TSH which directs the Thyroid to release T4 which is either bound by a protein or free. T4 gets converted into T3 which is also bound by a protein or free. Free T3 then adheres to receptor sites in the brain which trigger the signal for the body or mind to perform certain metabolic functions in the bodyā€¦which ones specifically, I donā€™t know. Iā€™m pretty sure itā€™s not the sole proprietor of the release of ATP which is required for most the mechanical processes in the body however.

Yes there are things I know today that will benefit me and my family down the road. Itā€™s very nice of the folks who are well off and still frequent the forum and help us. Great guys and thank you

Iā€™m with you enackers

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Oh I forgotā€¦there is also something called reverse T3 which is molecularly an isomer of Free T3. The reverse version of Free T3 occupies receptor sites where Free T3 should be bound, but the reversed version takes its place so that Free T3 cannot occupy it. The reverse version is inert and triggers no signaling at all. So this is why we are tested for TSH along with, T4, T3, Free T4, Free T3 and reverse T3. Mostly we just get tested for TSH, T4, Free T3 and Reverse T3 since the rest can be deduced by their presence.

Itā€™s sort of the same when testing for bioavailable Testosterone versus Total Testosterone. Total-T is bound tightly by the glycoprotein ā€œSHBGā€ at around 42-44% typically (I think) and the rest is bound loosely to protein ā€œHuman Serum Albuminā€ (and is partially bioavailable) at about 52-54% typically (I think). What is not bound by SHBG and Albumin proteins are what show up as Free Testosterone when our labs are drawn.
If we know how much SHBG there is, and how much Free-T there is, then we can deduce what is attached to Albumin in a blood test. This is my understanding anyway. Someone correct me if Iā€™m wrong.

Makes sense. Iā€™ll be posting up my thyroid labs in two weeks. I really canā€™t wsit to check that off and realize I donā€™t have thyroid issues hahaā€¦ god I hope not. But allot of folks say they feel so much better with trt and optimal thyroidā€¦ jsut donā€™t like idea of having to substitute so many damn hormones for the rest of my life. Genetically my family members live past 70 and 80ā€¦ my grand parents all past 70ā€¦ two past 90. Shit. Long life aheadā€¦ in 40 so 80 is 40 moreā€¦

Itā€™ll work out I think. A lot of the guys on here seem pretty happy with their lives, even with just Exogenous Testosterone.

Pretty excited myself to see what my labs look like myself. Hopefully theyā€™ll be back by Tuesday.

Maybe one of the reasons the thyroid function is important is to see if possible Hypogonadism is Primary, Secondary, or Tertiary: in other words, whether low Testosterone is cause by the Hypothalamus, Pituitary, or Gonads malfunctioning.

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Western NC here, mountains baby. I love living here, not many good T docs though, LOL

Yeah, I definitely miss the mountains brother, that and conifer trees. I lived up in the Redwoods once a few hours from the Oregon border. I was 12-13 though and didnā€™t really appreciate it for what it was at the time. It seems like the farther you get away from civilization the less likely youā€™ll hit a lot of treatment availability. Thereā€™s always some shady ass doc writing scripts on the side but god knows who finds them. Probably not the guy Iā€™d want to have to find for a script. The more I look, the more I find these guys with all the horror stories about having Low-T and not getting diagnosedā€¦I wonder, what is the full reason for that? I wish I knew an Endo I could sit down with and discuss it with over coffee. Iā€™d like to get an insiderā€™s honest opinion.

I honestly do not know. It does not appear SHBG has anything to do with the metabolization of testosterone. Besides, there is plenty bound by albumin and potentially available.

I do think SHBG is valuable to know because low SHBG guys will not only have higher free testosterone, but higher free E2. Thatā€™s why they feel better with lower dose injections, which will need to be more frequent, but it helps keep E2 steady without the larger fluctuations larger doses would bring.

Possibly even more important, low SHBG signals many serious health conditions.
Among them are sleep apnea, hypothyroidism, obesity, insulin resistance, so diabetes, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome. Itā€™s not good.

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