How’s it going guys? I have been a long time reader of this forum but this will be my first post. I recently started TRT on the 1st of April after blood work showed that I had very low testosterone levels. Many of the symptoms of low T I was experiencing and after trying to get my levels up naturally through diet, exercise and supplements but nothing seemed to improve the situation. Initial labs below.
LH: 6.4 (1.7 – 8.6)
FSH: 2.2 (1.5 – 12.4)
Total T: 272 (264 – 916)
Free T: 9 (8.7 – 25.1)
Prolactin: 6.2 (4.0 – 15.2)
DHEA: 147 (138.5 – 475.2)
IGF: 158 (88 – 246)
E2 Sensitive: 8.3 (8.0 – 35)
SHBG: 26.4 (16.5 – 55.9)
After starting TRT the first few weeks I felt great, renewed energy, libido and ED issues dissipated, more confidence and a general overall well feeling. I was put on .35ml of 200ml/mg test cyp twice a week, HCG 400iu twice a week and anastrozole .125 twice a week. The honeymoon period was short lived however and I started to experience unusual anxiety which I was at first just attributing to the hormone shift going on with everything changing. So I gave it some time and then reached back out for additional labs after the problem did not seem to get better. New labs below we taking roughly 7 weeks after starting.
Total T: 872 (264 – 916)
Free T: 22.9 (8.7 – 25.1)
DHEA: 153.8 (138.5 – 475.2)
TSH: .993 (.450 – 4.5)
E2 Sensitive: 31.0 (8 – 35)
We made some adjustments which did not really seem to help the situation. After a few more consultations we tried to take away the HCG which caused atrophy but did not really improve the symptoms of anxiety/nervousness that I was having. Also, they recommended reducing the amount of test shots to .30ml to see if that would help as well and trying to get my E2 more toward 22. The labs below I took myself, I was getting cheap on all of them because of the cost.
Total T: 724 (264 – 916)
E2 Sensitive: 20.6 (8.0 – 35.0)
Still not really any sign of improvement in the symptoms with the new protocol. So we tried to take out the AI which I did for about 6 days and then restarted due to some after feeling like I was losing a lot of the test that I was injecting to estrogen. During the time of no AI I did take DIM and calcium gluconate. Probably jumped the gun on restarting the AI but I was hitting the gym hard and didn’t want to lose that edge. Without the AI, I was actually starting to feel better after a few days. More energy, mental clarity and the general sense of feeling like myself.
Long story short. Since going back to the old protocol and trying to space my shots out over three days instead of two to hopefully make this more stable I am still back to the same spot with the anxiety, nervousness, brain fog, body weakness and surprising coordination issues for some reason which may coincide with body weakness.
I am trying to avoid coming off TRT as I feel that I will just return to the way I felt before but at a loss of what I could do. Any suggestions on what may be happening? Has anyone experienced issues like this and then dropped the AI for an extended period of time and felt better? Any insight is appreciated. Thanks!