Long story short, I’m 42, on TRT for 2 years under a care of a good trained doctor, tried many different tweaks, protocol adjustments but my ability to get erections steadily declines regardless of good hormone levels… My fatigue (another reason for trying TRT) was only 20% better on TRT but it was helped more by methylated B-vitamins and slightly by Thyroid hormones. So both main reasons for TRT - fatigue and erections are not helped and gotten worse.
I think that tinkering with androgen hormones was a big mistake… 2 years ago Cialis would do the job and even without it my wood was much better…
Now I must face the fact that the only thing that gets me an erection is Trimix which is the last resort and a one-way ticket.
In addition to all above, I started loosing hair, probably due to higher DHT levels…
I’ll call TRT a total failure. I’m a bit jealous of those who benefit TRT…
How do I get off TRT properly? Slowly lowering the doses? Over what time period?
Assuming you are correct in that your doc is well trained. He/she should be able to provide you with a proper protocol. It would involve HCG for a few weeks followed by a Serm like nolva or clomid for a month.
Feel your pain, it’s been no easy ride for me either. Totally wish I was in the group of lucky dudes that have the positive life changing experience.
I am not familiar with your levels or protocol, but when I eventually go off I am going to to taper gently to 0. Not because of withdrawal or anything, but because I am curious to see if minute amounts of T improve anything as it falls.
If it were me I would do 3-4 weeks of HCG after my last test injection (assuming Cyp or Enth) then 4-6 weeks of Nolva 20mg daily. Wait a few weeks then get labs and see if it worked
I don’t understand why doctors keep lying about no tolerance to medications and why men on TRT don’t want to admit that TRT is a down dwindling spiral. That eventually benefits of TRT dissappear, dosages must be increased until every drug stops working or poses a life threat and people end up where they would end up without ever getting on TRT. With exception of a few lucky ones.
I observe this on forums over and over. Cialis stops working, Trimix stops working, Testosterone stops giving any improvements, yet it feels against the flow to say anything bad about TRT. As if it were a religion and the tribe would tear apart anyone who doesn’t believe the dogma. Like “how dare you”…
If our bodies follow a natural down dwindling spiral then why getting on an artificial down dwindling spiral through medications that lead to the same result as without intervention ?
Someone benefits from this false dogma, and it’s definitely not us, the patients.
This is the way to go if you’re considering getting off of TRT. I was on a 150mg week protocol which means once I reached steady state my body was having to deal with Testosterone at 4x the amount a healthy male makes naturally. Reading a thread on a forum where the old school bb recommends 10mg a day or a total of 70 a week, I decided not to take my normal weekly shot. I used steroid plotter to see when I would fall into the healthy T range. S plotter said it would be by day 10-12 and sure as shit, I started feeling better when I got down there. Now almost 7 weeks later, TRT is finally working for me at 50mg a week which is roughly 5-6mg of actual hormone per day.
because this doesn’t happen with testosterone. Most guys go on a dose and that’s it. Forever. A small percent end up on forums like this because they have issues. Sometimes it’s that the dose is too low, sometimes it’s too high, sometimes it’s their injection frequency, sometimes they shouldn’t have been onit to begin with because that wasn’t the actual problem. I don’t know of anyone who has to steadily increase the dose over the years to overcome tolerance. And there are guys that have been on it for over a decade without this issue.
@crashnet I am suffering the same. I want to do my trt but I started to feel very bad and anxious using testosterone because of this. I ended up having to use low dosages as you and even there I feel bad. I just wish to use doses like 200mg like everyone and get into hypertrophy zone! But I saddly can’t. What’s is the problem with us?
You don’t need 200mg for hypertrophy, and most of us are actually not using that much. Some guys can’t stay out of there own heads enough to be anything but paralyzed, some guys have other undiagnosed issues that affect it, and probably 100 other reasons. Most of them probably involve overthinking and hyper focus on every little detail. Stupid kids run cycles with zero issues all the time. There are guys running more than you ever dreamed of and know next to nothing about what they are using, how it affects them, or even what the dangers are. And you know what? They’re totally fine and feeling awesome while they are doing it. There could be a price to pay later, but they don’t curl up in the corner and whine about how awful it is.
Not even a little. The effects at TRT doses are negligible at best. It can, however, reveal other issues. Low test isn’t always the thing that should be treated, it may be simply one symptom among others pointing to a different problem - which is the point I’m making. Maybe the test level is low as a protection mechanism because something else is going on. Most people latch on to the first thing they run into that might be the problem and over analyze every little thing that goes on. I’m not saying ignorance is bliss, but hyper-awareness beginning a treatment isn’t too useful. If you tried it and it was a problem - maybe you aren’t treating the right thing. Side note, I don’t have to try to look like a badass.
I was not low while natural, Iet me explain what made me say these things:
I started to use testosterone almost two years ago and I used 200mg at that time. I was fine, really fine, but now I feel angry and anxyous on that. What do you think?
I don’t know what else to look for, what another genius doctor to bring the remaining of my savingns to for nothing in return. My T was low and many of them urged me to get on TRT for 7 years while I was in resistance. Finally I gave up, this is the result. I did what I could with no other options available.
So no, I can’t be blamed for being too lazy or not trying to “diagnose an underlying cause”, there’s no such thing as knowing an underlying cause of even most diseases known to man, yet alone the unknown ones.
This is not a claim but an assumption based on observations of guy’s posts on forums. Most men complain about erections getting worse and worse even on TRT, cialis/viagra works - then doesn’t, why is my wood bad even on TRT, etc etc…
My problem with TRT is not a psychological one but purely physiological so it’s not that I worry. Regardless, even the worry part should have been better on TRT… My doctor can’t explain why my erections are on steady decline, why I stopped aromatasing to Estradiol, why I had a sudden hair loss even though I used to take the same regimen before… This all is a mystery to him.
My total T is within 1100 - 1300 with Cypionate 24mg EOD, T free 21 - 25, DHT free 10-15 with T cream to scrotum, T free% 1 - 2, Estradiol used to raise with a rate of 12.4 per week and 0.0625mg of Anastrozole used to take it down 15 points, 0.125mg - 30 points. Now E2 simply stopped raising… More HCG did bring E2 up recently but that didn’t restore erections and libido, and in addition to T cream to scrotum probably caused rapid hair loss…
And my erections used to be ok on TRT when E2 was within 30 - 60 sensitive Labcorp test. Now they are basically gone regardless of E2, which stopped raising… PSA used to be 1, went up to 2.1 after adding T cream to scrotum and bringing Free DHT to 15. I stopped that cream due to concerns of hair loss and PSA went back down. Thyroid under control by prescription T3 and NDT. Prolactin was a bit high at 15, controlled by Cabergoline, now 3-7.
Anyway, how many hormones in the brain are shut down due to TRT? Are all of them known and studied? Are there any undiscovered hormones in the brain which also stop producing while on TRT? Can lack of those signaling hormones affect erections in negative way? Nobody is looking for answers… In addition to questions that puzzle my doctor… Science that offers no answers is not a science. It’s basically a voodoo science…
