I don’t think jail (which cocaine will bring me to) is much better than suicide…
So, you have provided a lot of information, but it is a little disjointed and seems incomplete. But I’ll take a stab.
If you want to stop TRT you have two choices.
- Stop. Get labs done on 6 weeks and see if you have LH, FSH and testosterone.
- Stop, take Clomid or Nolvadex for 6 weeks. Get labs 4 weeks after that and see what your LH, FSH and testosterone levels are.
The first option is “Cold Turkey”. The second option is known as “PCT” or a “Restart”. Either one might work, or might not. It depends on what’s going on with you.
Aside from those options, I have questions if you want help.
What is your current e2 level?
When was the last time that you took anastrozole?
What was your testosterone level BEFORE you started TRT?
What was your E2 level BEFORE you started TRT?
Were you ever given an actual reason for the ED? Or were you just given pills?
No hormones in the brain are known to be stopped by TRT. Some are known to be low when a man has low testosterone and/or low E2. There is no way to know if all of them are known, what is known is known, what is unknown is yet to be discovered. There was a new catecholmine discovered relatively recently, and there is very little known about it. Catecholamines as a class are currently being rethought as new information is coming out indicating that they are NOT actuall neurotransmitters as was believed. So, we don’t know much is my guess.
ED is complicated and could be caused by different things, it is entirely possible that your current issues are completely coincidental and the result of a separate, undiagnosed problem. It might be a side effect ot TRT for you, it might be completely unrelated. If you are not aromatizing E2, you have a different problem that will require a very specialized endo to treat. There are man that are aromatase enzyme deficient, or lacking altogether in it, but we are literally talking about 7 men in the world last time I checked.
You resisted treatment for seven years and you think that tolerances build up with exogenous testosterone. There’s at least some percentage of your problem that comes from the psychological side of the ledger. How much that is we’ll never know, but don’t dismiss it altogether.
Around 40-50 sensitive Labcorp
Oct 21: 0.125mg
175 - 400, one time 500.
Sometimes 13 but more often closer to 20 non-sensitive test. Sensitive was never done prior to TRT.
The doc has no clue but said “lets treat hormones first” and started watching Prolactin and giving me Cabergoline, at one point SHBG was high and he found that it was caused by too much T3 so he has me lowering T3 prescription. Now the only thing he can offer for ED is to get Trimix or have me going to a local urologist and get a dopler sonogram looking for venouse leak, for which there’s no cure anyway. He is out of other options.
He also tried giving me Doxazosin 1mg. It used to have a very small effect on my ED, but recently Doxazosin stopped helping at all. He had me increasing it to 1mg x 2 per day but that gave me palpitations and high heart rate.
What about LH, FSH and others? My LH and FSH are not detected on any bloodwork. All the signaling hormones in hypothalamus and pituitary that signal to produce testosterone are supposed to be shut down when too much external testosterone is introduced to the body. Isn’t that so?
When I got on TRT my energy and ED was clearly better, so I was looking forward for continuing improvement, therefore if there was a psychological effect then it was positive. Then, for an unknown reason, all hell broke loose.
I used to aromatase well, now I don’t. And I don’t even expect doctors to find the cause of it. My TRT doc is as good as a doctor can be, but even he has no clue… Other local endos I’ve seen were a total joke, absolutely incompetent, basically borderline criminal.
It happens. And yes, it totally sucks. My concern is that ceasing treatment isn’t going to help, and then what do you do next? You’re in a tricky spot here and I don’t think anyone has all the right answers for you. So that means you have to troubleshoot as best you can
You can expect that with any quantity of exogynous testosterone. If you take test, production stops, so you can actually be worse off than before if you don’t take enough. It is NOT supplementation, it is replacement at any level of dose.
Seems like you’re aromatizing to me. I felt like shit when my E was that high.
I assume I can return to TRT as a last resort if I fail to restart my testies?
That’s normal E2 for me, that E2 used to give me good wood, not anymore. Lately aromatasing doesn’t always happen regardless
How was your libido when you were natural and had an E2 of 13 to 20?
Libido was better than now, but at that time I considered it to be low. T was 300 - 450 on average. Tadalafil worked most of the time. After getting on TRT (2.5 years ago) my wood became better, but for the last 6 months - much worse than before TRT.
Ever tried low dose TRT? Getting levels into the 600-700 range and seeing how you feel?
Not everyone feels better going high with TRT. Some feel better on lower doses.
For me, once i get up past 100mg test per week, my wood starts going away. Also much harder to get orgasms due to the increase in E2, which increases serotonin (the inhibitor neurotransmitter)
This is not true, as evidenced by your labs. You aromatise just fine. That is pretty clearly not the problem. You had ED issues, drugs worked. Now, at very similar labs the drugs do not work. The answer is fairly clearly what was pointed at earlier - an undiagnosed condition. Maybe Venous Leakage? I know you don’t want that to be the answer, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t. You can chase stuff that doesn’t seem to be the problem, and get nowhere. Or you can pursue the realistic options now and maybe fix something.
My E2 used to raise 12.4 points per week on TRT. Now it went down 10 points during 30 days without any Anastrozole with the same dosage of T. By “points” I mean numbers on Labcorp sensitive test. The current E2 of 40-50 is after I raised my E2 with 400 iu of HCG every other day for 10 days.
My current aromatising is very inconsistent and sometimes NEGATIVE (going down instead of up).
According to hardartery this is not gonna work:
But I’d like to try that if that would be possible. Do you know anyone for whom this worked?
I don’t think that’s what hardartery is suggesting.
He’s just making the correct statement that exo test will shut your endo test down.
Low dose works for a few on here. Many doctors start at lower than 100mg per week and it’s something to look at prior to quitting.
I perused your thread, but didn’t see a SHBG blood test. Any clue what that is?
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Most of the past 2 years I’ve been injecting 77mg per week (22mg x 3.5 = 77). Recently increased to 24mg x 3.5 = 84. Increased trying to compensate for lowering HCG from 200iu 2 x week to 100iu 2 x week. Both 77 and 84 are lower than 100mg a week. Do I count like low dose?
It has mostly been 35 - 40. At one point it went up to 70-80. My doc quickly found that this was due to overdosing on Liothyronine (T3 prescription). I lowered it and my SHBG went down to 35.
Last time I spoke to him he said my T3 might still be high for me even though the T3 and SHBG numbers looks ok so he theorized that this was responsible for low libido and erections. So I lowered Liothyronine (T3) but it had no effect on erections.
So you reached 1000TT+ on 80mg/week or so?
I’d say you’re already using pretty low doses. Your FT does look a little lowish to me.
You could try going the other way, going much higher. Your SHBG is great, and not too low. So i think you could afford going higher up.
What about something like 75mg twice a week for a total of 150mg a week?