geodesic7
New Member
I am M42 in USA who is trying to initiate and sustain virtuous cycles of health gain instead of the vicious cycles of decline that have plagued me for 15 years.
I had a 30mm pituitary Rathke's Cleft Cyst that had to be removed twice in 2020, but as a consequence of surgeries I developed bad neck pain on right side, which then served as trigger for migraines and occipital neuralgia. I saw an endocrinologist to treat surgery induced diabetes insipidus (always thirsty, frequent peeing). But the endo did not educate me about my other low hormones, and since my Testosterone level of 302 was above 300 lower limit it was not discussed at all.
I eventually hit rock bottom: off work on disability, useless to family, killing pain with drinking and oxycodone, gaining weight steadily, and getting closer to arranging suicide. At that point the basic survival instinct refusal to die finally kicked in. I started a long slow recovery through trigger point deep needling acupuncture, elastic band physical therapy, and trying to hit 10K steps per day walking, but it was a constant drudge where the slightest over exercise re-triggered issues.
It was only when focused on hormone optimization did I find a path where improvement begat improvement. I started rucking with weighted vest, and kept adding weights as I lost weight. I dragged my useless endocrinologist by tooth and nail through the needed tests and evals to show my Testosterone was not alright, but even then she still demanded I lose another 15lbs before starting treatment.
Finally, I started TRT at 100mg/week and within days and weeks I felt alive again, the joy of being a father, and the thrill of a wonderfully sexy wife.
Since then I have thrown everything at elevating my health and mood to support this escape from doom: Grey Market GLPs (PCP doc was useless), peptides, and HGH as TRT+. I am down 55lbs with more muscle than started with, but still too fat to run higher than 120mg Testosterone. Have started to experiment with pre-workout anavar and may trial out low dose primo. My only muscle gain desires are for overall health, as I am much more of a runner type than weight lifter. I still have another 25lbs of fat to lose, and want to address my remaining-but-much-much-lower level of drinking alcohol, possibly with help of naltrexone.
I had a 30mm pituitary Rathke's Cleft Cyst that had to be removed twice in 2020, but as a consequence of surgeries I developed bad neck pain on right side, which then served as trigger for migraines and occipital neuralgia. I saw an endocrinologist to treat surgery induced diabetes insipidus (always thirsty, frequent peeing). But the endo did not educate me about my other low hormones, and since my Testosterone level of 302 was above 300 lower limit it was not discussed at all.
I eventually hit rock bottom: off work on disability, useless to family, killing pain with drinking and oxycodone, gaining weight steadily, and getting closer to arranging suicide. At that point the basic survival instinct refusal to die finally kicked in. I started a long slow recovery through trigger point deep needling acupuncture, elastic band physical therapy, and trying to hit 10K steps per day walking, but it was a constant drudge where the slightest over exercise re-triggered issues.
It was only when focused on hormone optimization did I find a path where improvement begat improvement. I started rucking with weighted vest, and kept adding weights as I lost weight. I dragged my useless endocrinologist by tooth and nail through the needed tests and evals to show my Testosterone was not alright, but even then she still demanded I lose another 15lbs before starting treatment.
Finally, I started TRT at 100mg/week and within days and weeks I felt alive again, the joy of being a father, and the thrill of a wonderfully sexy wife.
Since then I have thrown everything at elevating my health and mood to support this escape from doom: Grey Market GLPs (PCP doc was useless), peptides, and HGH as TRT+. I am down 55lbs with more muscle than started with, but still too fat to run higher than 120mg Testosterone. Have started to experiment with pre-workout anavar and may trial out low dose primo. My only muscle gain desires are for overall health, as I am much more of a runner type than weight lifter. I still have another 25lbs of fat to lose, and want to address my remaining-but-much-much-lower level of drinking alcohol, possibly with help of naltrexone.
