Chemman's log

[virtuosa150]

Sleep is not bad. I was having some problems a few months ago but that improved.

I haven't touched caffeine in 7 months and have had 2 beers in that time frame as well.

Handling stress? LOL. Terrible. But I am under a ton of stress. No job. Tons of health problems. It sucks.

Symptoms? Joint problems, loss of body hair (a lot has returned), depression, anxiety, weakness, intolerance to exercise, no libido, horrible ED.

I've seen some of your past posts mentioning joint pain. I don't recall your E2 level.

I have a past of chronically low E2. My joints were aching a lot during that time. It was found that when my T broke the 850ish level, my E2 level increased into the low 20's. I no longer have any problems with my joints aching. Still got severe ED though.

 

[chemman]

I've seen some of your past posts mentioning joint pain. I don't recall your E2 level.

I have a past of chronically low E2. My joints were aching a lot during that time. It was found that when my T broke the 850ish level, my E2 level increased into the low 20's. I no longer have any problems with my joints aching. Still got severe ED though.

Not much pain. It's mainly cracking and snapping. I think that this is from the low testosterone.

My opinion on erections is that it's mainly brain chemistry and especially cardiovascular health (assuming your penis has normal in/out flow) that create good erections.

 

[Tyler81]

Activities such as weightlifting are probably a real bad idea for me. Stupid me I tried to start lifting again a few weeks ago.

I'm going to stick with the TRT until I get some decent labs but if no improvement I will probably bail.

@Tyler: I can't drink right now. Not even one brew. It sucks. It gives me more anxiety and depression. I have to stay clean if I'm going to have any chance.

Good call man. It's probably best to stay away from alcohol.

The most frusterating thing would be to do labs, and your total "T" is fine, and you still don't feel good. That's essentially what happened to me. I was in the high normal range- but i didnt feel different- and i had no libido.

Good luck with it man. Some moderate weights and light cardio is good for your body. Don't abandon excercise all together. My endo told me it's the best and most natural way to recover my HPTA

 

[chemman]

So I injected another 50mg T cyp last night. My plan is to do 50mg every 3.5 days.

I also met with a urologist this week who bumped my dose up to 100mg/wk.

I actually woke up this morning feeling noticeably better and much more like my old self. I am optimistic at this point. I do realize that it will probably be months until things get really cranking, but I need to be patient and stick with this. opcorn:

It takes 6 weeks for T cyp to reach a steady state in your body and then months for all of the downstream effects to occur. I am a member at another board where a guy who was hypogonadal for 1 year required one year of TRT to fully regain his libido and function. Now he says it is better than before he ran into problems. He was 23 when diagnosed. Keep this in mind Tyler.

 

[Tyler81]

I actually woke up this morning feeling noticeably better and much more like my old self. I am optimistic at this point. I do realize that it will probably be months until things get really cranking, but I need to be patient and stick with this. opcorn:

It takes 6 weeks for T cyp to reach a steady state in your body and then months for all of the downstream effects to occur. I am a member at another board where a guy who was hypogonadal for 1 year required one year of TRT to fully regain his libido and function. Now he says it is better than before he ran into problems. He was 23 when diagnosed. Keep this in mind Tyler.

Hmm really? Why would it take a full year to regain his libido?

Even if it takes 6 weeks of T cyp to reach a "steady state" in the body, most patients report a libido boost a few days after each shot, as the T spikes. My urologist told me "you should feel immediate relief" ....

 

[Tyler81]

How is your libido? Do you feel a boost a day after the shot?

I stopped everything because before this process I had a libido. On shots I had NO libido. Having no libido scared me. I was worried i would be one of those guys who has to fine tune and fine tune and fine tune for months and months. And I just wasn't willing to have no libido for months.

Therefore I stopped.

 

[chemman]

How is your libido? Do you feel a boost a day after the shot?

I stopped everything because before this process I had a libido. On shots I had NO libido. Having no libido scared me. I was worried i would be one of those guys who has to fine tune and fine tune and fine tune for months and months. And I just wasn't willing to have no libido for months.

Therefore I stopped.

Slight boost. But I have also had a severe testosterone deficiency for about a year so my brain chemistry is pretty scrambled. It might take a while and some tweaking to get my libido back. But I have a lot of other T problems besides libido that I need to fix so I am on TRT for those as well.

The reason that it can take a while is that gene expression does not occur instantaneously. All of that T has to bind to receptors and then directly interact with your DNA. This happens in every cell in your body that has androgen receptors. Your dick is packed with these receptors. The muscles that control erections can actually become weak when T is low for extended periods of time. Your prostate, which is also important for good wood, needs androgens. Over time, higher T levels cause changes in brain chemistry, affecting libido. It takes time to reverse damage in neurons as well.

Just my 2 cents

 

[CubbieBlue]

Good to hear Chem. Hopefully you keep on feeling well.

 

[Tyler81]

The reason that it can take a while is that gene expression does not occur instantaneously. All of that T has to bind to receptors and then directly interact with your DNA. This happens in every cell in your body that has androgen receptors. Your dick is packed with these receptors. The muscles that control erections can actually become weak when T is low for extended periods of time. Your prostate, which is also important for good wood, needs androgens. Over time, higher T levels cause changes in brain chemistry, affecting libido. It takes time to reverse damage in neurons as well.

Just my 2 cents

Where did you read this?

And it doesn't really explain why I would LOSE my libido on shots.

But I hope it works for you man. I am not up to speed enough to agree or disagree with this assessment.

 

[hardasnails1973]

The body has a natural set point and when that is crossed over you will have a domino affect in other hormones. I wish you the best of luck, but the body will try to adapt every way possible to keep that balance and adrenals and thyroid are first to take a hit. When I went on TRT and adrenals where not checked I got worse over time and then adrenals were adjusted made testoserone work even better !!

 

[chemman]

Slight libido building in. Feeling more stable psychologically... but not where I need to be.

Joints still suck. Lower back is killing me. Exercise is out of the question.

I plan on drawing labs at the 5 week mark. If free T not in the upper quartile, then adjust dose upwards. I have a feeling that my large frame may require more than 100mg/wk.

 

[CubbieBlue]

Slight libido building in. Feeling more stable psychologically... but not where I need to be.

Joints still suck. Lower back is killing me. Exercise is out of the question.

I plan on drawing labs at the 5 week mark. If free T not in the upper quartile, then adjust dose upwards. I have a feeling that my large frame may require more than 100mg/wk.

Have you seen a chiro for your lower back?

 

[chemman]

Have you seen a chiro for your lower back?

Not yet but add that to the list!

 

[Tyler81]

Slight libido building in. Feeling more stable psychologically... but not where I need to be.

Joints still suck. Lower back is killing me. Exercise is out of the question.

I plan on drawing labs at the 5 week mark. If free T not in the upper quartile, then adjust dose upwards. I have a feeling that my large frame may require more than 100mg/wk.

What do you mean by slight libido building? Do you feel "horny" when you look at chicas? Because thats the biggest indicator of a good libido.

 

[chemman]

Yea I feel something now whereas before it was just nothing...nothing at all.

But it is still nowhere close to my old libido, which was pretty high.

 

[Tyler81]

Yea I feel something now whereas before it was just nothing...nothing at all.

But it is still nowhere close to my old libido, which was pretty high.

That's good.

Even a little "hornyness" is better than nothing at all.

 

[chemman]

Yea libido would be icing on the cake. First, however, I need to take care of the depression, anxiety, and feeling physically beat up all of the time.

 

[Tyler81]

Yea libido would be icing on the cake. First, however, I need to take care of the depression, anxiety, and feeling physically beat up all of the time.

I'm the opposite. I can deal with the other symptoms, but i can't deal with no libido. I'm a sexual guy, and sex is like life for me.

 

[Tyler81]

Slight libido building in. Feeling more stable psychologically... but not where I need to be.

Joints still suck. Lower back is killing me. Exercise is out of the question.

I plan on drawing labs at the 5 week mark. If free T not in the upper quartile, then adjust dose upwards. I have a feeling that my large frame may require more than 100mg/wk.

How goes it chem?

How many shots have you done so far?

 

[chemman]

Hey everybody,

Figured I would drop back in for an update.

So after my first shot of 100mg, I felt worse! I was very upset about this and started second-guessing myself.

I then broke my next 100mg into two separate 50mg shots E3.5D. A few days after the second 50mg shot I started feeling different. At night I noticed some strong wood for the first time in a long time. Then I felt more energy and less depressed, but still very anxious. I also felt some weirdness in the chest area.

This led me to start doing 30mg EOD. After the first 30mg shot, I definitely felt the testosterone rising. More nighttime wood and I woke up the next day and realized that my joints felt much better. The severe cracking was down to mild cracking and I could actually get out of bed and did not feel like shutting myself away from the world.

I did another 30mg shot this morning and I continue to feel better as time goes on. I am very optimistic at this point.

I can feel the depression leaving, my thought patterns are changing, the anxiety is less intense, my joint problems are dissipating, and I just feel much more like myself. My chest hair has regrown completely and now my leg hair is coming back as well.

I still have ED and a low libido, but I have a feeling that I might have to wait for those problems to resolve. Also, I have about two more weeks until T cyp is stabilized in my system.

I will also be starting CBT (cognitive behavorial therapy) to help stomp out the lingering anxiety and depression, but I am sure that as the T shots keep doing their thing, I should see even more improvements psychologically.

So to sum it all up, I am making good progress only 3 weeks into TRT. I don't feel like superman, just more like my old self every day.