I screwed up. Quitting TRT. Sharing my experience and would appreciate some guidance around PCT.

[asdasd12312asdasd]

Right, so turns out testosterone is not for everyone and I did not really need it.
I was so confident that this will change my life and I've given it enough time but can't take it anymore. Sharing my experience to help others.
Note: I did not have hypogonadism before and still hopped on TRT (UGL)

Been on it for 6 months now. Decided to stop yesterday.

Pre TRT:
My levels were around 300-500 ng/dl (multiple tests)
E2 was all good, TSH was all good etc.

Why did I start?
Struggling to build muscle (training, diet, sleep all dialed in), social anxiety, looking average. Life just felt average and I wanted to do more. I still wanna but I guess I'm just here to be avg. I tried all of the natural ways out there to optimize this but wasn't good enough.

Journey:
Started with 150mg a week split EOD IM.
Wasn't feeling good and so got some tests done after 6 weeks and Total / Free was great but E2 was through the roof (70 pg something)

I made a post here and got some good advice. Dropped the dose to 120 mg. Have done that for almost 4 months now but E2 is still around 50.

6 weeks later, blood levels look perfect but not feeling any better

Hey guys, Struggling a bit with this so hoping someone can push me in the right direction please. I had low T symptoms (fatigue, libido, sleep, weak/strength issues) - not gonna into all the details but everything else looked ok and only testosterone stood out. Total T: 11.5 nmol/L (320 ng/dl)...

thinksteroids.com

Effects:
The issue is I don't feel any different than before TRT and it's been 6 months. I'd love to work with a doctor but there aren't any where I live.
Last week I've been doing tons of research to see If I should drop the dose again and/or maybe switch to ED dosing as that might help but people saying that Testosterone Cyp or E are slow-release esters so that's overkill and kinda makes sense.
With that I'm out of options, not sure if its still E2 or just that my body doesn't like exogenous test, or that there's some other issue I'm not seeing or maybe my expectations were too high.

Side effects:
I guess high E2 was making me feel weak, anxious, nervous etc - the opposite of what I wanted (manly, strong, confident)
I actually somehow lost strength at the gym (no diet or weight changes)
Hair thinning/loss has started I'd be ok with this is there were any pros of being on TRT but there aren't any so not worth losing hair over it.

Finally, stopping TRT could I please some guidance here If anyone's experienced this?
So I've just cold turkey stopped injecting. Based on steroid plotter It'll take about 30-40 days to clear out of my system.
I wasn't feeling much on it so hoping I don't get a bad come down or anything that makes me wanna kill myself or something.

Are there any ways to manage / kick start the natural production fast??? I don't think I'll be able to get clomid from docs here and shipping from UGL will take over a month.

My diet is good whole foods. I lift 6 days a week + cardio. Take lots of good supplements (multi, omega, vitamin d, zinc, etc)
Starting Tongkat Ali and Cistanche, Shilajit, Ashwagandha as people say these help with testosterone. Whats your thoughts on these???

 

[Iamnatty]

Yea just stay off the shit. Get some hcg and u be good to go. U prolly be fine cold turkey also

 

[mass gain]

Yea just stay off the shit. Get some hcg and u be good to go. U prolly be fine cold turkey also

Agree especially if that was your only time taking steroids OP. I went off cold turkey for the endo without any PCT and my levels came back to where they were before steroids (a little over 300).

Mind you this is after so many cycles throughout my life I can't count and I'm no young buck.

Point is yeah it sucks but after about a few months or so my guess is you will start feeling like you did before you started.

HCG might help kickstart natural production but can also bring some sides. Clomid may help as well. If you take Clomid and HCG though, probably may need some nolvadex in case e2 starts having an effect on your breasts. That is the old school PCT but I don't recommend any of this for you.

My advice would be just to stop cold turkey and test your blood levels again in 4 months.

 

[120nmol]

I personally don't think hcg will be of any use at this point hcg mimics LH and doesn't allow your own LH production to kick in..
It's good to introduce hcg at the end while still on testesterone for a few weeks and then stop and enter a standard pct protocol..

I would personally suggest Nolvadex combined with clomid or enclo..

Nolvadex 40/40/20/20
Clomid 50/50/50/50

Do blood work and continue if needed as long as LH and FSH are high and working you are good to go.

 

[Inspired]

I don't understand you. You are taking replacement doses of testosterone and you expect these big changes, but replacement means you will feel the same. You need more testosterone.

Double or triple the testosterone dosage before you quit. Take .50mg Arimidex once or twice a week for estrogen control. Do that for a few months. Only way to get an idea.

 

[God&Gainz]

I don't understand you. You are taking replacement doses of testosterone and you expect these big changes, but replacement means you will feel the same. You need more testosterone.

Double or triple the testosterone dosage before you quit. Take .50mg Arimidex once or twice a week for estrogen control. Do that for a few months. Only way to get an idea.

Lol you cant make this stuff up

Literally replaced his natural test with exogenous test and shut down his HPTA for no reason at all

 

[mass gain]

Lol you cant make this stuff up

Literally replaced his natural test with exogenous test and shut down his HPTA for no reason at all

Good news is he can recover. OP it seems you are all in or all out now for choices. Either up your dose or stop cold turkey, get your levels restored and look into TRT when your levels are actually low. How old are you? J

 

[pigeonhed]

My honest analysis of your situation.

Write down your goal on a piece of paper. Then write what you are going to do to achieve that goal. That is your plan.

Then stick to it. Do not ask if others would suggest a change. Do not “feel” your way through a plan. Be so sure when you write your plan down that you have the confidence to follow through. From day 1 to the last day. It is a commitment to diet, exercise and supplements. Without the whole thing planned most will fail or find their results poor.

The hybrid approach you are currently using seems as though it is causing you anxiety and your results are not acceptable. Wish you the best, remember this is your life. Plan it out!

 

[Inspired]

Lol you cant make this stuff up

Literally replaced his natural test with exogenous test and shut down his HPTA for no reason at all

I think this dude may be a bot, because I saw basically this exact same chatGPT post and the following conversation somewhere else on the internet today. He's either a bot or he's been heavily influenced by bots. The post atleast has the neurotic redditor feel to it.

Things are getting more wierd everyday.

What would the point be of this random bot activity? Maybe testing. I don't know.

I'm just not buying that a guy who went through the effort to get testosterone, and who is capable of writing such a detailed book of a post, has no clue about how this works etc. Give me a fucking break.


Here is an example of what I mean. Read this thread: /fit/ - Fitness » Thread #71269495

The content in that thread is all bots. It's fake.

 

[God&Gainz]

I think this dude may be a bot, because I saw basically this exact same chatGPT post and the following conversation somewhere else on the internet today. He's either a bot or he's been heavily influenced by bots. The post atleast has the neurotic redditor feel to it.

Things are getting more wierd everyday.

What would the point be of this random bot activity? Maybe testing. I don't know.

I'm just not buying that a guy who went through the effort to get testosterone, and who is capable of writing such a detailed book of a post, has no clue about how this works etc. Give me a fucking break.


Here is an example of what I mean. Read this thread: /fit/ - Fitness » Thread #71269495

The content in that thread is all bots. It's fake.

Like you said shit is getting weirder everyday. Today there were like 5 dudes in my gym all wearing crop tops and booty shorts.

This world is fucked.

 

[asdasd12312asdasd]

I think this dude may be a bot, because I saw basically this exact same chatGPT post and the following conversation somewhere else on the internet today. He's either a bot or he's been heavily influenced by bots. The post atleast has the neurotic redditor feel to it.

Things are getting more wierd everyday.

What would the point be of this random bot activity? Maybe testing. I don't know.

I'm just not buying that a guy who went through the effort to get testosterone, and who is capable of writing such a detailed book of a post, has no clue about how this works etc. Give me a fucking break.


Here is an example of what I mean. Read this thread: /fit/ - Fitness » Thread #71269495

The content in that thread is all bots. It's fake.

I agree there's too many bots out there these days - I hate these times tbh coz it's tricky to trust if a human wrote a post or not and who's on the other side, I've started doubting people too.

Anyways, I thought I knew enough about TRT, did tons of research before and which I why I stuck to it for 6 months coz I knew It'll take a bit of time for the body to get full saturated, I don't actually know what to do now coz I didn't wanna take an AI (coz people say it can mess you up long term)

My testosterone levels tripled from my natural baseline but I wasn't feeling any different (at the gym, or outside - basically no difference in weight, strength, or confidence) so I'm surprised and confused that how can 3x more of it in my body not make me feel better when all else is dialed in.

I was on the fence last 2 months but then fucking hair started thinning an falling and now I'm like wtf, I'm not getting any benefits and new side effects are piling up day after day.

I'm going to try TRT again hopefully in a few years (early 30s) if I can find a clinic here or maybe move somewhere else where docs are more knowledgeable.

 

[asdasd12312asdasd]

My honest analysis of your situation.

Write down your goal on a piece of paper. Then write what you are going to do to achieve that goal. That is your plan.

Then stick to it. Do not ask if others would suggest a change. Do not “feel” your way through a plan. Be so sure when you write your plan down that you have the confidence to follow through. From day 1 to the last day. It is a commitment to diet, exercise and supplements. Without the whole thing planned most will fail or find their results poor.

The hybrid approach you are currently using seems as though it is causing you anxiety and your results are not acceptable. Wish you the best, remember this is your life. Plan it out!

Thanks for the reply, yeah planning is key and I thought I did enough and had enough info on this subject before starting but guess not or maybe my body is different.
what do you mean by hybrid approach? I was only doing trt last 6 months. all else was super dialed in, even stopped drinking alcohol.
Shouldn't 6 months be enough to confirm if its working for me or now.

 

[asdasd12312asdasd]

Lol you cant make this stuff up

Literally replaced his natural test with exogenous test and shut down his HPTA for no reason at all

yeah i was thinking the same thing yesterday. 100% stupid mistake and didn;t get anything out of it, wasted 6 months and now more months to get to baseline (hopefully i can get to it

Good news is he can recover. OP it seems you are all in or all out now for choices. Either up your dose or stop cold turkey, get your levels restored and look into TRT when your levels are actually low. How old are you? J

would upping the dose be recommended in this case coz my levels are actually 3x of my natural (its around 1000)
if i didn't feel anything or get any of the testosterone benefits, can upping the dose really help? especially wen more of it would convert to e2

 

[asdasd12312asdasd]

thanks guys really appreciate the replies
fingers crossed i can survive thru next 2 months of pain and hopefully find a clinic or doc who's willing to help me come back to TRT in future

 

[revono]

This can be with an increase in prolactin, as an option.

 

[dacman24]

I appreciate this thread as a newbie here. I'm 50 and just started TRT so realizing if I don't see results what to expect is helpful. I'm also realizing I have no clue what my labs say since the TRT place essentially never shared it with me. I know I need to goto a lab center and just do it myself so I can have a baseline. I'm guessing my count is super low though based on my symptoms and the fact I kinda already see improvements just 2 weeks in.

 

[DECLAN]

thanks guys really appreciate the replies
fingers crossed i can survive thru next 2 months of pain and hopefully find a clinic or doc who's willing to help me come back to TRT in future

Sometimes you just have to work through it. I stopped my trt for 2 months when I tried to see if it lower my hemoglobin and hematocrit naturally. I was walking around with 2.7 nmol that's around 77ngdl for the Americans.

It didn't work lol, I had to do blood donation to lower it. Anyway, I just kept on lifting like normal in the gym, did lose some energy and drive, recovery was crap but pushed through it till I got the green light to continue my trt.

In your case, maybe it will take months to recover but it's try to make it easier by keeping eating amd training almost similar when on cycle.

 

[OffendHand]

"Feel different ". That's such a mushy, soft goal. You want to "feel" manly by using very moderate TRT-levels of testosterone. That might work for some people. It didn't for me. I went from 300nd/dl to a but over 800ng/dl on fully legit TRT, and it really didn't change the way I felt about myself. Going up even more and adding boldenone, nandrolone, Var, and some superdrol definitely gave me incredible strength and mass gains, but it didn't really change how I felt about myself. Physically, I felt great. Mentally/emotionally, I pretty much the same.

You don't need PEDs, you need therapy.

Feelings of inadequacy aren't going to be solved by being huge and ripped, or by getting a larger gun, a newer truck, or a hot porn-star wife. You can't fix the internal problems by working on the externals.

And, bluntly, lots of objectively huge, strong dudes feel small, weak, and unmanly because they have raging body dysmorphia issues.

 

[BigTomJ]

its great that TRT is becoming more socially accepted, but an unfortunate byproduct of this is a lot of unrelated symptoms are getting blamed on hormones.

TRT is not a magic bullet to eliminate everyones problems and its not an all access pass to some mythical gains.

 

[Mez63]

Right, so turns out testosterone is not for everyone and I did not really need it.
I was so confident that this will change my life and I've given it enough time but can't take it anymore. Sharing my experience to help others.
Note: I did not have hypogonadism before and still hopped on TRT (UGL)

Been on it for 6 months now. Decided to stop yesterday.

Pre TRT:
My levels were around 300-500 ng/dl (multiple tests)
E2 was all good, TSH was all good etc.

Why did I start?
Struggling to build muscle (training, diet, sleep all dialed in), social anxiety, looking average. Life just felt average and I wanted to do more. I still wanna but I guess I'm just here to be avg. I tried all of the natural ways out there to optimize this but wasn't good enough.

Journey:
Started with 150mg a week split EOD IM.
Wasn't feeling good and so got some tests done after 6 weeks and Total / Free was great but E2 was through the roof (70 pg something)

I made a post here and got some good advice. Dropped the dose to 120 mg. Have done that for almost 4 months now but E2 is still around 50.

6 weeks later, blood levels look perfect but not feeling any better

Hey guys, Struggling a bit with this so hoping someone can push me in the right direction please. I had low T symptoms (fatigue, libido, sleep, weak/strength issues) - not gonna into all the details but everything else looked ok and only testosterone stood out. Total T: 11.5 nmol/L (320 ng/dl)...

thinksteroids.com

Effects:
The issue is I don't feel any different than before TRT and it's been 6 months. I'd love to work with a doctor but there aren't any where I live.
Last week I've been doing tons of research to see If I should drop the dose again and/or maybe switch to ED dosing as that might help but people saying that Testosterone Cyp or E are slow-release esters so that's overkill and kinda makes sense.
With that I'm out of options, not sure if its still E2 or just that my body doesn't like exogenous test, or that there's some other issue I'm not seeing or maybe my expectations were too high.

Side effects:
I guess high E2 was making me feel weak, anxious, nervous etc - the opposite of what I wanted (manly, strong, confident)
I actually somehow lost strength at the gym (no diet or weight changes)
Hair thinning/loss has started I'd be ok with this is there were any pros of being on TRT but there aren't any so not worth losing hair over it.

Finally, stopping TRT could I please some guidance here If anyone's experienced this?
So I've just cold turkey stopped injecting. Based on steroid plotter It'll take about 30-40 days to clear out of my system.
I wasn't feeling much on it so hoping I don't get a bad come down or anything that makes me wanna kill myself or something.

Are there any ways to manage / kick start the natural production fast??? I don't think I'll be able to get clomid from docs here and shipping from UGL will take over a month.

My diet is good whole foods. I lift 6 days a week + cardio. Take lots of good supplements (multi, omega, vitamin d, zinc, etc)
Starting Tongkat Ali and Cistanche, Shilajit, Ashwagandha as people say these help with testosterone. Whats your thoughts on these???

Exactly as inspired said. You’re not taking enough test to get the results you’re after. Go to 500 mg a week. And take Arimidex to keep E2 under control. Do that for 16 weeks. Then clomid for PCT. I did exactly that and I got good results and my bloods returned to normal after only 6 weeks after cycle.