mysteriousmango
New Member
Hey guys, I'm really pleased to have only very recently found this forum and knowledge already shared on various topics.
I'm a mid-40s 6'2, 205# ~20% BF guy that's been on TRT for a little over 5 years now.
My own personal health and wellness journey started around 2010 when I started seeking out answers on why I was always tired and unable to do any sort of cardio for more than 30 minutes without feeling like my chest was going to explode. The bad feedback I got from my Dr. at the time was that I was out of shape and just needed to exercise more... if only it could have been that easy for me.
After getting a new Dr. and getting evaluated by an ENT, Sleep Dr. and Asthma & Allergy Dr. I finally had some answers to my issues: sleep apnea and asthma by around 2015. I felt like my cardio issues got fixed after treating the asthma so I could reliably workout without getting gassed, which led me to new levels of fitness and I was able to do my first marathon in 2018. However, even with a CPAP my sleep never improved.
My sleep Dr. at some point made the comment to me that there must be "something else" going on with my sleep so I began searching for the cause, and landed on low T being a possible contributing factor. Around late 2019 my natty levels were in the 300's, which were in-range but the urologist I saw didn't want to do anything for me despite my multiple symptoms of low T. I ended up going to a men's clinic for low T in mid-2020 and started TRT and it was a game changer for me with my sleep and overall wellbeing. Over the years my blood pressure has ever so slightly crept up on me, and it's a hereditary thing in my family so not too surprising. My BP creep started before TRT and didn't meaningfully change after starting. I also tried decreasing, and subsequently increasing again, my TRT dose with no change to by BP. I've tried variations from 100-200mg/week for TRT. I'm currently back to 200mg/week.
Once my BP was hovering in the 130s-140s systolic my PCP wanted to work on getting my BP back under control. I cycled through various BP meds and combinations thereof (losartan, amlodipine, valsartan and HCTZ). I also tried doing even more cardio to hep my get my BP under control and it did not make it budge at all. I trained for 2 marathons in 2025 peaking at 50 miles per week of training with zero effect on my BP. I'm currently on a valsartan and HCTZ combo pill along with my TRT all prescribed through my PCP. I'm really thankful my PCP was wiling to take over my TRT instead of continuing to use the clinic.
After completing my most recent marathon in October I changed up my training routine to focus on strength training running a PPL routine and going for a slow cut with my BP still stuck in the mid-130s systolic. I added reta in early November to aid with the cut and slowly titrated up to 1 mg EOD. My BP also dropped from the mid-130s to being consistently below 120/80 at last as of late November. At the end of last year I also added in HGH and titrated up to 2 IU/day to help out with the cut and recomposition.
As of today I'm down around 10 lbs, or losing ~ 1 lb / week since starting my cut. I've used Macro Factor for a couple of years tracking my macros and hitting 200g of protein a day with a target of 2500 calories per day currently. My current goal is to get to a 10-13% BF with my training plan, then either go for a bulk cycle or jump back into marathon training. No real plans of adding any other compounds for the time being as I want to first make sure my recently in control blood pressure stays in control as well as all of my other biomarkers after the recent additions of HGH and reta, as well as continuing to make the most of what TRT can still do for me.
If you made it to the end, thanks for reading - looking forward to being part of this group.
I'm a mid-40s 6'2, 205# ~20% BF guy that's been on TRT for a little over 5 years now.
My own personal health and wellness journey started around 2010 when I started seeking out answers on why I was always tired and unable to do any sort of cardio for more than 30 minutes without feeling like my chest was going to explode. The bad feedback I got from my Dr. at the time was that I was out of shape and just needed to exercise more... if only it could have been that easy for me.
After getting a new Dr. and getting evaluated by an ENT, Sleep Dr. and Asthma & Allergy Dr. I finally had some answers to my issues: sleep apnea and asthma by around 2015. I felt like my cardio issues got fixed after treating the asthma so I could reliably workout without getting gassed, which led me to new levels of fitness and I was able to do my first marathon in 2018. However, even with a CPAP my sleep never improved.
My sleep Dr. at some point made the comment to me that there must be "something else" going on with my sleep so I began searching for the cause, and landed on low T being a possible contributing factor. Around late 2019 my natty levels were in the 300's, which were in-range but the urologist I saw didn't want to do anything for me despite my multiple symptoms of low T. I ended up going to a men's clinic for low T in mid-2020 and started TRT and it was a game changer for me with my sleep and overall wellbeing. Over the years my blood pressure has ever so slightly crept up on me, and it's a hereditary thing in my family so not too surprising. My BP creep started before TRT and didn't meaningfully change after starting. I also tried decreasing, and subsequently increasing again, my TRT dose with no change to by BP. I've tried variations from 100-200mg/week for TRT. I'm currently back to 200mg/week.
Once my BP was hovering in the 130s-140s systolic my PCP wanted to work on getting my BP back under control. I cycled through various BP meds and combinations thereof (losartan, amlodipine, valsartan and HCTZ). I also tried doing even more cardio to hep my get my BP under control and it did not make it budge at all. I trained for 2 marathons in 2025 peaking at 50 miles per week of training with zero effect on my BP. I'm currently on a valsartan and HCTZ combo pill along with my TRT all prescribed through my PCP. I'm really thankful my PCP was wiling to take over my TRT instead of continuing to use the clinic.
After completing my most recent marathon in October I changed up my training routine to focus on strength training running a PPL routine and going for a slow cut with my BP still stuck in the mid-130s systolic. I added reta in early November to aid with the cut and slowly titrated up to 1 mg EOD. My BP also dropped from the mid-130s to being consistently below 120/80 at last as of late November. At the end of last year I also added in HGH and titrated up to 2 IU/day to help out with the cut and recomposition.
As of today I'm down around 10 lbs, or losing ~ 1 lb / week since starting my cut. I've used Macro Factor for a couple of years tracking my macros and hitting 200g of protein a day with a target of 2500 calories per day currently. My current goal is to get to a 10-13% BF with my training plan, then either go for a bulk cycle or jump back into marathon training. No real plans of adding any other compounds for the time being as I want to first make sure my recently in control blood pressure stays in control as well as all of my other biomarkers after the recent additions of HGH and reta, as well as continuing to make the most of what TRT can still do for me.
If you made it to the end, thanks for reading - looking forward to being part of this group.
