Hi all,
Writing a thread to obtain the forum's opinions on my situation.
To summarize: I am 32 and due to long lasting fatigue/depression/zero libido I asked my doc for a blood test and it revealed a measurement of total testosterone of 328 ng/dL (11.37 nmol/L) and she directed me toward an endocrinologist.
The endocrino doctor asked for further testing given the situation and bioavailable testosterone was measured a month later at 1.06 ng/mL (106 ng/dL) with FSH very low too (1.6 UI/L).
All other markers (LH, Prolactine, SHBG, etc.) were normal.
Following these new results, he required a LH/RH testing at the hospital (where they inject you some product to see the reaction and make multiple blood test) and FSH response was below normal and the response time was apparently too long as well (normal hormonal peak is supposed to be at 60 minutes whereas mine was at 120 minutes from what he said).
So all in all the doc said that we could try a Testo cycle test to see if it alleviates the symptoms and check if it generates an overall improvement of health/quality of life (please note that I live in Europe so it is not from a 'TRT clinic' and prescription are provided only when levels are indeed very low, for real medical purpose so there is not really a commercial bias).
This suggestion came in addition to the following history of blood work:
April 2014 (25 years old, good health): Total Testo of 495ng/dL (17.18 nmol/L) and Free Testo of 7.4pg/mL
August 2018 (29 years old, good health): Total Testo of 354ng/dL (12.28 nmol/L) (Free Testo not measured) - Already there it was close to the minimum.
February 2022 (32 years old, special examinations following symptoms): Total Testo of 327.93 ng/dL (11.37nmol/L) (Free Testo not measured)
March 2022 (32 years old, special examinations following symptoms): Testo Bioavailable of 1.06 ng/mL (3.68 nmol/L) (total testo not measured)
May 2022 (32 years old, special examinations following symptoms): MRI of the pituitary gland to check for lesions or cancer (nothing found)
May 2022 (32 years old, special examinations following symptoms): LH/RH test with FSH confirmed as very low (1.6UI/L), and FSH reaction too low as well (must be 1.5x and more after injection and I was 50% below).
The reaction times of the test were also deemed to be abnormally long (double what is usually observed).
The 2014 & 2018 bloodwork were routine testing, done to have some reference points in case I had a sickness later in life (or to verify beforehand if any marker was suspect).
I go to the gym like every other guy (3-4 times a week), eat clean with supplementation, sleep well and don't smoke cigarettes so I don't really have much room for "natural improvement" (of course you can always do better and am not a pro athlete, but I am far from an overweight guy wondering why his level are low when doing nothing to prevent...).
Also, please note that I have never taken steroids up until now (the most intense stuff I take is creatine...), no opioates, I'm not a heavy drinker (i'd say on average 2 beers per week) and I do not take any particular medication.
So long story short, the doc prescribed me an 8 month trial of half dosage of Androtardyl 250mg (testosterone enanthate) to be injected every 4 weeks. So that would be 125mg per month.
He said that depending on the effect (or lack thereof) we could increase it to 250mg per month (from what I get that would be the maximum normal medical dosage allowed here).
And this is were I am at a crossroad, needing to make an important decision and soliciting the wise members of the forum: Either go with the doc proposition and take the risk or stay as I am with symptoms feeling half a man but with no risk (at least for now, apparently low T is not good on the long term neither).
Obviously (and in contrast to most of the members here) the goal is not to go supraphysiological but to bring me back to normal levels.
Now I have a few questions and I thought that asking the forum for opinion could bring me some valuable input from members well aware of everything steroids-related:
1) If I trust the article about testosterone on the home page it says that a 100mg dosage is already about 50% suppressive for the HPTA -> I asked the doc about not being able to come back to normal from the trial if side effects happened or if it didn't work enough to continue and he said stopping the trial would create no issue ; So I have conflicting information here...
-> This is the most important question for me because I tried everything I could on the natural aspects and am affraid that if there are side effects or the treatment just add zero added value/not working, I won't be able to come back and it could be worse than before (going from bad to worse lol).
I swear I've read hundreds and hundreds of feedbacks on the subject everywhere and it's apparently either life changing for a lot of people or some tend to regret it a bit.
2) Since the injection would be once every 4 weeks, I am afraid that I might feel good for the first week or two weeks and then feel very low (and repeat every month the same rollercoaster) -> Do you think that it is what's gonna happen?
3) Given the dosage do you think it will have any impact? After searching on the available online litterature I am not sure if it will "stack up" in addition with my natural test production or if it will subside but since the dosage is low it won't be enough to have an effect anyway?
4) No other stuff was prescribed: Do you think that even at this dosage I could encounter side effects? (gyno, etc.)
I tried to read as much as I could and gather all the information (I suppose this is amateur questions for most of the members here) but I thought that having the opinion of people who are already using and knowledgeable about the subject would help a lot to take the good decision!
Writing a thread to obtain the forum's opinions on my situation.
To summarize: I am 32 and due to long lasting fatigue/depression/zero libido I asked my doc for a blood test and it revealed a measurement of total testosterone of 328 ng/dL (11.37 nmol/L) and she directed me toward an endocrinologist.
The endocrino doctor asked for further testing given the situation and bioavailable testosterone was measured a month later at 1.06 ng/mL (106 ng/dL) with FSH very low too (1.6 UI/L).
All other markers (LH, Prolactine, SHBG, etc.) were normal.
Following these new results, he required a LH/RH testing at the hospital (where they inject you some product to see the reaction and make multiple blood test) and FSH response was below normal and the response time was apparently too long as well (normal hormonal peak is supposed to be at 60 minutes whereas mine was at 120 minutes from what he said).
So all in all the doc said that we could try a Testo cycle test to see if it alleviates the symptoms and check if it generates an overall improvement of health/quality of life (please note that I live in Europe so it is not from a 'TRT clinic' and prescription are provided only when levels are indeed very low, for real medical purpose so there is not really a commercial bias).
This suggestion came in addition to the following history of blood work:
April 2014 (25 years old, good health): Total Testo of 495ng/dL (17.18 nmol/L) and Free Testo of 7.4pg/mL
August 2018 (29 years old, good health): Total Testo of 354ng/dL (12.28 nmol/L) (Free Testo not measured) - Already there it was close to the minimum.
February 2022 (32 years old, special examinations following symptoms): Total Testo of 327.93 ng/dL (11.37nmol/L) (Free Testo not measured)
March 2022 (32 years old, special examinations following symptoms): Testo Bioavailable of 1.06 ng/mL (3.68 nmol/L) (total testo not measured)
May 2022 (32 years old, special examinations following symptoms): MRI of the pituitary gland to check for lesions or cancer (nothing found)
May 2022 (32 years old, special examinations following symptoms): LH/RH test with FSH confirmed as very low (1.6UI/L), and FSH reaction too low as well (must be 1.5x and more after injection and I was 50% below).
The reaction times of the test were also deemed to be abnormally long (double what is usually observed).
The 2014 & 2018 bloodwork were routine testing, done to have some reference points in case I had a sickness later in life (or to verify beforehand if any marker was suspect).
I go to the gym like every other guy (3-4 times a week), eat clean with supplementation, sleep well and don't smoke cigarettes so I don't really have much room for "natural improvement" (of course you can always do better and am not a pro athlete, but I am far from an overweight guy wondering why his level are low when doing nothing to prevent...).
Also, please note that I have never taken steroids up until now (the most intense stuff I take is creatine...), no opioates, I'm not a heavy drinker (i'd say on average 2 beers per week) and I do not take any particular medication.
So long story short, the doc prescribed me an 8 month trial of half dosage of Androtardyl 250mg (testosterone enanthate) to be injected every 4 weeks. So that would be 125mg per month.
He said that depending on the effect (or lack thereof) we could increase it to 250mg per month (from what I get that would be the maximum normal medical dosage allowed here).
And this is were I am at a crossroad, needing to make an important decision and soliciting the wise members of the forum: Either go with the doc proposition and take the risk or stay as I am with symptoms feeling half a man but with no risk (at least for now, apparently low T is not good on the long term neither).
Obviously (and in contrast to most of the members here) the goal is not to go supraphysiological but to bring me back to normal levels.
Now I have a few questions and I thought that asking the forum for opinion could bring me some valuable input from members well aware of everything steroids-related:
1) If I trust the article about testosterone on the home page it says that a 100mg dosage is already about 50% suppressive for the HPTA -> I asked the doc about not being able to come back to normal from the trial if side effects happened or if it didn't work enough to continue and he said stopping the trial would create no issue ; So I have conflicting information here...
-> This is the most important question for me because I tried everything I could on the natural aspects and am affraid that if there are side effects or the treatment just add zero added value/not working, I won't be able to come back and it could be worse than before (going from bad to worse lol).
I swear I've read hundreds and hundreds of feedbacks on the subject everywhere and it's apparently either life changing for a lot of people or some tend to regret it a bit.
2) Since the injection would be once every 4 weeks, I am afraid that I might feel good for the first week or two weeks and then feel very low (and repeat every month the same rollercoaster) -> Do you think that it is what's gonna happen?
3) Given the dosage do you think it will have any impact? After searching on the available online litterature I am not sure if it will "stack up" in addition with my natural test production or if it will subside but since the dosage is low it won't be enough to have an effect anyway?
4) No other stuff was prescribed: Do you think that even at this dosage I could encounter side effects? (gyno, etc.)
I tried to read as much as I could and gather all the information (I suppose this is amateur questions for most of the members here) but I thought that having the opinion of people who are already using and knowledgeable about the subject would help a lot to take the good decision!
