Hey Guys, AGE 45 here. In good shape but since turning 40 I have felt really drained of energy. Mostly the brain fog is the issue just less sharp. My sex life is fine though. At least when my wife wants to have sex I’m always up for it. I still manage to get the gym and lift heavy on the weekend but during the week I have very low energy and just can’t bring myself to workout.
I thought maybe since I was now 45 maybe it’s time for TRT. I got my levels checked and my numbers are not horrible for my age but perhaps horrible for the life I want to have.
I went to a private dr. and he thinks it’s partially my stress at work and my testosterone being low. He wanted to right away put me on 1 injection per week or 200MG/ML cypionate.
Ive had my 3rd injection yesterday and have not really felt much better. Maybe head seemed clear for a day or 2. But libido is actually same.
Do you think I jumped the gun? Or if your levels were like mine would you have gone on T. I’m 45 so it’s probably not going to get better naturally. Maybe if I tightened up my diet and got more exercise in during the week I would feel better.
I’m getting new blood work on Saturday. And then my 4th pin will be after the bloodwork.
Since I’m sort of feeling the same after 3 weeks I’m thinking my T levels must have been fine and maybe I’m just being a bitch… (lack of a better word)
AGE: 45, 6’ 204 lbs, body fat about 17%
TEST 387 (250-1100 ng/dL)
FREE TEST 86.3 (35.0-155.0 pg/mL)
ESTRADIOL 16 (< OR = 39 pg/mL)
DHEA SULFATE 176 (70-495 mcg/dL)
TSH 3.37 (0.40-4.50 mIU/L)
VITAMIN D 53 (0.40-4.50 mIU/L)
PSA 0.4 (< OR = 4.0 ng/mL)
What’s stressing me out now is I keep asking myself if I did enough naturally before committing to a life of injections. Should I stop and try to get my levels up naturally before staying on TRT too long.
Please include lab ranges as it’s not standardized, numbers are pretty useless by themselves. TRT isn’t like medicine where you feel an instant high, hormones take time. You will likely experience in a week or so a complete shutdown of your HPTA and once this happens you’ll feel run down and it will likely take a couple of month to feel the effects of TRT. Most refer to it as the honeymoon period that lasts anywhere from days to weeks followed by feeling horribly fatigued, 3 weeks is nothing as your still far too early in treatment to notice anything. It takes most 3-6 months to start feeling better. What is your mg? Example 100mg .5ml is 50mg. I noticed you didn’t have SHBG tested, a lot of inexperienced doctors fail to run these tests, knowing your SHBG would indicate what type of protocol would work best for you.
If your SHBG was on the high side you would require large injections weekly to twice weekly, low SHBG and you would need injection preferably every other day (EOD). SHBG is what determines how much free testosterone (bioavailable) you have floating around in your blood, FT acts on the receptors and provides the life change qualities like increased muscle mass and libido. Too low SHBG and your excreting most of your FT into your urine, too high and all your FT is bound up unavailable. TSH is too high, using a oral thermometer check your morning and afternoon temperatures, this is the most effective tool in diagnosing thyroid problems, better than any blood test.
You need to become more informed than your doctor’s, most just don’t know much on how to properly administer TRT. Doctors aren’t god in a lab coat, their flawed just like everyone else. It took me 6 months to start feeling great, I used to have weeks where I’d feel great, then weeks where I felt not so great, now it’s hours by hours slowly working it’s way to permanent. These are hormones, it’s not like taking headache medicine and 30 minutes later feel better, it takes time often months. There’s a lot of diseases associated below 400 ng/dL, libido and erections are in trouble in the 400 range. Diabetes, venous leakage and heart disease happen below 440 ng/dL, you absolutely didn’t jump the gun! Our president has higher testosterone levels (441 ng/dL) than you, he’s 71 year old. Google it.
You arent going to notice after only 3 weeks. weeks 6-8 youll probably start to notice some small things like increased energy and better morning wood. Its going to slowly change things over the first few months.