Saying you have a normal sex drive is all relative to your experience, I’m just sayin if you’ve always had suboptimal T then to what are you comparing?
I was prescribed Klonopin at 14 years old and it wasn’t until 45 years of age I stopped it, for awhile I noticed my erections were larger than at anytime in my life.
I thought I always had normal erections from the get go until I stopped the medicine and found out in fact it was shrinking my erections a little bit.
So you see what I thought was normal wasn’t normal at all.
Lets say I have low T levels, or a bit low. What would you reckommend? Going straight to TRT or changing it by diet/working out(which I have done, but I see NO changes in my body still, even if I eat the same as my trainingpartner, who gets muscles x5 faster).
You can get a lab order online yourself, or have a doctor get one for you. Most general docs won’t order everything you need to know before starting TRT.
What you need is at the minimum is:
Total T
Free T
SHBG
Estradiol
LH
FSH
Prolactin
CBC
I already posted what biomarkers you need in the beginning of this thread, but a fight is expected because there’s more than likely no way you ever get enough testing done by your doctor, you’ll probably have to go private and pay out of pocket.
A doctors will notice your age and right away because of your age will either refuse outright or will order minimal testing and likely won’t have any knowledge to be able to interpret the results.
A lot of doctors out there believe in range is normal because this is what they are taught in medical school, only with hormones that are always changing, lower today, higher tomorrow and lower again days later will not be able to comprehend endocrinology because their not an endocrinologist, more often than not a GP doesn’t have any education or training in sex hormones.
Your genetics will play a role in how much testosterone you need to feel optimal. Most endocrinologist don’t know anything about sex hormones, they specialize in thyroid and diabetes. My own endocrinologist (all three of them) are clueless when it comes to TRT and are old school in diagnosing and treating the thyroid because they don’t feel the need to stay up to date on current research.
Some people have good results from the gel, but they are a minority really. And even among that minority, some see diminishing effect over time. But this is still a silly conversation.
Again I’ll reiterate the point that it’s pointless worrying about different TRT treatments until you get the bloodwork done. It seems like.you are convinced this is the solution so just book a test already.
Once you’ve done the tests and your results come back mid-range, then we can pick up the conversation in the beginner forum to sort out your training and diet.
The only tropical you should consider is T-cream which is usually 20%/200mg, the gels are usually 1.62% which is like drinking weak tea. It’s said that only 35% of men respond favorably to T-gel, even then over the years absorption issues are encountered in some men.
Intramuscular TRT is more effective than transdermal formulations at increasing LBM and improving muscle strength in middle‐aged and older men, particularly in the lower extremities.
The short answer is it doesn’t get a lot of peoples levels high enough to provide any sort of significant improvements, especially long term
And… because most doctors are idiots when it comes to hormone replacements. Many think as soon as you’re inside the normal range, even the very bottom of it, then you’re “fine”, regardless of symptoms. Androgel will usually just get people to the bottom end of the range or a little higher. Some people it’s enough T to shut down their natural production but not enough to even get them to their natural levels, so they end up even worse
I haven’t seen many people have success with it long term
Androgel is about 2% T
A compounding pharmacy can make a 20% T cream that is very effective, if you can find a doc willing to prescribe it
@tonyton
Search gel on this forum. If you actually searched/read posts here instead of asking questions you’d understand a lot more. You’ll read shit about things you didn’t know that you needed to know. Right now you are someone that asks questions about things that the answers won’t make sense to you about. There’s a wealth of knowledge here and you’ve literally read 1hrs worth over the three days you’ve been here. Not trying to be a dick (it comes naturally). If you don’t have your nutrition down beforehand then TRT isn’t going help.
Because T-gels requires no skill from your doctors, wipe on skin and done. Injectable testosterone cypionate requires skill and injectable T requires thinking outside the box, but most doctors don’t do this and what guidelines are for, if your doctor doesn’t know what to do, he looks at the guidelines.
This is why T-gels is the knee-jerk reaction. T- cream 20%/200mg is only available through compounding pharmacies, going through insurance limits options.
AIs can have customized dosage to meet the needs of the patient, they can do this which every prescription tailored to your needs.
I say it can’t hurt. And you don’t really have to go to the doc to do that in most states. Discount labs offers labs direct to you. Through if you have insurance it will be cheaper if you can get your doc to do the correct tests
Your options are:
A) get levels checked and know for sure
B) continue to be called out for not knowing T levels and asking the same question 17 times expecting an answer based on pics of an overweight 16 yr old.
