Hi guys,
I need help figuring out if I’m a good candidate for TRT or to go back on SSRIs under my docs supervision.
I’ve had several 9am tests that all come back with similar numbers to below. I’m a 29 yo guy who has dabbled with cycles in the past (about 7-8 years ago) which is why I got hormones checked quite regularly. In the past 2 years my quality of life has seriously deteriorated even though I stopped drinking alcohol and caffeine & workout most days. I sleep for 7-8 hours per night. I have a great partner and job.
As far as symptoms go I have quite bad anxiety and low mood, rarely get erections, very low libido, confidence has dipped alot, cant put muscle on, patchy facial hair, always tired, no zest for life most of the time. My doc has advised that this is all to do with depression and anxiety and to go on SSRIs again.
Testosterone 450 ng/dl [264-916 ng/dl]
SHBG 43 nmol/L [18.3 - 54.1 nmol/L]
Oestradiol 16 pg/ml [0 - 55 pg/ml]
Prolactin 248 mU/L [86-324 mU/L]
LH 7.9 mU/L [1.7 - 8.6 mU/L]
FSH 1.6 mU/L [1.5 - 12.4 mU/L]
Albumin 52 g/L [35 - 50 g/L]
Free Testosterone (calc) 7.22 ng/dL [5.05-19.8 ng/dL]
Would love to get an opinion on these bloods.
Get a new doc or call an out-of-pocket TRT provider. This lucrative babble that your doc is doing is something most of us are familiar with. My doctor and an endocrinologist both said perhaps I was depressed and offered SSRIs instead. I had to fight it for years to get my PCP to agree to put me on testosterone and my levels were regularly just over 300. 450 is better but still the level of an older man. Trump tested at 470 and he is in his 70s.
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SSRIs are the reason I’m on TRT. Whatever you do don’t take them unless you are on the verge of suicide and have no other choice.
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Thanks man. Did you find a big improvement after you started TRT?
I guess i’m just nervous that the issue isn’t testosterone and if i start i’ll be worse off.
Yes it changed my life and my pre-trt total T was almost 600.
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Been on ssris 9 years, trying really hard to get onto trt but my body is reacting pretty badly to the hormone changes (much like puberty) my anxiety which is kept in check by ssris are flaring up. But I’m gonna keep fighting because 9 years on paxil has helped but my quality of life has always been a 4-6/10. Before it was a 2/10. I’m hoping trt will get me to a 6/10 and I can finally drop the ssri.
I also scored 424 (I’m 27), erections are non existent thanks to paxil
Once on trt I got off SSRIs (which I’m sure were what caused the need for them in the first place) and I’ve never looked back.
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You FT is on the bottom end, but you’ll never get TRT from a sick care doctor that only cares about normal ranges. Sick care takes action when you become incapacitated or seriously ill, sick care doesn’t care if you have fatigue, no sex drive or erections, you’re alive and expected to live for years even if your quality of life is shit.
This is how our medical system works. Your levels are actually pretty bad and can easily explain depression and/or anxiety. Getting diagnosed and treated for hormonal problems is sick care is a fool’s errand, few doctors in managed healthcare know about normal testosterone levels for a given age.
Young man normally have free FT at the top of the range and old men on the bottom end. You need to seek care with a private doctor because most managed healthcare doctors are ignorant on the subject of normal testosterone and follow what they were taught in medical school → in range is normal, except with testosterone this isn’t true.
The truth is nobody knows what normal testosterone for you is, unless of course you tested your levels when you were in your prime.
If you take the averages of testosterone for an age of 30, the average man has 660> ng/dL and FT 75% of the ranges. You are on the other end of the ranges bro and are lower than men in your age group.
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@josht9210
I don’t know if we already talked about this on another thread but Paxil was what screwed me up initially. I was a junior in high school and when I started it couldn’t get an erection. I didn’t understand things back then and thought something was wrong with me mentally. I kept having to make excuses to my then new girlfriend who at that time was easily the hottest girl I’d ever been in a relationship with. I literally couldn’t have sex for a year. I switched to a different med that wasn’t as bad on erections but really screwed my head up. Truthfully I didn’t even need the damn SSRIs but at the time they were prescribed to everyone for whatever reason they had. Mine was, it turns out, that puberty is hard. I wonder how life would have been had I not taken the SSRIs. Can’t think like that but damn. Anyways, TRT made me go from lesser than normal to above normal in every aspect of life so while I hate I went through that with the SSRIs I may not have ever found TRT. In all it turned out to be a good thing.
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Same here, klonopin ruined my HPTA, usually how it works is doctors put men on these drugs damaging your hormone production and then deny treatment while you have the hormone levels of an older person.
It seems everytime I visit my doctor he keeps wanting to prescribe drugs, drugs are over prescribed and more often you can make lifestyle choices to avoid needing drugs.
There are a large majority of people walking around with low testosterone and/or low thyroid hormones and are being told they’re levels are normal and it’s just a lie so doctors can prescribe drugs.
Don’t fall for it, you’ll just degrade your quality if life while other men are getting the hormonal treatment priviately feeling like their 21 again while you’re dopped up on mind numbing drugs.
You basically have to have the hormone levels of your grandfather to get TRT, it ridiculous.
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I got on them when I was 17, panic attacks out of the blue, it turned into panic disorder and eventually agoraphobia because I waited 6 months to get treated. Paxil was like a safety net placebo that let me feel like I wasn’t messed up and I was gonna be ok. No tests were ran, nothing, they even let me collect disability for 2 years before I decided I was tired of being a loser and got a job. I went from agoraphobe to long haul truck driver. I legit brainwashed myself into believeing ssris are the only thing that helped me, but really it was all the cbt lol. 10 years later, 3 failed relationships later, countless sex issues later (soft erections, ive even came basically flacid a couple times), I could build good muscle (at 22), I’m decently hairy and my balls were huge, but I’m a walking vegetable with no emotions, no motivation, no sexual motivation or drive lol.
As I’ve stated I started trt last week, and my resting heart rate has shot up, as well as palps, my anxiety has gone thru the roof over it, which could be why my heart rate is up. Its really annoying lol… I’ll make a thread after I get my bloods in week 4-5. I’m obv doing this through self care cuz im so sick of it
The guys with panic disorders tend to find trouble on infrequent injections, these guys will do better on very small frequent dosing because of the spikes in hormone levels created on cypionate injections.
My shgb is low too, so thats obv already something I’m doing starting next week
Yes. I am a different person. It saved my marriage, made me a better dad, a better person, and Ive never been happier.
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