Hey Guys,
First time poster but been here a lot in the last 2 months…
Here is a little background on my situation. I have had all sorts of mental health issues over the years and after trying all the anti-depressants and not getting the help I was looking for… (too many side effects) I was told about Low T. I am a 44 year old male in good shape. So I did have a TT of 350 and decided to try TRT not for muscle but for mental help. It has not been helpful except for a few days here and there. My friend jumped on TRT 2 weeks behind me and he’s doing OK but we both dont feel its life changing yet! YET!
Here is my question for you guys who have been on TRT of years.
I have a history with illegal drugs which I used to self medicate my broken mind and I want to make sure I am not waiting around for the TRT to kick in if its not what I am looking for.
What drug experience does TRT mostly resemble in your mood with a properly dialed in protocal?
Is it a dopamine high ex. Cocaine, amphetamines, opiates, SSRI etc?
or is it mostly just a better feeling body in regards to the strain of gym gains and body composition?
Some guys get a dopamine related boost initially, as in right away at the beginning. Many, like me, do not. It will not do that for you. If your estrogen levels are withing range, higher T might elevate your mood, but don’t expect any kind of rush or anything.
Thanks man… So would I be correct in assuming the majority of people who say TRT is life changing are looking from the stance of improved body chemistry and have a history of working out and lifting weights? I know Dr Mark Gordan deals a lot with PTSD and using Hormones (Test) to stabilize his patients…
I have noticed a more stable mood on good days but have yet to feel like it will be worth the inconvenience of injections for life if I am not interested in getting stronger in the gym…
Any advice from guys who have added wellbutrin in? I know this sounds terrible but I want to feel stimulated in life and was hoping that I might at some point feel like a dopamine/seratonin increase is part of the results…
My blood work and data would be of no use…
the company i used started me out on such a high dose it completely crashed me and caused all sorts of discomfort and side effects… so my labs reflect all of that but my current protocol is 60 mg of test cyp
no AI
and 800 UI Of hCG a week
I’m not really looking for protocol help I have a pretty good understanding of that I just wanted experience from older guys who have been doing this a while to see if I’m barking up the wrong tree in regards to a stable mind good mood and sense of well-being…
Gonna take a lot longer than that to feel effects. And for what its worth it feels less like a high and more of a euphoria. Like a sense of well being.
Any other chemical imbalance issues will affect it. I am ADD (not hyper), so I get no dopamine boost from it. Adderal, however, will make me smile as it knocks me out. Dopamine can be weird. You can probably expect to realize one day after a few weeks that you seem to have a more positive outlook in general and are doing more things, more productive and more ambition.It’s not like you suddenly have a cape unless you get that dopamine surge. Provided you are dialed in. 60 mg is a pretty low dose, you at least enough to produce a higher T level than low natural production is providing. And too much estrogen will screw it up anyway, so keep that in mind. It’s complicated to dial in initially.
It is a low dose for sure… I was started on 200mg a week and once a few weeks went by my body completely went crazy to where I couldn’t get out of bed. Hair fell out, red body, flu like, insomnia, heart rate sky high…
reset myself down to 60mg and plan on going up a few mg every 4 weeks to find a spot that my mind is feeling good and stop there… 200mg a week felt like someone exchanged my blood with a 250lb monster… terrible!
Been at 60 and feel better and mood is stabilizing rapidly and sides are going away… less is more for me.
I’m cool with euphoria as that is what I liked about the SSRIs but the weight gain and being chemically castrated was not a good enough trade off… thanks buddy for your insight.
There’s no high like doing drugs on TRT.
Guys who were healthy and strong with good T lvls in their youth but for whatever reason lost their ability to make T in time can get their old feeling and strength back with exersize and diet. Some of us think that way better than a short lived buzzzz.
If you plan to continue your TRT you really need to find a doc/clinic that knows what they are doing. You are currently going to what we call a T mill. Your current experiment with TRT will not end well. Most guys quit way before you did with your symptoms. If you stay with them they will FU-up.
Since we are in the T-replacement forum we don’t really talk about steroid use other than getting back to normal anything else is discussed in pharma you might want to head over there.
You should know it takes 6 weeks for levels to stabilize, if you keep changing the dosages a few mgs every 4 weeks, you will never reach stable testosterone levels in the blood and never find that sweat spot because your levels will never be stable.
What would be your recommendation for amount of test to increase and how long should I wait in between dosage changes? I was thinking of going up 20mg each step up but that might be to aggressive.
It takes 6 weeks for levels to stabilize and I usually feel everything settle down by week 8 and full effects are known, so if you make dosage changes before this time, you will never know the outcome of said protocol.
I see a lot of guys in a state a constant of transition because they keep changing dosages and months or years down the road, they give up on TRT because it isn’t showing any results. The reason is because they never spent much time in a stable state, when I leave a stable state by changing dosages, I stop making progress in the gym and all progress seems on pause.
