Just a quick question about weight before starting TRT.
Im 6 foot and 14 stone 3 pounds (UK).
My renpho scales say my body fat is 28% which seems mad as I just have a bit of a belly.
Im 50, Have a 7 and a 6 year old, stressful job, coach two football teams and am in the middle of a house renovation. Reason enough to feel like crap i suppose……
Sleep - OK
Stress - Executive High Stress (with anxiety)
Diet - Could be better but no processed food really.
Have all the usual Low T symptoms and have been at 11 nmol on a couple of tests last year.
So the Carrot and Stick question is do I try to fix all of the above with no energy and very little motivation or do i get on TRT to get the energy that will enable me to fix all of the above?
Any thoughts welcome and don’t be afraid to be upfront and harsh!! I’m a big boy!!
You can look at this 2 ways.
You are overweight. Dropping weight will most likely naturally raise your test levels and some of these issues may resolve. You could then reassess to see where you are at with blood work.
Starting TRT in your state would help with body composition and potentially help with your other issues. The downside is that using test when overweight may cause estrogen issue which you will battle with until you get your body comp in a better place.
What neither option will help you with is stress/diet. Diet is pretty obvious here. If it’s not good you need to make it better.
Stress is another problem. High stress can lead to high cortisol in the body which will give you a lot of the issues you are having. How can you fix this? That’s up to you. How can you reduce work stress?
How can you reduce homelife stress? Are you doing to much on top of work? All the kids stuff and the home renovation is not helping. You may hace to reassess these extra activities and if the impact they are having on your health is worth it.
Sleep. How can you fix it? Why is sleep only OK?
Ok
Firstly thanks for coming back to me so quickly.
A bit more context. My default setting is anxious and has been from a child.
Im on 10mgs for Citalopram for that.
I have a sleep disorder called parasomnia so take 5mgs Valium per night for that. No phone or TV after 9pm and mostly keep a clean sleep hygiene.
Only way to de stress my job is either leave (get paid too much) or just dont give a shit (I’m a perfectionist) so that’s not an option. Most of my job stress is self inflicted.
I coach my kids teams and it Quality time with them so i would never give that up.
I’m chilling out a bit more now about the house Reno.
I was on T for 9 weeks and came off as my Est went high but people said it was a bad protocol and i wasn’t taking enough. And this was through a clinic. I was on 90 Mgs/ml (??) a week over 3 pins. And i was lifting weights 3 times a week at that stage.
Better diet could be fixed by not being so lazy and making an effort. I downloaded MOB and still haven’t used it.
Someone actually mentioned to me last night about Cortisol and i reckon it is part of it. Is there something you can take for that instead of current meds……..
One of the strap lines for TRT is it can reduce anxiety. When my EST went high my anxiety actually went up.
Rereading all this i need to study the MOB app, get a treadmill and go see a therapist!!!
I was hoping that TRT would give me back my ooommph which would then help with everything else.
You’re going to need to clarify this and further try to understand what drugs youre taking before injecting. This is good life practice. If a doc prescribes you something at least google what a normal dose it. What you listed here is not a dose at all. How many total MG per week were you prescribed. Anything else?
We need to see your labs to determine if you’re even primary or secondary hypogonadal. TT is not a solid metric on its own. You need TT, FT, E2, SHBG, Fsh, Lh minimally. CBC, CMP, DHT, TSH would all be appropriate as well as A1C.
What did the doc say about your persistent high prolactin? Your T dose was too low for you to see benefits clearly but you’re over aromatizing for such a small dose possibly due to BF in part. You’ll likely need a higher dose and an AI to really feel well if you go back on TRT.
My only thoughts on the prolactin are I don’t do well without food and get anxious. As they were fasted blood tests first thing in the morning I was pretty stressed out by them.
Yeah I was told my dose was too low.
Not sure I fancy AI’s either as it’s just more meds in the mix.
Some guys do need them. I agree with you, some of the patients who try to over medicate themselves with Testosterone and thereby force the need for another medication, in this case an AI, seems improper. In your situation you would need an AI but could possibly wean off it as you lose weight. Any good clinic would know this. I recommend Defy medical.
