Newbie: Back to Shots or Androgel?

Hello All,
I just signed up. I have been trying to research how to handle my TST problem all day and it finally brought me here to this forum. I am 29, 6’2 and weight near 400 pounds. (I was at 435, and have been fruit juicing and exercising to get the weight off – a couple more hundred pounds to go) Anyway, I have an array of health problems ranging from high blood pressure and sleep apnea, to epilepsy and Low Testosterone (and erectile dysfunction – which sucks because I have a beautiful girlfriend).

I have known about my low testosterone for about 3 years now. My numbers are usually high 200’s low 300’s. Originally, my primary care physician put me on the injections which were a pain in my ass (no pun intended) bc I had to wait forever for him to administer them and I hardly saw results. I was on them for about 3 months. I recently decided to see an Endocrinologist about my low tst and after testing my levels, Catscanning for pituitary tumors, blood testing for klinefelters and cortisol problems, he started me on tst replacement where I rub a gel on my underarms – called Axiron. I did that for a month or two with little results. (Maybe I didn’t try it long enough?) Most recently, he had me do a semen analysis. The only thing that came back negative was that the viscosity was a little low. So he wanted to start me on HCG shots, which I was excited about bc I thought they could really help me. Well, the shots never panned out due to my insurance company saying that the shots could effect my epilepsy. As of today, he started me on the Androgel which I rub on my shoulders (Two pumps daily) I was reading about this stuff and I’m very scared of the side effects, especially since I’m already so overweight (already have man boobs) already have sleep apnea, already have high blood pressure, already have had prostate problems in the past.

So my questions are … Should I go back to the shots even though they can have bad side effects as well? The Axiron? Should I stick with the Androgel? Or should I maybe try a natural testosterone booster? I read about a few of them today, is there perhaps a good one that anyone recommends? Thanks to anyone who reads this, I am in dire need of help. I think getting this problem solved could literally be the difference in me living or dying.

Only advice for now is:
Read the stickies, that will take a few days.
Self inject SC with insulin needles, see above
T+hCG+AI, see stickies

hCG will not affect your epilepsy. Pregnant women have huge amounts of hCG, some of the have epilepsy.

THe side effects of taking testosterone are typically due to estrogen (estradiol or E2) raising due to conversion. There are drugs that can be taken to control this, namely AIs such as arimidex. Regular testing is the only way to know if this is an issue or not, although excessive weight (i.e. adiopose tissue) can contribute. Prostate problems such as BPH can also be caused by high E2, but TRT causing prostate cancer has not been proven.

The delivery system has little bearing on these “side effects”.

A natural testosterone booster is not a bad idea. If you’ve read any Ageless Male reviews, you’d see that Testofen that it contains helps boost free testosterone within healthy limits. It shouldn?t affect any other problems. In fact, it also contains B6 which will help you feel energetic. - YouTube

The delivery system has little bearing on these “side effects”.[/quote]

Not quite true when you consider that T-gels create a lot more T–>E2 aromatization. Some delivery methods create more E2 and more E2 side effects if E2 is not managed. If one manages E2 to an optimal level, then the delivery system would not have E2 related side effects.