Love this advice. We are big-time savers. We only really spend on vacations, 1-2X per year, so we definitely have the 401/savings/retirement/college-fund mentality down. BUT, I love your perspective on enjoying life sometimes and living in the moment – any of us could die any day. I’ve also learned cancer can even get the healthiest people, like your friend – it really often doesn’t make sense.
Favorite line of this “epic old man rant.” I’ll remember this.
Wow. I would absolutely kill to have this problem! Do you have peaks and valleys?
That was one of my hangups with the cream – some days I’d have a killer libido (10/10), and others I’d have none (0). I’ve felt more steady with the injectable T but the libido has never gotten anywhere close to what it was with the cream. I’m longing for the feeling I had with the cream, to be honest.
You’re definitely right bro. We are probably saving at least that much, maybe closer to 100, so we are on the same page as you!
Any recommendations on how to find a good financial pro? I’ve been managing our money but know a pro could do a better job, plus it’s honestly a lot of work and time-consuming. And I have no idea how to manage stocks, lol.
I’m not getting too crazy into the savings/retirement stuff but I say save as much as you reasonable can as young as possible. We save over 50% and make more than you guys and I still wish I had done more earlier.
I mostly just do index funds personally and a few stocks here and there. Max 401k’s, max hsa if you have one, max Roth IRA and brokerage account after that it you can max all of those accounts. That would be tough when married on 100K through. I think.
But have a nice dinner every now and then too. 
I think it’s funny/unsurprising how many dudes on here – guys who take their health/fitness seriously, guys who mess around with supplements/gear – also are on their A Game when it comes to money. Lots of carryovers in terms of discipline and a long-term view!
If it were up to me, we’d probably save 99% – wifey is more of a favorite spirit, so I like to treat her sometimes, lol.
As you may have noticed, I’ve been really frustrated with my hormones. My libido has been trash for the fall, and I’m desperate to rebound and get back to “high-T Paul Rudd.”
So, in an effort to figure out what has worked in the past, I decided to consult a pretty good source: myself! I actually went back and read through this long-ass thread. It’s amazing how inaccurate my memory was. Thank God we have logs like this to help us help ourselves!
I won’t bore you with the details, but here are some key points:
January – Started TRT; on cream with 2-3 clicks per day
February – Increased to 4 clicks per day, 2 AM/2 PM, all to scrotum
March – Overall feeling very good, well-being and libido very strong but also very inconsistent (peaks and valleys)
End of March – Switch to injections for convenience (200 mg/week) (looks really stupid in hindsight); add Danazol 25 mg EOD to hopefully lower SHBG
April – Big-time motivation to lift, but libido drops significantly
May – Increase to 260 mg/week; workout motivation remains off the charts
June – Get bloodwork with crazy-high levels; in response, lower to 200 mg/week and increase Danazol from 25 mg EOD to 25 mg ED
Late June – Switch to daily injections, 30 mg/day
Mid-July – Libido is, very briefly, in a great place
End of July – Switch back to 3X/week for convenience (looks stupid in hindsight)
Mid-August – Libido plummets; decrease to 150 mg/week to try to lower E
August-Present – Libido continues dropping, all the way to a 0
Here are my biggest takeaways:
I should have stuck with the cream for longer and tried to dial that in. It was inconvenient, but still.
I should have stuck with the daily injections for longer. Again, switched because of convenience factors. But you can’t have it all. Should’ve known better.
Danazol has not seemed to help me.
After reviewing this log, I’m starting to open my mind to the potential of switching back to cream, or daily injections, and/or dropping Danazol. I don’t want to dramatically overcorrect, but I also think it makes sense to consider what has worked in the past…because what I’m doing right now absolutely isn’t working. I just want some libido back, man.
@enackers @bmbrady77 @jackolee @studhammer @rise80 @ncsugrad2002 @dextermorgan @bcostigan41 @NH_Watts @unreal24278
If you really wanted to get crazy you could do cream for the dht + injections for the more stable levels. It’s a little crazy and probably overkill but I’ve seen some people on Facebook Groups rave about it. Obviously you’d have to figure doses out. Probably 1-2 clicks a day plus 150mg/ week I’d guess.
Though honestly for now I’d probably go back to whatever worked before and make sure that still works. Get some libido back for a few months then experiment If you still want to. I’d be damn near suicidal after no libido for months.
If that means 250mg/week and daily injections then I’d do it personally.
This is pretty much exactly where I am, brother. I’m so desperate to get my body right. I want to find something sustainable but also just want to feel good and to want sex with my wife. A big issue with the cream could be ordering the supplies I just ordered 10mL injectable and MA is really stringent with ordering T, so I don’t know if/how I could time it up with cream. I don’t think you can go UG for cream.
I’ve never seen it available that way either. I tried to convince some local guys that sell T to try making it but they’re stuck in the mentality that it’s the same as androgel and doesn’t work. Little do they know…
In that case I’d bump the injectable T dose up to what it takes and go with it. You can always dial it back 10mg every few weeks to figure out the minimum you need.
Maybe others will disagree with me but I personally would rather feel normal, even if that takes an above average dose
@bkb333 I thought I recalled reading you were in MA before but didn’t remember. Both @NH_Watts and I are from MA too. I’m about 35 minutes outside of Boston.
I’m with @ncsugrad2002 - I say go with what makes you feel better. You could try varying the dose amount per injection like @dextermorgan reminded me about or just jack it back up to 250mg and wait for the old libido to come flooding back in.
I’m at a point where I’m about to tinker. Taking blood Wednesday to get a baseline and then probably going to 20-22mg daily for 2 months. Right now, I get like high-t Rudd every other day (day after my injection) and I really want to feel like high-t Rudd every day. Libido is also diminished.
You have such detailed notes from this log, it’s great to have as a reference in times like this when our memories do us a disservice. I’ll be following along and hope you are able to get back to where you want to be. Good luck!
@makeithappen7 - your math is pretty close to my last blood work. When I took this blood work, I was probably close to 150-160 a week as I wasn’t diligent with accurate measurements…and coincidentally, I had an insatiable appetite for sex.
I’ve since been more consistent with my dosing and my libido has definitely dropped.
Flip a coin, pick one and stick with it for 8 weeks. Get yourself in the right mindset. Going in with the preconceived notion that X won’t work is a big part of it for many folks (doesn’t seem like a big problem for you though). I think the mind plays a larger role than we may believe.
It comes and goes just like with natural T. I have bad days and weeks and etc
Too much sex ends up causing a period of low libido. Periods of low sex cause high libido for weeks.
I would manage it myself. Dedicate 1 hour every other day or something. You’ll make more money.
Take a Portion and have them do long term for you. You do short term gains.
No clue how to find but you want to be carefuk
I missed this earlier. No. Please don’t let a pro do it. Every time I’ve done that they charge so much in fees I’ve literally made almost nothing even when the market is going nuts. S&P 500 index funds if you want stupid easy. Know what fees you’re getting charged though. They usually aren’t worth it. A few percent here and there is a ton of money long term.
K that’s all I’ve got. If you want to go down a rabbit hole read about FIRE. Not saying you have to go that extreme but you can learn a lot about reasonably safely managing your money and long term investments from them
@ncsugrad2002
Come invest in some Real Estate with all that money.
Already have a couple of rentals. But I’ll take another if you’ve got a deal for me. Those are some nice checks to get in the mail every month.
Out of curiosity, if you generally feel better at 3 AM/3 PM, why do you do 2/2 on non-workout days? Concern over levels getting out of control? I agree that 3/3 is a pretty high dose but I’d probably be at the same point.
I appreciate all your insights, brother. You’re right – having notes on here is huge! It’s incredible how poorly we can remember our own experience. I would’ve said I felt best at mid-summer (July)…but reading through this, it definitely was more like April, and things started going downhill in July.
Every time I’ve increased Danazol, bad things have generally followed. This defies conventional logic because Danazol has lowered my SHBG – significantly! – which supposedly should improve libido. I may need to play around with the dose, but so far it hasn’t worked out for me. @traveling-man
