Stopping TRT Cold Turkey?

Pharma / TRT Testosterone Replacement
1

Hello.

Thank you in advance for your replies.

I am 57 yo. I exercise 7 days per week ( 1 hour total of eliptical machine, bench, curls, sand bells). I play intense tennis 3-4 days per week too.

In response to being “diagnosed” with diabetes 18 mos ago, I started this exercise routine and radically altered my diet to an LCHF. I never stray… I have lost over 50lbs. I am now very fit, fast and strong. My a1c is near the “normal range” at 5.6. This is without EVER taking diabetes meds.

I went to a “Wellness/Anti-aging” doc a little over a year ago. He diagnosed low T and put me on pellets (12)
My T-levels went from 390 free to 1,200! I felt GREAT. But, (pun intended) I experienced severe, unrelenting pain at the insertion site on my hip/butt that never subsided. I rejected a pellet too.

After the pellets disolved, the doc prescribed 10% Test Cream at 1 gm/ml per day. I have tested levels 2x since then my free test is 600 with the cream (if I recall). I have been on test cream for almost a year.

Anyway, my dilema is I cannot afford the radical/expensive blood work with this doc. I have Kaiser Insurance (who will not prescribe TRT).

Therefore, I can either quit TRT cold turkey or find another affordable source. Kaiser will test my levels every 6 mos for free.

Question 1) Are there health risks associated with stopping my TRT cold turkey?

  1. What are my odds of restarting my own Testosterone producing system?

  2. How severe are withdrawls?

I am sorry for the long rant.

I run out of Test in 4 days.

Mike

2

I don’t know the answer to any of your questions, but wish you the best of luck. You know there are many clinics out there that offer flat rate TRT that includes self-injectable T, HCG, AI, labwork for $200/mo, don’t you? I fear you’re going to feel awful and your quality of life is going to suffer greatly.

3

you need to do a lot of reading here

pellets suck, blame your doc

t-creams is best 10% absorbed, low absorption sometimes caused by low thyroid function, which you can easily eval by past paragraph here

Self injected T is 100% absorbed and least cost, very easy via tine insulin needles.

Doctors are the problem!

Please read the stickies found here: About the T Replacement Category - #2 by KSman

  • advice for new guys
  • things that damage your hormones
  • protocol for injections
  • finding a TRT doc

Evaluate your overall thyroid function by checking oral body temperatures as per the thyroid basics sticky. Thyroid hormone fT3 is what gets the job done and it regulates mitochondrial activity, the source of ATP which is the universal currency of cellular energy. This is part of the body’s temperature control loop. This can get messed up if you are iodine deficient. In many countries, you need to be using iodized salt. Other countries add iodine to dairy or bread.

4

TRT improves insulin sensisitivity. You can’t simply quit.

Restart TRT to go back to where you were?