Other things from those labs. Not altogether surprising, but depressing to see nevertheless:
LH: <.2 (1.5-9.3)
FSH: 1.2 (1.6-8.0)
So, I guess that injection moved my body from puttering along into full-on shutdown mode.
Sounds right from what others are saying 200mg/ml you took .5 ml or 100mg. My LH and FSH levels are both below 1 as well. I want to start HCG now! 
yes taking t will do that…
and you are taking 100mg per shot right now if you are injecting .50mL, and two days after injection you’re levels are actually pretty low, but that would change over time once your injections started overlapping…
but taking 200mg a week is a bit much.
T3C, Did you do the injection yourself?
Also was it IM or SC? What kind of needle and where was injection site?
My university’s pharmacy did it. IM in the glute with a 1.5" needle (i.e. basically exactly what the injections sticky said not to do). I asked them to go in the quad per the guidelines in the thread, but the pharmacy denied the nurse’s request to do so.
Your gonna want to do your own injections and 200mg/week will be too high. you will be above physiological range. Unless thats where you want to be. You want to be injection 2 times a week in smaller needles. The 200mg/week could be done for a short about of time by that i mean only 1 week or 2 to just get your levels up then they need to backed down unless you want to be above physiological range.
[quote]ryanbCXG wrote:
Your gonna want to do your own injections and 200mg/week will be too high. you will be above physiological range. Unless thats where you want to be. You want to be injection 2 times a week in smaller needles. The 200mg/week could be done for a short about of time by that i mean only 1 week or 2 to just get your levels up then they need to backed down unless you want to be above physiological range.[/quote]
Full-on test at this point was a premature conclusion. I’m hoping that the endo I see next week will be open to SERM and/or HcG. Fundamentally, though, the docs are first and foremost interested in finding what the hell is causing all of this in the first place. In some sense, my university docs are basically starting back at square one, taking all the evidence collected up to this point, and trying to make sense of it. It’s been a perplexing case, but I’m very hopeful about the doc that I’m seeing Monday, who is one of the top endos in the country. At the same time, I’m mindful that “top endo” =/= “top TRT doc.”
Hopefully you have better luck with your endo than I did with my current one. Hes never heard of HCG therapy, only wants to give out androgel or testim and wont prescribe an AI.
Keep us in the loop!
Can a T injection have a big impact on BUN level? My BUN has skyrocketed, but I have been eating a ton of protein lately and may need to scale it back.
Met with the other endo today. First, I should say that this guy is a really sharp, kind, and thoughtful guy. If anyone is in the New Haven (CT) area and wants an endo to see, I was really pleased with this doc’s service and will recommend him if you PM me.
We discussed HcG and SERM therapies. His position was that while he understands the logic of using one of those methods to see whether the gonads could be stimulated to produce T, he was generally against prescribing them for the primary reason (aside from HcG being very expensive and likely not covered by my insurance) that testosterone therapy is so well understood vis-a-vis HcG therapy. For someone as young as me, his basic position was that he could tell me what to expect and the long-term consequences of testosterone therapy, but there just isn’t (at least from his understanding) any data about the long-term consequences of being on HcG (he mentioned, for example, that he couldn’t tell me the consequences of stimulating my testicles to produce T through those means, whether it be nothing or testicular cancer. At least by his estimation, we just don’t know). His position on SERMs was similar: that while they may have the desired effect, that they are so obscurely used for these purposes that he couldn’t justify prescribing it for me when the conventional TRT route would address my T issues in a controlled and well-understood way.
I felt pretty comfortable with that. Unlike my last endo (where I frankly felt boxed-in by her possibly being my only option), he had clearly given thought to HcG and SERMs and understood their purpose and the logic behind why they may be effective. And if my position (age, education level, symptoms, etc) were different, who knows whether his position would be different. His position, though, is that while those methods may work, there just isn’t enough data about their consequences for him to choose that route against the TRT route.
So he ultimately settled on the same conclusion as my last endo: 100mg of testosterone/week. Unlike my last endo, however, he had knowledge of and had considered the alternatives and felt this to be the best route.
EDIT: regarding the iron stuff, he did ask whether I have seen a hematologist. Hopefully, he’ll put that in the note to my GP.
Apologies for making another update, but I also wanted to add that the endo essentially agreed with the up-to-this-point explanation for my low T that, given my personality change and the timeline of my primary sexual symptoms, the concussion I suffered at 17 was what initiated the pituitary shutdown of LH production.
VTBalla on my high BUN level:
"Truthfully, now that I look at the ranges, your BUN is very high…usually you see slightly above range within about 20% or so…yours is above double the range…I haven’t seen one that high, but there is absolutely no way it was due to your single T shot…my advice is to track it and see where it is next time…if it is consistently high, you have a problem…otherwise, I would chalk it up to training "
Just wanted to post that so that it was put somewhere that BUN has no connection to T injection.
My plans at this point:
-
Do TRT for the next number of months, get lab work done in April to monitor results (since we already know from the early February blood test that I’m of course responding to the T injections).
-
Try to get a hematologist to look into my iron deficiency.
Please keep us updated. I am looking forward to seeing your progress!
How has your training been? I was doing 1.5 hours of cardio 5 times a week with weights 6 times a week while eating a very low calorie and low fat diet and my hormones crashed. Low ferritin, lower end of the RR thyroids, low T, etc. I’ve upped my calories and fat (I’ve been eating 6-8 raw eggs a day) and temporarily eliminated my cardio and I feel so much better. I also added iron biglycinate, b-12 (methylcobalamin), folic acid with b-complex, 25 mg zinc picolinate, high dose iodine and 20,000 IU vitamin D with my high dose fish oil. I feel so much better but I’m waiting a few weeks to redraw my labs.
Your situation is obviously much more complex but don’t discount lifestyle factors and supplementation.
[quote]The3Commandments wrote:
My plans at this point:
-
Do TRT for the next number of months, get lab work done in April to monitor results (since we already know from the early February blood test that I’m of course responding to the T injections).
-
Try to get a hematologist to look into my iron deficiency.
[/quote]
[quote]The3Commandments wrote:
My plans at this point:
-
Do TRT for the next number of months, get lab work done in April to monitor results (since we already know from the early February blood test that I’m of course responding to the T injections).
-
Try to get a hematologist to look into my iron deficiency.
[/quote]
What are you going to do for TRT?
T cyp 100mg a week?
Hcg?
[quote]CJD8791 wrote:
Please keep us updated. I am looking forward to seeing your progress!
How has your training been? I was doing 1.5 hours of cardio 5 times a week with weights 6 times a week while eating a very low calorie and low fat diet and my hormones crashed. Low ferritin, lower end of the RR thyroids, low T, etc. I’ve upped my calories and fat (I’ve been eating 6-8 raw eggs a day) and temporarily eliminated my cardio and I feel so much better. I also added iron biglycinate, b-12 (methylcobalamin), folic acid with b-complex, 25 mg zinc picolinate, high dose iodine and 20,000 IU vitamin D with my high dose fish oil. I feel so much better but I’m waiting a few weeks to redraw my labs.
Your situation is obviously much more complex but don’t discount lifestyle factors and supplementation.
[/quote]
These are fair points regarding my iron deficiency. The testosterone issue has been regarded by both endos and the other docs I’ve seen as separate (and almost certainly caused by the concussion, while acknowledging that there isn’t any material evidence for this other than the overall timeline of my symptoms).
To be honest, I don’t feel different in the gym after having now gotten testosterone in my body. However, I have begun having morning erections at times, and my genitals have increased sensitivity at times. But again, my symptoms were largely centered around primary sexual function: impotence and ED.
As to the longer-term consequences on my training, we’ll just have to see. I’ll certainly be keeping the thread updated.
[quote]GFA wrote:
[quote]The3Commandments wrote:
My plans at this point:
-
Do TRT for the next number of months, get lab work done in April to monitor results (since we already know from the early February blood test that I’m of course responding to the T injections).
-
Try to get a hematologist to look into my iron deficiency.
[/quote]
What are you going to do for TRT?
T cyp 100mg a week?
Hcg?[/quote]
At least for the immediate future, 100mg of T cyp. For the reasons discussed above, my doc just didn’t think that HcG was right for me given the insurance considerations and lack of clinical data (in particular, the long-term consequences). I don’t know whether the duration of my low LH production was also a factor in this (i.e., whether the notion that my pituitary has been nonfunctioning since I was 17).
I just started T cyp 100mg a week as well. Going to get retested in 6 weeks.
Going to donate some blood tomorrow, hopefully lower my RBC some as its on the high end of normal.
There is a few sources of HCG where you can get it really cheap. My insurance doesnt cover it. Im done having kids so dont really care about fertility. My concern about T cyp is it will shut down our testies and thats why I am interested in HCG a few times a week to keep them functioning but like you said there are no real long term studies on HCG usage for TRT and thats also a concern.
So I don’t want to do too specific an update at the moment (probably two weeks or so when I have a smattering of other tests done), but I would really appreciate any links or helpful info anyone might have about autoimmune conditions/diseases, particularly ones that cause or are associated with hemolysis
Also, if anyone wants to chime in on how awesome spleen removal is, that’s a road that I may be headed down.
EDIT: just also wanted to say that I’m not letting any of this stuff get me down. Whatever this illness is (it may be a rare condition called Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia, but I’m trying not to jump the gun), its ass will be kicked one way or the other.
Have you been officially diagnosed with it? Im waiting for my blood work on tuesday. They are checking for hemochromatosis. But no point in getting worked up if you dont know yet.