Just sent Anthony a message detailing all these issues. I will report back with how it goes
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Wow so this was actually an amazing read for me and I need you to keep going because I’m on the exact same boat as you (almost).
I’m 27 with low t, I couldnt get my docs to give me a script and can’t afford the clinics, so i got mine by other means and I began front loading. I’m like you in the sense of low shgb as well, my panels are all pretty similar and I’m decently fit etc.
I front loaded for a week, fealt amazing then noticed a spike in my resting heart rate (I get the same feeling with too much caffine) causes some real discomfort. This spike in my heart rate obv triggered anxiety (i have a history of panic disorder and have been on ssris for 9 years, which has destroyed my libido) I’m going to a cardiologist and getting a full stress test, not just an ekg or ultra sound, im gonna have them look at everything.
I just wanted you to know that I relate to your symptoms in every way. If it helps, just know that cortisol does cause the spikes in rhr and bp, obv stress anxiety spike cortisol in general life, which my general life is under control so i have no clue why my rhr spiked during my frontload…
But yeah just push through and keep us updated man, I need to know
I’ll try my best man! Are you still going to be on T when you visit your cardiologist?
I kind of jumped the gun when i began self prescribing, my resting heart rate is like 87 when laying down in bed, but like walking around and doing stuff its 90-110
I had most everything tested but my doctor is really dumb and refused to check my psa, fsh lh, e2, cortisol etc.
I was just reading another thread talking about how us guys with low shbg have tons of free hormones floating around, which includes estrogen. Anxiety obviously comes from estrogen, and cortisol comes from anxiety, and cortisol lowers testosterone. I’m thinking that maybe a dht based testosterone or something that does not have the option of converting to estrogen may be better, like masteron or proviron. I’m not sure haha im still learning. Youre way ahead of the curve though.
I follow this guy on youtube bignoknow who suffered from major depression and used trt to get better, he was struggling with anxiety and what not and has a couple vids on it, and i see tons of guys in the comments who expierence what you and i are talking about on his anxiety vids, so just know that youre not alone and im sure theres an answer that we haven’t found yet. Theyre saying stuff like oh it feels like i chugged 4 monsters and my hearts racing and anxiety etc, like it is intense for us, its something to do with hormonal imbalance, i just dk the solution. I learned that cortisol is the opposite of testosterone the other day, not e2 like everyone believes, so this dose encourage my journey
Yeah I’ve seen those comments as well! It sucks because it doesn’t seem like anyone has gotten the answer to those problems. Dividing the dose out does it for some, arimidex for others but if those don’t work you’re kind of screwed. Doctors don’t have any idea at that point at seems. Let me know how your cardiologist visit goes.
I can deal with high pulse but the crushing chest pain really fucks with my head.
Its a bit of both for me. I havent tried an ai or spacing it out yet. But ik there is some hormonal process going on because I recognize this feeling as I’ve dealt with many anxiety/heart rate issues in the past and ik that cortisol/adrenaline/estrogen are all involved somehow.
I feel we just need to find the precurser to the cortisol, whether that be too high est or too low, or whatever, then it would solve it.
Because obviously youre pumping an exogenous hormone into your body, and its converting into something that is converting into something that is converting into cortisol/adrenaline.
You said yourself earlier when you took whatever, your levels shot up to 700 and you did not expierence this. That tells me that whatever you took prior couldn’t convert into a hormone that could triger cortisol or adren
From what I understand progesterone is the precursor to cortisol, as I have seen some using progesterone cream to increase it. That’s a very good point you made at the end of your comment though.
I have a few theories of what’s going on
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Adrenals on overdrive, elevated Epi or norepi and the only thing to do is wait for to go down, as some have.
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Although cortisol is normal, maybe increased t needs an increase in cortisol to keep balance. Perhaps t causes some level of cortisol resistance and we need top of range cortisol along with the T
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Something about the cleaving of the ester in the liver causes some sort of strange response. Perhaps solved by cream?
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Lagging thyroid-> can’t keep up with metabolic demand-> body secretes norepi/epi to raise temperature and compensate, increasing blood pressure and pulse. People usually associate hypothyroid with lower heart rate but I have actually read anecdotal cases where proper thyroid hormone reduced heart rate.
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God hates me and wants to keep me weak lol
Whatever the reason, figuring out the solution is all I can really focus on right now. It’s well past the point of obsessive
You should’ve asked your doctor for test prop, its a faster esther and would’ve built up in your blood by about 12 days I’ve heard, you also pretty much inject it daily etc. Just throwing that out there.
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I would definitely do test prop if I could, my doctor will only do enanthate and cypionate however. Already asked
Managed to workout last night and actually felt pretty good after for once. Then couldn’t sleep very well. Woke up this morning and I feel even weaker! Feel so dizzy like I’m going to fall over any second, sweaty and flu-like. Pulse is 90 just sitting here. I don’t know if I can stick this out guys, I can’t imagine this going away any time soon
Cool
Maybe you should just quit TRT. Seems like the only answer.
I have clomid and nolva available if I need… I just have some events coming up I’d really like to not crash during. I took 5mg of prednisone earlier just to see if it’s anything adrenal insufficiency related. Seems my heart rate has gone down slightly and a feel a tad better.
Last thing I may try is taking half a 25mg dose of t3 when I get back home to see if that brings me out of the dizziness/weakness and helps at all. It not… I don’t know what else to do. Very close now to six weeks on a consistent protocol now with everything else in range
One thing I feel you should(ve) kept in mind is obviously changes in hormones will affect your anxiety etc if you’re predisposed. I’m ngl but based off these posts you do seem very analytical, which can be good and bad. Perhaps a part of this has been triggered by the hormonal changes, and you’ve only fueled the anxiety/heart rate with noradren and adren via a feedback loop.
I’m only saying this because its also a conclusion I’m making of myself, I defiantly feel uncomfortable, nothing like these trt guys describe, but they also don’t have the same anxiety predisposition I do. Whatever you decide to do, you’ll be fine.
If it helps look into the comt gene, it sucks at breaking down noradren and adren, read the warrior gene ve worrier gene article and see if it helps with any conclusions.
I’m still gonna try and make trt work, but only after more tests.
I have not read every post here, so maybe this is answered. Have you tried 5-HTP? It could be an imbalance of neurotransmitters. Your diet also has a big effect on this. Are you taking any probiotics? Eating yogurt?
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@josht9210 I’m trying my best as well to make this work but something chemical is up. Benzodiazepines do nothing to help. I am very familiar with how my anxiety works now and the one constant before trt was that even a low dose of benzodiazepines completely eliminated symptoms. I’m convinced it’s 90% hormones. I am bothered by the fact that my doctor (one of them at least) does not seem to be bothered by an Aldosterone level of <1. Anywhere I look I see that this can cause rapid pulse, fluctuating blood pressure, etc. Some sites also say this points to adrenal insufficiency, however my normal cortisol level says otherwise.
Nausea, stomach problems, dizziness, extreme fatigue, hair shedding, brain fog, no libido, dry skin/dandruff, shortness of breath, muscle weakness,chest pains, bloating (even with normal t and e2 levels) all seem to point towards hypothyroidism (i am experiencing all of these). My TSH has always been slightly elevated but recently it was 3.750 (2.570 before trt I think), which seems very high, and this was after 5 weeks on TRT so that is at least some time to adjust. I have heard TRT can make hypo worse. I have also spoken with folks on other forums regarding thyroid issues and several members stated that they had rapid pulse/high rhr/high blood pressure when HYPO. There were studies to support this event occurring as well due to the body increasing norepi/epi to compensate for loss of cellular energy. When they took thyroid meds, their pulse and blood pressure normalized. I am very suspicious of this and will be asking my doc to try a trial of thyroid medication to see if there is any change. My free T3 and Free T4 seemed fairly good but the repeat high TSH is suspicious and seems to indicate my thyroid is struggling. I have done high dose iodine several times so I don’t believe iodine deficiency is my problem. An interesting fact, when I take metoprolol I have tachycardia during the day and bradycardia during the night. Not sure where that plays into everything.
Anyways, I know anxiety plays into this but anxiety sure as hell is not sole cause of all these awful side effects.
I just ordered a repeat TSH test and a Renin/Aldosterone test to repeat both and see where they are at. I will be posting these as well.
I generally just feel VERY unhealthy. That part is not in my head. If everything was in line I do not believe this would be the case just because I have been anxious in the past.
I’m trying to convince my doctor(s) to consider EVERYTHING. I do not half ass anything at all when it comes to my health. And I’m not going to wait around for whatever is going wrong to happen again like it did last time. Heart arrhythmias are not fun. They are essentially my main source of anxiety. Healthy testosterone levels decrease arrhythmias. Something is off here and I have to do the legwork unfortunately since docs often refuse to believe that something is wrong until you are half dead. Shame my $10 a month testosterone prescription has quickly escalated into a gigantic money pit that I cannot sustain for much longer.
@hardartery I have actually been taking 150mg HTP the past few days, with no change at all. I will probably discontinue. I eat as healthy as I can traveling for work (which admittedly isn’t always great). I do drink kombucha quite a bit which contains probiotics.
5 htp takes about 2 weeks to have noticeable effects
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Do what you think is best, perhaps get bloods now, and come off and get bloods, and see if you find anything abnormal. I’m new to this idk, do whats best for you.
So guys I’m still on injections but I found something interesting. The dizziness, brain fog, headaches have continued to get worse. I noticed my ring has been getting tight on my finger as well.
So I took 200mg dim the other night and some zinc, and boom woke up the next day and felt the best I have since I started all day. Amazing.
Then, woke up today and did the same thing. Dizzy, headaches, bloating, huge Mental fog. Stomach feels really fat. Took a bit more zinc and dim than I did he other day and it’s improved, not as much as the other day but at least cleared my mental fog up a bit.
I’m thinking since I did labs at 4 weeks and it showed an e2 of 32.5 that it’s possible my estrogen is high now? 6 weeks in so my test levels should be stable now. I know everyone keeps saying not to control e2 but it seems when I take mild aromatase inhibitors i seem to feel much better.
Would it be stupid to take anastrozole to see if there are improvements? I have .125mg capsules with me, maybe I could try dissolving in alcohol and splitting that amount up 7 times to take with my daily injections?
Or should I just hope that all this magically disappears in two weeks? Feeling a bit confused on how to proceed