Hi everyone. Looking for some advise. Started taking Rx TRT in Jan of 2023, 100mg IM a week, with 50mg DHEA. I am 40 years old and never used exogenous test before and had a natural test of 400. Wanted to try it to increase recovery as I am very active and have several coworkers that use and speak highly of TRT. I June approx 5 months after starting it I was recommended to increase DHEa to 75mg daily as my levels didn’t increase much. Within two weeks I developed severe chest tightness, shortness of breath, anxiety, and heart palpitations. I went to the hospital and was diagnosed with PVCs. They advised my to stop taking the DHEA right away which I did. The symptoms regressed and came back several times over the summer usually in the cycle of relief for a few days then about 10-14 days of symptoms.
I went to a cardiologist and wore a holter monitor for 3 days and had 472 PVCs which the cardiologist said was normal and that I was taking bad medication and that was causing my problems. I consulted with my Rx TRT clinic and they said I could try lowering my arimidex from 1mg to .5. I did that for 12 weeks and had no relief. They have now said there is now way that the TRT caused any of my symptoms but I can lower my dose to 80mg a week. I am currently waiting to see an endocrinologist but am desperate to find relief and I am currently tapering off completely to see if that has an effect. I will post any of my labs and would appreciate any comments or advice. Also worth noting, I have never suffered from these symptoms before in my life. Thanks in advance for any advice.
You most likely had no business taking TRT in the first place and as you saw it backfired.
Why are you taking Arimidex? Do you have symptoms of high e2? Drop it entirely if not. At 100mg/wk you likely don’t need it and adding more drugs than necessary to the mix probably will not help.
Yes I agree with you but I was taking the advice of a clinic that is supposed to specialize in hormone replacement therapy. Just doing what the dr prescribed. I was not and have not ever done this on my own. Just looking for advice or anecdotal experiences.
Thanks.
Oh sorry I didn’t respond to you your actual question. My E was 118 pre TRT and my T was 400. Two weeks prior to negative symptoms my T was 680 and E was 54. Never had what I would consider problematic estrogen symptoms. My blood work in sept had T at 860 and E at 42. Haven’t had any since. If my symptoms resolve after discontinuing the TRT I will be sure to update. Thanks.
37% of men on TRT have anxiety, partly due to the Monoamine oxidase A gene.
The MAOA gene provides instructions for making an enzyme called monoamine oxidase A. This enzyme is part of a family of enzymes that break down molecules called monoamines through a chemical reaction known as oxidation. Among the monoamines broken down by monoamine oxidase A are certain chemicals that act as neurotransmitters, which transmit signals between nerve cells in the brain. Neurotransmitters are broken down when signaling is no longer needed.
Specifically, monoamine oxidase A is involved in the breakdown of the neurotransmitters serotonin, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine. Signals transmitted by serotonin regulate mood, emotion, sleep, and appetite. Epinephrine and norepinephrine control the body’s response to stress. Dopamine transmits signals within the brain to produce smooth physical movements.
Monoamine oxidase A also helps break down monoamines found in the diet. It seems to be particularly important in the breakdown of excess tyramine, which is found in cheese and other foods.
Monoamine oxidase A appears to be involved in normal brain development before birth. The enzyme plays a role in the controlled self-destruction of cells (apoptosis), which is an important process in the development of many tissues and organs, including the brain.
Treatment → magnesium, pregnenolone.
Watch the full video on YouTube, Google “Monoamine Oxidase A gene, 37% of men on TRT have anxiety”.
Stopping TRT doesn’t solve any problems, you end up with low-T again, then you restart TRT and encounter the same problems. You have to tune things from here, your new baseline.
Thanks for the great info. I would rather be back to my previous T levels than feel like this. IYO, will the symptoms at least resolve if I come off TRT?
I’m sorry you are feeling anxious and messed up. This is the result of following them so called TRT Doctors or Doctors in general without doing your own “research”. Throwing in a “Kitchen Sink” method right out the gate is insane if you’d ask me. You will never ever know what works and what not because of too many variables/moving parts.
100mg/week IMHO is a decent place to start. Can’t really know what injection frequency you will respond best to and feel best at so any choice is more or less good choice but many would advise splitting your dose at least into 2 injections/week meaning every 3.5 days. Must experiment and see which protocol makes you feel the best. Some men do great on once a week, others on every day. Only one way to find out.
Was your Arimidex/AI dose 1mg per week? Also starting you from get go on even that with 100mg/test was a bad move as well. I’ve tried playing with them a bit and they make absolutely 0 improvements for me and even make me feel worse with specific symptoms. And the horror stories you can find online cuz well its a damn harsh drug and to take it you must have really good fucking reason which 100mg of Test right out the gate IS NOT.
Also DHEA I’d drop that too right in the bin. Once and only IF you manage to feel great on Testosterone alone then IF you really don’t feel optimal, after you played with all the doses and injection frequences, which will takes AGES to do it all properly, then you can start throwing in some more hormones on top and still might never ever find a missing link. It’s a long and tireing experiment and without symptoms I would have never started in the first place.
I’d say don’t drop the T dose but drop Arimidex and DHEA to the bin. Are you working out? How is your sleep and what is your body composition with diet as well. These are the very important boxes which all must be ticked for optimal results.
I have anxiety and pvc , neither is fun but I can tell u one thing for sure constantly changing stuff will make it worse , drop everything but the test and be patient for a few months. I know it sucks but really patience is the key here , the more u change and add the more u are in flux making everything worse . Hang in there it gets better
Thanks very much for the reply. So I’m 5,10 200 lbs. about 15% body fat. Everything you said rang true to me. When I had a consult at the beginning of sept I asked to reduce my arimidex in half which I actually ended up cutting out all together as I had read about many people having similar issues related to low estrogen do to aromatase inhibitors. I did that until a couple weeks ago in hopes my anxiety and palpatations were estrogen related. Nsuch lucI didn’t resolve at all. I tapered down over a couple weeks and have not had a shot since last Tuesday. That was only a .1ml so a very small dose. Feeling okay so far. Definitely gonna stay off test for a while and see how I feel. Back on a good dose of ZMA at bedtime to get a good 500mg of magnesium at night and when I’m on days off I crank a healthy dose of cbd oil. Fingers crossed I can get back to where I was pre TRT at least.
Thanks for the reply. Appreciate the comments. I dropped DHEA in June when symptoms appeared, then dropped arimidex in sept. No relief, with any changes and I have it at least 10 weeks at every change. Always consistent with my doses twice weekly. Just tapered down and came off completely. I need to see if that will help. Going to a real endocrinologist but it’s about a four month wait so I want to be back to my baseline when I see them. Fingers crossed my symptoms resolve. Thanks again.
Hope u get it figured out , I still get pvc’s and anxiety but been to several dr’s and everything checks out so I just said screw it . The pvc’s will drive u crazy if u let them , I like to have lost my mind trying to figure out what was causing them .
The fact your are taking an AI tells me your T dose is way too high.
Drop everything but T. Take 10mg/3x week subC. I run 30-35mg/week with this schedule and my T is 550-600 and I have zero E issues, in fact, I typically have low E2, so the only reason I would up the dose some is to raise E2 levels. But that causes anxiety at higher dosages.
Try that, see how it goes. Otherwise, see a psych doctor. They can help deal with the other issues like anxiety. Taking meds suck. Nature is best I always say. But some of us have to do whatever it takes to find a new normal.
Also, might want to consider running HCG and dropping T lower as well you inject. A combo of the two. Some find HCG to cause anxiety, some find it useful to actually product T naturally and it calms them down. Until you try, you won’t know.,
Hey Everyone. Just wanted to post an update. I am 3 months since I stopped TRT. Did not use any PCT. Felt pretty low energy for the first few weeks then things started to pick up. Anxiety was gone after about 8 weeks and hardly getting any heart palps anymore. Feeling good in gym and sleeping way better. Miss the crazy sex drive on TRT but such as life. Definitely coming off was a good thing for me. Appreciate all the comments and feedback everyone gave me. That was a rough go for me. Glad to be through it and feeling good again. Cheers.
try Ativan , it could be stress , I know when I have been running a little high I can have the same symptoms. also Cialis has relived that feeling for me as well, Or you could always try the pellets , I was on them for about 2 years with limited side effects
I know its a shitty feeling , I have been to the ER 3 or 4 times because I thought I was having a heart attack etc. I have had every test done on me .
Benzo’s are nasty and you ended up having to wean off if you take it for too long. Then you can have rebound on them. I think people that are having anxiety and insomnia need to think about why and if that is somehting they generally don’t have maybe it can be a high trt dose. See the guy above on a such a low dose? Most would say that isn’t trt but it’s about feeling and levels. I am on 63 mg/wk and feel so much better than when I was on 80 mg/wk with levels in the upper range of the scale.
I look at it this way, I had levels half the minimum before trt so if taking test c gets me up to 5 times those levels on 63 mg/wk and I feel good (key point) why push it higher? Workouts are better and I am not an huge asshole anymore.