TRT - Drug Induced Hepatitis (Reandron)

Pharma / TRT Testosterone Replacement
1

Age 35
Height 183cm / 6’
Weight 78kg / 171lbs

Hey All,
I don’t even know where to start. My partner and I were trying to conceive and ended up both going through all the regular testing you would with an IVF clinic. I’d been feeling a massive decline in my memory, motivation and cognitive function for quite a while along with my libido reduced to nothing, erectile problems started etc. My initial screening showed my testosterone levels were low for my age 11.2nmol/L or 322ng/dl.
I decided to ask the doctor to help me out with all of this and got referred to an endocrinologist and went through a lot of testing over the months that progressively saw my testosterone levels drop as below.

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Plenty of blood work and an MRI were ordered before there was a suggestion that I should undergo TRT with Reandron 1000. I’ve been really hesitant about the whole thing but thought I probably couldn’t feel any worse than I did now and my partner thought I should give it a go. I went and got sperm frozen and grabbed the script and headed to the doctor’s office for my first shot.

The initial protocol for loading set by the endocrinologist was basically 1 x 4ml injection every 30 days for 3 months and then recheck my trough levels and sperm analysis 10 weeks after the last injection.

First injection, 3-7 days later I felt like a million bucks. My mind was super sharp again, I was hitting the gym 5 days a week and HARD. I had huge amounts of energy, libido went through the roof, I felt like I was alive again and I was euphorically happy and supercharged. I couldn’t believe I’d been living such a dead life for the past 5-7 years.

Second injection 30 days after the first landed me in hospital with drug induced hepatitis. I started out really sick and vomiting for several days until I started vomiting up red blood at which point I my partner called an ambulance and I went to emergency in the early hours of the morning.

No drugs or alcohol taken other than a multivitamin and preconception multivitamin (zinc).
I had blood drawn for a FBE, LFT 15 minutes before my first injection and my liver function was perfectly normal.

Multiple Biochemical Analysis
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My bloods at the initial hospitalization were as follows.

Date 13/02/19

			                Units    Reference

Estimated GFR 85L
T-BIL 54H U/L (4-20)
ALT 5,530H U/L (5-40)
AST 1,445H U/L (10-40)
GGT 330H U/L (5-50)
ALP 97 g/L (35-110)
T-Protien 66 g/L (66-83)
Albumin 35 g/L (36-47)

Over a 5 day period it has dropped to

Date 18/02/2019

			                Units	Reference

Estimated GFR 84L
T-BIL 22H U/L (4-20)
ALT 845H U/L (5-40)
AST 51H U/L (10-40)
GGT 146H U/L (5-50)
ALP 60 g/L (35-110)
T-Protien 67 g/L (66-83)
Albumin 34 g/L (36-47)

I have another blood test that I’m waiting results for this Monday as I’m now an outpatient of the hospital liver clinic. I just can’t find any justification for this happening? Obviously when I went back to my doctor he terminated TRT immediately and referred to a second endocrinologist who I’m yet to see that said I should have never been given TRT to begin with. I don’t really know what to believe or do now as I felt amazing on it. However I can’t write off my liver.

2

Infrequent injections is TRT done wrong, the studies show infrequent injections is a poor way to replace testosterone and endocrinologist will typically be useless, TRT is not the specialty of endocrinologist, they are trained in thyroid and diabetes treatments. There really is no doctor inside mainstream medicine (NHS or state healthcare) that specialize in TRT.

Your LH is high and testosterone low which suggest your testicles failing. Studies show cardiovascular disease below 440 ng/dL, you absolutely needed TRT and is why you felt amazing on it. Men with lower levels of testosterone live shorter lives and those who are have higher levels live longer, higher quality lives. The majority of doctors view TRT as very negative because they were falsely taught TRT cause prostate cancer which has been debunked.

An endocrinologist will not be very helpful do to the negativity surrounding TRT and all the bad politics, most will try to convince you to get off it even though it makes you feel amazing. It’s going to be nearly almost impossible to find a doctor in state healthcare that’s knowledgeable in TRT.

Balance My Hormones in Dorset is a private clinic that specializes in replacing hormones.

It’s likely you were injected using an unclean syringe and is probably how you contracted hepatitis, TRT doesn’t cause hepatitis, it prevents disease.

Have a look at graph B 6 days out.
Hormone profiles after intramuscular injection of 200mg testosterone enanthate every 2 weeks in patients with hypogonadism

Testosterone Threshold for Increased Cardiovascular Risk in Middle-Aged and Elderly Men:

These data showed that a testosterone threshold of 440 ng/dL was associated with increased Framingham 10-year CVD risk in middle-aged and elderly men. Poor sexual performance, decreased morning erection, and loss of libido had an impact on the testosterone threshold for CVD risk. The threshold level was higher in men with sexual dysfunction. Further study is required to evaluate the validity of these testosterone thresholds for CVD risk.

3

Blockquote
Thanks for the reply. Having a read through the articles you posted. I haven’t contracted viral hepatitis. Rather the hospital is suggesting that Reandron has induced severe liver inflamation - non viral hepatitis and that testosterone supplementation is not safe.

4

That is absurd, clinical studies show otherwise. Your average hospital/doctor isn’t the expert in the field of TRT. This statement from the hospital is reckless. I assure you this hospital will be unable to back up this claim with studies showing TRT is unsafe.

5

Australia’s a strange place. I think the whole thing is absurd, but they are suggesting that Reandron is too much for my liver to handle. It’s utterly crazy, now I’m being forced to stop treatment.

6

That explains everything, Australia is the anti-TRT capital of the world. If I travel there with my legal prescription of testosterone cypionate, they will confiscate it.

Here I thought you were in the UK and had it bad, then the bombshell that is Australia which is even worse.

Government control over healthcare is the problem in the UK and Australia, here in the US if you’re not happy with sick care doctors, you can give them the bird and go private where doctors enjoy more medical freedom.

7

Yeah, I think there’s a bit of a rocky road ahead and a hell of a fight. Reandron made me feel pretty damn good even if it is a sub-optimal approach to TRT, i’d still take it. I know we have Enanthate here, but it’s all doctors office administration.

8

That’s untrue, there are many from Australia who self inject at home.

9

Oh wow I’m in med school that alt is a lot higher than most people’s with hep c

10

They can test for specific antibodies for all forms of viral hep without the presence of them it’s most likely drug related

11

Isn’t Hep C forever? Yes they can get you into remission but you still have it and it can flare up anytime for the rest of your life. I thnk you need to contact a good lawyer.

12

Thankfully I don’y have any forms of viral hep. I was immunized last year for A/B strains of Hep.
It was a drug / chemical induced reaction, problem is they’re just assuming its due to the Testosterone preparation or something in the suspension because there was nothing else in my system. Heading back this morning to the outpatient liver clinic to see where things are at. Hopefully it is a very acute and temporary thing because i’m an otherwise pretty healthy person.

13

Looking a bit better. The hospital thinks it should return to normal in the next 4-6 weeks.
The liver specialist was on board with the idea that it would be very unlikely for bioidentical testosterone to have caused this issue. They are looking at perhaps changing me over to Testosterone Enanthate which might be a bit better off in the long run.
TSH doesn’t look very good anymore though.

bloods
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14

That news saved me from another rant, I get furious when I here nonsense from the those in charge of our health makes comments that may cause someone considering bioidentical hormone therapy a second thought.

Since your post I did find a connection to lower levels of testosterone, high SHBG and hep c.

Chronic hepatitis C infection and sex hormone levels: effect of disease severity and recombinant interferon-alpha therapy.

They are looking at perhaps changing me over to Testosterone Enanthate which might be a bit better off in the long run.

Enanthate is prefered over Sustanon.

15

What do you reckon about the TSH going 0.14 which is below the ref range of 0.5-5.5 mU/L?

16

Lab error, this is seen in those who are on thyroid medicine or hyperthyroidism.

Do you have ranges for Free T3?

17

Yep
TSH 0.14 (0.5-5.5)
fT3 5.8 (2.6-6.0)
fT4 15.4 (9-19)