I’m looking for a new provider. Who are you using and what is your cost if you don’t mind sharing.
I self administer using UGL sources online for about $20 per month.
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Hone, $120 per month, Labs and visit with a DR every 3 months included.
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Ugl = underground?
Yes.
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My general practitioner prescribes it through insurance and it winds up costing about $7 per month.
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I don’t think my insurance will pick up the cost.
It’s worth checking. A doctor who understands trt can input codes that make it a medical issue vs a testosterone retail clinic. You don’t even have to have low numbers. They’ll use a quality of life index instead. I can’t get my guy to prescribe ancillary stuff but he does keep me at 200mg per week with arimidex on hand.
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Thats a good point. I have a doc appointment next week. I’ll bring it up. My last doc was mad that i was on it because he thought i was getting scammed and it was unnecessary. I’m seeing a new doc, maybe she’ll be more receptive.
I get it from my GP/doctor. With insurance my copay is $20 & he prescribes Test Cyp @ 200mg/wk. He will write a script for a 10mL vial and add on like 4 refills…BUT, his office will call me every 4 months and say I need to come in for blood work. My doc is very adamant that as part of my TRT treatment, I have to get regular blood work done.
He checks not only my hormones like test/estrogen but he pays close attention to my liver, kidneys, my hemocrit, especially my PSA levels, CBC, white blood cells, fasting glucose, etc. and pretty much everything.
With my prescription insurance my testosterone is $5 [generic], so, not bad. He also writes me arimidex if my estrogen gets out of whack, but that’s not too often. I don’t pay a dime for that at the pharmacy for some reason…I guess because it’s a cancer-related drug?
If you are truly hypogonadal with respect to the testosterone levels on your blood work and symptoms, your doctor should have no issues writing it up like that for insurance so that you can be prescribed testosterone; it is an actual medical condition. It’d be the same as if your thyroid levels came back extremely low, then your doctor could prescribe you cytomel.
If you have decent health insurance/prescription insurance, and an open minded doctor, then I HIGHLY recommend you pursue that route to get your prescription TRT. Those TRT clinics are great if you don’t have health insurance, but unfortunately they cannot match the prices you’d pay a doctor and pharmacy with insurance helping foot the bill. But, for those who don’t have insurance that truly need TRT, it’s awesome that those places exist.
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I’m going to mention it next week, thanks. I have a feeling it won’t fly because I’m already on testosterone through a men’s clinic. But i won’t know if i don’t ask. My previous doc thoughy my test levels were fine at 400, but I was a mess. Thats how I wound up at a mens clinic.
I shopped a couple doctors until I found one who not only was willing to prescribe test but in discussions sounded like he legitimately understands it and probably even uses it himself.
Like the poster above, he runs full panel bloodwork every time, but we are on a six month cadence. He’s happy keeping me at 900-1100 as long as health markers are in line where some of the doctors I talked to looked for minimum thresholds of “normal” which is a giant difference. Especially because as they began to administer test and production shut off they would’ve essentially dropped me below where I already was naturally in order to maintain the least amount of treatment possible philosophy.
If you have insurance you should be able to log in to their website and pull a list of in network providers to call and discuss. It should be as easy as transferring a prescription in your case, which might actually help you clear some hurdles.
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Royal Medical Center. It’s a clinic in FL, I live in MD. $195 a month. Multiple labs while getting dialed in. Then annually. More if you need it, they’ve told me if I don’t feel well to just call and they’ll order them for me. I take 200mg weekly and they provide plenty of pins, either IM or SQ, my choice. And currently enclomiphene. In the past they provided HCG. Shipped to my house. Yeah it’s not cheap. Better than a lot of clinics. They’re fine with me peaking over 1200. They also don’t get worked up over my red cell issues. I was always borderline or just over range since I was young. No underlying issues. So once on TRT my reds went up more. I do therapeutic phlebotomy a few times a year, but most of the time I am a little over range. My PCP would not allow my reds to be out of range and would rather I drop my dose. So I don’t bother doing this through her. For all else I think she is a great doctor, so I stay. My insurance won’t cover anyway. Im about 6 years in at this point and have felt great since about a month in to starting.
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I like the way your doc sounds. My current doc…the price has been going up every year and i feel like the number is just something he pulls out his butt. And then i feel like he tries to sell me something new every time i see him…hgh, nandralone, or some other under the tongue medicine. Then it feels like he’s in cahoots with some other clinic and then he wants me to go there and pay $120 for a phlebotomy. It’s getting annoying. Sometimes my iron is too high to give blood sometimes it isn’t, but i take an asprin everyday.
So you have a guy willing to work with you on ancillaries while proactively monitoring labs and results…. Why is this a problem?
He keeps raising the price every year on just the testosterone. Started off at $1800 for a year, now we’re up to $2800 just for test and bloodwork once a year.
I don’t know if you live in a decent sized city or not, but if you do I would HIGHLY advise that you try some other general physicians in your area. If you are able to look them up online, lean towards ones who are on the younger side as they seem to be more open to new treatment protocols and also are a bit more willing to entertain prescribing TRT to patients with multidose vials, so patients can self-administer their own injections.
As mentioned earlier by myself and @Njord , many of these types of doctors will want you to come in several times a year so that they can monitor your health via blood work; and that is definitely a GOOD thing. In fact, I would be leery of a doctor who, while open to prescribing TRT, did NOT require you to come in for blood work as they would not truly have your overall health and well being in mind.
As far as hgh, nandrolone, etc…you really don’t need those items if all that you are after is true TRT, not to mention the cost for those things can add up quickly, especially for HGH. As a former competitive bodybuilder, HGH is good for your skin, aiding in fat loss, helping you hold onto lean muscle tissue in calorie depravation, etc. but IMHO it really is a very overpriced drug. Not to mention, if we are talking about actual human grade, pharmaceutical HGH like Humatrope or Nordtropin, NO insurance will help pay for that and the out of pocket cost can be thousands of dollars a month. The cost/benefit ratio for this drug is highly skewed on the cost side while the benefit side is quite small. You really just need Testosterone and maybe some HCG/clomiphene if you are concerned about maintaining your fertility. I am in my 40s and done with kids, so I don’t worry about those ancillary items. I can get Arimidex from my doctor should I need it, and that is a good thing.
Look for other doctors! Think of it this way, YOU are the patient seeking treatment and YOU are the one who will be taking on the financial cost, so you should have the option to choose a physician who you think will best be able to treat you, with a treatment plan that you are on board with. If it’s not a good fit, keep on searching as there are doctors out there who are supportive of male hormone replacement/optimization. Last, testosterone is not some brand new, difficult to manufacture drug, it is VERY cheap to produce so your cost for the doctor and the drug should not be very expensive. If it is quoted to be so by a potential doctor, again, move on to the next one! $1800 to $2800! WTF, that is a goddam ripoff and all that money is going straight into that doctor’s pocket. If I can get testosterone from my local pharmacy, WITHOUT even using insurance, for approximately $35-40…yeah, that’s robbery!
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My (cash pay) clinic is $199 a month for self/inject. Includes labs every 3 months, consults, anastrozole if needed and pretty much anything you’ll need (obv except HCG or other big add ons). We are $225 a month for onsite injections weekly.
Not that its a huge deal but we also track our guys health through InBody scans and give them general wellness guidance too. Consults on demand whenever requested too vs just at set intervals.
I’ve done my research and for non-insurance in my market (DFW) for the level of service we provide we are amongst the least expensive.
The TRT clinics who take insurance get themselves tripped up when setting rates for charging non-insurance clients and end up being really expensive a lot of the time for that cohort.
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My current clinic does inbody scans but bloodwork only once a year, maybe twice if I’m lucky and that seems to be only if the doc remembers. I do self injections as well. He’s not a bad guy but I get the feeling of money being the top priority in the last few visits.