Anxiety and Depression increased since starting TRT

[TopTenLifter]

I am on my 4th week of TRT. My testosterone was at 265 from a GP lab. Started at 150, 50 3/week. I was having high anxiety on injection day so this week I started 30 EOD. My anxiety and depression is worse than when I started. I am now second guessing using TRT. Should I continue and get labs in 8 weeks to make adjustments? Just tired of feeling this way each day. Sleep is hit or miss. Bad insomnia some nights and sleep ok a few times a week. Looking for some encouragement, advice, etc. I am just on TRT, no AI.

 

[bennettjc]

Good Morning,

Sorry you are going through this!

I'll offer you a minor suggestion/possibility? Is there any way you can get the labs at 6 weeks instead of 8 weeks? 6 is generally good enough. You are in the 4th week. If you are going to have to wait 8 more weeks to get your first level that would be 12 weeks total - way too long in my opinion.

Anything else going on in your life? Relationship issues?

Best,
Bennett

 

[TopTenLifter]

Good Morning,

Sorry you are going through this!

I'll offer you a minor suggestion/possibility? Is there any way you can get the labs at 6 weeks instead of 8 weeks? 6 is generally good enough. You are in the 4th week. If you are going to have to wait 8 more weeks to get your first level that would be 12 weeks total - way too long in my opinion.

Anything else going on in your life? Relationship issues?

Best,
Bennett

Yes, looking for the most inexpensive way to get labs done specifically for TRT. Thanks for the advice to get them at 6 weeks. And, yes, a lot of life stressors going right now. I was hoping TRT would help with anxiety/depression. It is actually worse. Relationship is great. My libido is up which my wife loves.

 

[bennettjc]

As an anxiety and depression sufferer I am very sympathetic. I am an impatient mofo and waiting those 6 weeks for T levels is way too long. But it must be done. My current MD told me to get them at 4 weeks but I know from the half-life of the Testosterone Enanthate that 4 weeks is too soon.

Fantastic that the increased libido is helping your relationship. I've been reading lately from some guys where the addition of TRT and the new person that sometimes emerges hurts relationship!

 

[TopTenLifter]

As an anxiety and depression sufferer I am very sympathetic. I am an impatient mofo and waiting those 6 weeks for T levels is way too long. But it must be done. My current MD told me to get them at 4 weeks but I know from the half-life of the Testosterone Enanthate that 4 weeks is too soon.

Fantastic that the increased libido is helping your relationship. I've been reading lately from some guys where the addition of TRT and the new person that sometimes emerges hurts relationship!

Have you just started too? Has TRT helped with your anxiety? Researching labs right now to get full panel.

 

[bennettjc]

I essentially just started. You can read my story here, posted last night. Introduction From A Fairly New Member - Brooklyn NY

But I have been on a low dose, 40mg SubQ twice a week. Plus HCG 250iu twice a week. Blood tests in about two weeks.

My anxiety and depression had been pretty much in check prior to the Testosterone SubQ But I do think having been on a probably higher blood level of Free T that I had a bit more energy.

Coincidentally I just saw the below elsewhere that may address your current situation to an extent:
"Until you body adjust your hormones are all out of wack so you may be a bit moody."

"Hormones are shifting. You'll be a little moody until your endocrinologic system balances everything out. It's dealing with gonadal suppression and increasing your estrogen to balance out the amount of new testosterone your putting in. 2 weeks yours should be ok. If not get blood work.."

"Try to keep your blood pressure normal.No caffiene, no sugars, work out and maybe use cbd or weed to temper your anxiety."

 

[TopTenLifter]

I essentially just started. You can read my story here, posted last night. Introduction From A Fairly New Member - Brooklyn NY

But I have been on a low dose, 40mg SubQ twice a week. Plus HCG 250iu twice a week. Blood tests in about two weeks.

My anxiety and depression had been pretty much in check prior to the Testosterone SubQ But I do think having been on a probably higher blood level of Free T that I had a bit more energy.

Coincidentally I just saw the below elsewhere that may address your current situation to an extent:
"Until you body adjust your hormones are all out of wack so you may be a bit moody."

"Hormones are shifting. You'll be a little moody until your endocrinologic system balances everything out. It's dealing with gonadal suppression and increasing your estrogen to balance out the amount of new testosterone your putting in. 2 weeks yours should be ok. If not get blood work.."

"Try to keep your blood pressure normal.No caffiene, no sugars, work out and maybe use cbd or weed to temper your anxiety."

Thank you. I have been avoiding alcohol and caffeine. My wife, a nurse, took my BP last weekend and it was 124/74. She suggested CBD.

 

[Willyt]

You may want to consider cutting out all other supplements (if you’re taking any) just to make sure nothing else is contributing to the anxiety.

For example, I belatedly realized that DHEA was causing a surge in anxiety when combined with TRT. Didn’t bother me so much on standalone basis, but something about the combination of the two.

 

[TopTenLifter]

I am just on TRT. I am on melatonin, 3mg. I don’t know if that would cause anxiety.

 

[Cataceous]

... My current MD told me to get them at 4 weeks but I know from the half-life of the Testosterone Enanthate that 4 weeks is too soon.
...

In fact four weeks is adequate to get a pretty good idea. We encourage people to wait a little longer, but conventional formulations of both cypionate and enanthate have half-lives of about five days. Four weeks is over five half-lives, implying serum levels of testosterone are getting pretty close to their stable values. This means you can use a test at this point to ensure you're not running really high or low. This is quite different from evaluating how you feel on a given protocol. For this you should wait another couple months for your body to finish adapting.

 

[bennettjc]

Cataceous,

I appreciate your stating that the half-life of T. Enanthate is about 5 days. And that 4 weeks is a decent interval to get blood levels after a change in dosing. This will assuage my impatience a bit and make life easier otherwise.

I've read a lot of things in less reliable places (aka various websites) like " testosterone enanthate has a variable half-life of between 5 and 10 days" or "Testosterone Enanthate contains the carboxylic acid ester, enanthoic acid. It has a half-life of approximately 7-9 days."

But then in a random published paper: "Mean half-life estimates for testosterone-enanthate and dihydrotestosterone were 5 and 7 days, respectively."

These are all estimates, and of course vary per person, their SHBG, etc. But are there what might be considered definitive sources addressing this issue? I checked my old "Goodman & Gillman's" Pharmacology Text. They don't get into it. Or perhaps there cannot be a definitive source for such matters?

Best,
Bennett

 

[Cataceous]

...
These are all estimates, and of course vary per person, their SHBG, etc. But are there what might be considered definitive sources addressing this issue? I checked my old "Goodman & Gillman's" Pharmacology Text. They don't get into it. Or perhaps there cannot be a definitive source for such matters?
...

I haven't seen anything with enough data to be considered completely definitive. Older work by Behr and Nieschlag seems to be pretty well done. There is more recent work also supporting the ~5-day half-life, though I don't have it at my fingertips. There are also quite a few instances where anecdotal data from the forums agrees. These are cases in which a guy reports two testosterone measurements from the same injection cycle that are clearly post-peak.

I have to hedge my statements about these testosterone esters with the term "conventional formulations" because the clinical trial for XYOSTED comes up with a much longer half-life, ostensibly because this testosterone enanthate product does not contain benzyl alcohol.

SHBG has little or no effect on the apparent half-life of a testosterone ester. The half-life is governed by the rate of absorption of the injected depot, which depends on things such as the particular ester, the depot size, the surrounding tissue, activity level, and of course the "inactive" components of the injection, including carrier oil and preservatives such as benzyl alcohol.

 

[DixieWrecked]

check sleep apnea. That solved my issues.