Anxiety and TRT

[Chris9150]

Hello,
I have posted on here before about my start of TRT. In June of 2022 I developed pretty severe anxiety out of the blue. My background I never really had any anxiety my entire life. Maybe here and there with like big things that happen. I tested low testosterone right after getting Covid in late May. Anyway my TRT journey started on sept 7th. If you want to go back and read my changes in amounts you can. Anyway

My question is if low testosterone is the cause of my anxiety would it be fixed by now. I was in 100MG once a week and would still have anxiety. After 8 weeks of this dose I just switched to 50MG twice a week. My labs were all good. My trough was about 674 on the 7th day.

Doing research it seems some guys it can take longer to help alleviate the anxiety. I read for some around 4-6 months. Has anyone had a similar issue or heard of a similar issue were it took that long to get the anxiety to be gone or back to normal. I have only been on my new protocol for 1.5 weeks and I know it takes a lot longer when switching things. Just curious if I somehow developed an anxiety disorder during the process or this is 100% my testosterone and I just need ti be more patient.

I have noticed better sex drive, better energy however I still get anxiety and I am trying see if this is completely normal or not.

Thanks. I plan on staying the course no matter what for at least 6 months to a year.

Thanks for anyone who has had or heard of a similar issue.

Ps I have been in my new dose for 10 weeks now.

Chris

 

[Systemlord]

My question is if low testosterone is the cause of my anxiety would it be fixed by now.

If you’ve notice a better sex drive, better energy and haven’t notice a reduction or improvement in your anxiety by now, even a little, then that tells me the anxiety isn’t hormone related.

You should have felt some relief by now, considering you’ve notice improvements in other areas.

TRT isn’t a panacea, it doesn’t always cure all your ills, but it can help.

 

[Systemlord]

Covid-19 survivors are seeing elevated rates of anxiety, depression and functional decline and cognitive changes lasting several months out.

Did the anxiety started after covid?

 

[Systemlord]

When I started TRT, on my first dosage, I notice a massive improvement in anxiety and depression immediately!

 

[DS3]

Hello,
I have posted on here before about my start of TRT. In June of 2022 I developed pretty severe anxiety out of the blue. My background I never really had any anxiety my entire life. Maybe here and there with like big things that happen. I tested low testosterone right after getting Covid in late May. Anyway my TRT journey started on sept 7th. If you want to go back and read my changes in amounts you can. Anyway

My question is if low testosterone is the cause of my anxiety would it be fixed by now. I was in 100MG once a week and would still have anxiety. After 8 weeks of this dose I just switched to 50MG twice a week. My labs were all good. My trough was about 674 on the 7th day.

Doing research it seems some guys it can take longer to help alleviate the anxiety. I read for some around 4-6 months. Has anyone had a similar issue or heard of a similar issue were it took that long to get the anxiety to be gone or back to normal. I have only been on my new protocol for 1.5 weeks and I know it takes a lot longer when switching things. Just curious if I somehow developed an anxiety disorder during the process or this is 100% my testosterone and I just need ti be more patient.

I have noticed better sex drive, better energy however I still get anxiety and I am trying see if this is completely normal or not.

Thanks. I plan on staying the course no matter what for at least 6 months to a year.

Thanks for anyone who has had or heard of a similar issue.

Ps I have been in my new dose for 10 weeks now.

Chris

Exogenous testosterone and HCG have both consistently elevated anxiety levels for me. I have not found a sustainable solution to this issue. My comment is merely to help you feel normal in your experience. Experiencing anxiety on TRT is fairy regularly talked about.

 

[Gladiator]

Lots of people develop anxiety when they start trt.
Lots of people have anxiety before starting trt.
Some say after they get dialled in it goes away. Others say they had to stop trt for it to go away.

Everyone is different so you need to try find what’s best for you.

 

[Belekas]

Theres so much more about anxiety then just a testosterone protocol Chris. "Context" is the key. I know its hard when you are feeling not well but hang in there and try to exhaust all other options to get healthier. Have you measured your BP? Hows your weight? Hows your diet? How are your stress levels? How is your sleep? How is your training? Other health issues? Other meds, supps, drugs? And so on and so forth. The thing is we all have some anxiety in life I believe and when starting TRT it can get worse or better depending on how sensitive you are, to put it in simple words. I have anxiety on some days more and on some days less but I'm fine with it and learned to live with it. Work around it and try to minimize it naturally as much as I can only then looking for outside solutions. As you said you didn't have it before you started treatment so I'd say just hang in there and tick every other box, like I said before, to get healthier, and monitor yourself. But also try not to stress too much about it or it will get worse. It's a fine line. Also pull labs and check your other blood markers as thats least you can do. Try to get more active and stay positive. It gets worse before it gets better. Theres plenty of good information and good folks on this forum that are willing to share their experiences with you but understand that nobody will put in the work and do what needs to be done for you. You'll get as much as you put in, hopefully. Best of luck!

 

[Chris9150]

Sorry if I sounded confusing. My anxiety started months before I started TRT. It was the reason I started TRT in the first place. Because I never had anxiety and when it first started my blood was checked and the only thing that was low was my testosterone. Which is why I started it. It just has not gone away at this point. My weight is good and all my other labs are good. Exercise is also good. Eating could be better but not horrible.

Thanks for all the information. I don’t think TRT is causing it as I had anxiety months before I started it. The anxiety was out of the blue for me. My NP thinks it was from being low on testosterone. This is why I started this process.

 

[Chris9150]

When I started TRT, on my first dosage, I notice a massive improvement in anxiety and depression immediately!

Yes it was directly after Covid. I started not sleeping which has never happened to me. Then I started having day time anxiety because I was worried about me not being able to sleep. Which turned in to me relating everything into anxiety stuff that I never worried about before. My Nurse Practitioner ran a lot of number on inflammation and other things. The only thing she noticed was my testosterone was extremely low 290ish. My sleep issues continued for sometime.

Fast forward to today. My sleep has significantly improved. So feeling better but I am left with anxiety sometimes. Sometimes I can go days and be feeling normal. Other it’s like everyday. Been a rough road. My nurse practitioner said body’s are funny. She said basically it can take longer and to be patient.

 

[Gman86]

i agree with @Systemlord. TRT isn’t a magic bullet. There’s sooooooo much more that goes into how we feel mentally and physically. TRT just corrects 3 hormones in the body basically. Test, DHT and estrogen. And can even mess with other downstream hormones. But point is that there’s many other things that u need to pay attention to when it comes to feeling good. Imo, diet plays one of the biggest roles when it comes to how we feel. I could post and endless amount of info on the subject, in regards to mental health and anxiety and depression, but here’s a few vids where they talk about it. 1st clip go to 16 mins in and he mentions how he thought he would have anxiety for the rest of his life, but through diet it completely went away. That whole vid is absolutely worth watching btw. His story is really inspecting. And then the 2nd vid is also one that’s very much worth watching the whole thing. But go to 3 mins and 50 seconds in and she talks about basically being almost suicidal before, and now she literally couldn’t be happier every single day, all because of the dietary changes she made. And these people both used completely opposite diets to get to these points. So it’s not like u have to just eat one specific way to get there. Although, I do absolutely advocate for a carnivore type diet over a raw vegan/ fruitarian way of eating, but I’m very open minded and clearly people can have success with either. Just want to see people happy, don’t really care how they go about it. I’m never married to an idea or one way of doing anything in life

 

[Gman86]

And for the record, I pretty much never have any depression or anxiety no matter what protocol I’m on, and been on HRT almost 10 years. And I attribute that to being a health freak when it comes to diet and lifestyle factors outside of HRT

 

[Systemlord]

Yes it was directly after Covid. I started not sleeping which has never happened to me. Then I started having day time anxiety because I was worried about me not being able to sleep.

It’s possible covid affected your brain, causing poor sleep that lead to a decline in testosterone. TRT may not be able to bypass the damage caused by covid, which could be inflammation and a lack of oxygen to the brain during the covid infection.

The hidden long-term cognitive effects of COVID-19 - Harvard Health

it is becoming increasingly clear that COVID-19 affects the nervous system along with the respiratory system. Research is suggesting that this may result in long-term neurologic damage in those who...

www.health.harvard.edu

 

[Chris9150]

I believe the covid affected your brain, causing poor sleep that lead to a decline in testosterone. TRT may not be able to bypass the damage caused by covid, which could be inflammation and a lack of oxygen to the brain.

All my inflammation markers have been checked and I am good and they were checked post Covid relatively close to when I got Covid.

 

[Systemlord]

All my inflammation markers have been checked and I am good and they were checked post Covid relatively close to when I got Covid.

None of this means you couldn’t have suffered brain injury from covid. All of your healthy problems starts right after covid.

Linked above->

Particularly troubling is increasing evidence that there may be mild — but very real — brain damage that occurs in many survivors, causing pervasive yet subtle cognitive, behavioral, and psychological problems.

If it looks like duck, walks like a duck, quacks like duck and swims like a duck, it’s probably a duck.

 

[Chris9150]

I am not trying to argue with you but my anxiety wasn’t immediate after. So I miss spoke me struggling with sleep I think was my primary cause for the start of my anxiety.

 

[Gladiator]

Sorry if I sounded confusing. My anxiety started months before I started TRT. It was the reason I started TRT in the first place. Because I never had anxiety and when it first started my blood was checked and the only thing that was low was my testosterone. Which is why I started it. It just has not gone away at this point. My weight is good and all my other labs are good. Exercise is also good. Eating could be better but not horrible.

Thanks for all the information. I don’t think TRT is causing it as I had anxiety months before I started it. The anxiety was out of the blue for me. My NP thinks it was from being low on testosterone. This is why I started this process.

You may never get ride of your anxiety from using testosterone. You could need the dreaded medication everyone gets given. Hopefully you will find a protocol that works and it helps your anxiety. Just don’t rely on trt for it.

 

[Systemlord]

I am not trying to argue with you but my anxiety wasn’t immediate after.

I understand, however it can take weeks for symptoms of having covid to develop. I read a case of a mother, who was a psychologist who 2-3 months after covid couldn’t stop thinking about wanting to cut her children’s heads off and is now insane locked up in an asylum for the seriously ill.

So I miss spoke me struggling with sleep I think was my primary cause for the start of my anxiety.

Good quality of sleep is critical for hormone production, including growth hormone as well as testosterone.

 

[Okrhit]

I was dialed in a couple years go, and on a pretty conservative TRT protocol. 40mg EOD, 500 HCG twice a week. 100mg DIM every night. Everything worked great, except my sleep wasn't the best at the time.

My wife of 17 years dropped the divorce bomb on me from nowhere. I had never had anxiety a day in my life. Started having panic attacks. Eventually dropped TRT cold turkey, no restart medications at all. Dropped 40 lbs in a matter of two months.

Went to therapy, took antidepressants for a few months, got back in the gym. Had to learn coping skills I never needed to deal with anxiety. Took almost two years off TRT and now I'm back on.

If anything, for me, TRT makes me more emotional because I let E2 do what it wants. I don't use an AI other than DIM, which may not be doing anything anyway.

I want to echo what others have said: the hormones can't solve everything. I think they make some things better. I'm less bothered by aches and pains, and mentally clearer with them. I have to deal with feeling certain things more than I would like and some heightened anxiety, especially in the day after an HCG shot.

Spend time figuring out YOUR triggers and YOUR coping skills. When I was acutely in distress, I figured out when I woke up, my anxiety was through the roof... probably directly related to cyclic cortisol levels. I started every day with a cold shower. That would get me to the point where I could carry on with a morning routine and by the evening I was fine.

Now, I rely on my friends, the gym, and the knowledge that I made it through the worst thing that ever happened to me.

You can do this, brother. Keep asking for help and looking for answers.

 

[Gman86]

I was dialed in a couple years go, and on a pretty conservative TRT protocol. 40mg EOD, 500 HCG twice a week. 100mg DIM every night. Everything worked great, except my sleep wasn't the best at the time.

My wife of 17 years dropped the divorce bomb on me from nowhere. I had never had anxiety a day in my life. Started having panic attacks. Eventually dropped TRT cold turkey, no restart medications at all. Dropped 40 lbs in a matter of two months.

Went to therapy, took antidepressants for a few months, got back in the gym. Had to learn coping skills I never needed to deal with anxiety. Took almost two years off TRT and now I'm back on.

If anything, for me, TRT makes me more emotional because I let E2 do what it wants. I don't use an AI other than DIM, which may not be doing anything anyway.

I want to echo what others have said: the hormones can't solve everything. I think they make some things better. I'm less bothered by aches and pains, and mentally clearer with them. I have to deal with feeling certain things more than I would like and some heightened anxiety, especially in the day after an HCG shot.

Spend time figuring out YOUR triggers and YOUR coping skills. When I was acutely in distress, I figured out when I woke up, my anxiety was through the roof... probably directly related to cyclic cortisol levels. I started every day with a cold shower. That would get me to the point where I could carry on with a morning routine and by the evening I was fine.

Now, I rely on my friends, the gym, and the knowledge that I made it through the worst thing that ever happened to me.

You can do this, brother. Keep asking for help and looking for answers.

Man powerful story. Thanks for the anecdote and sharing

 

[Chris9150]

A little update on myself. I’ve been on TRT for approximately one year and feel back to normal. No issues whatsoever. Thank you everyone on this form for your advice and your guidance I really do appreciate it.