Short version: mid-50s male, tried TRT six years ago (w/probably a poor protocol) for anxiety/depression/motivation, had some brief, wonderful ‘honeymoon’ effects, but stopped after two weeks due to worsened BPH. I’m now very impressed by what I’ve read of Dr. Saya and considering trying again under his care, but I wonder if my BPH susceptibility makes me ineligible. Further challenges: I seem to be a Cialis non-responder, plus I don’t want to take finasteride.
Long version: While I can’t say I feel “horrible”, I still have mild anxiety and depression, nothing strikes me as fun, I’ve gotten notably more forgetful and “brain foggy”, I have zero interest in sex, and am adding fat and losing muscle. I have a physique that might even be a bit worse than this:
In fact, I have all of the issues that drove me to try TRT five years ago, but they’ve gradually worsened since then.
BPH: Normally, I have mild but very manageable BPH with adequate but not 'great' urine flow. But it's never bothered me, nor do I feel I have many nighttime trips to the bathroom.
Earlier TRT experience:
About five years ago, I did TRT with someone who prescribed:
Test Cyp 200 @ 26mg/daily injections
1/4mg Anastrazole daily, except ½ mg MWF
HCG (can’t find notes on how much)
100mg pregnenolone daily
30mg DHEA daily
Result: I felt amazing quickly. In fact, the first night I wanted to run wind sprints at 1 am. (I know this will be attributed to a placebo effect, but I wasn’t expecting TRT to work.) That week confidence soared, I was energetic, super attracted to the opposite sex – it was awesome. Yet after just a few days at this dose noticed slowed urination, so my dosage was reduced to 20 mg/day.
But urination was still slow, so I was told to pause for a week. Urination seem to return to baseline, so then I tried again for another week. After a week, urination was again slow, and I had a burning sensation in my scalp that made me fear all my hair would fall out. The last 'straw' for me was when defecating one day, I felt the bowel movement actually pushing my enlarged prostate out of the way as I defecated. I literally had to “push” to get the bowel movement past my prostate. At this point, I was scared I’d have to go to the E.R. at some point to be catheterized to keep my bladder from bursting, so I gave up on TRT. Counting the 'paused' week, my adventure lasted a total of 21 days.
(Recently, I read a post by Dr. Saya where he explained that daily injections can actually have much stronger effect than less frequent injections, so I think this is part of what I experienced.)
As for my scalp, I did wind up losing some hair on the crown and had some recession on the left and right front – basically, like Jude Law’s hair -- but this has gradually happened over the past five years.
Present day: Having “bearable” yet steadily worsening symptoms drove me to find this forum. I decided to try again and see if I could find a doctor who was confident that I could be on TRT successfully, despite my BPH.
So late 2016, I scheduled an appointment with a TRT doctor in my town. I was told to get labs done before the appointment, and here they are:
http://i.imgur.com/z1YkZZB.png
I met with the doctor and liked him a lot. But even though I told him my history, my hesitations about Finasteride and emphasized wanting to start slowly, this was the protocol he prescribed:
Test Cyp 200, 1 ml weekly
Anastrazole 1mg EOD
Finasteride 5mg daily
This protocol seemed aggressive to me, especially in the light of my previous experience, but it seems to be this guy's standard protocol. I called back to discuss things with him and was not able to reach him, and instead spoke to a nurse in his office. She told me that I would need the finasteride if I wanted to avoid hairloss and BPH symptoms. When I asked about Cialis as an alternate way of controlling BPH, she noted that Cialis might help the BPH, but would do nothing to control hairloss.
I guess the aggressive protocol, coupled with an inability to reach him after the initial hour consult, created in me a lack of confidence in this guy. He's not cheap, but it all feels a bit "wham, bam, thank you, man" to me.
So when the supplies arrived, I never started, and instead thought about waiting to consult with Dr. Saya.
[By the way, I did test the Cialis, but it seems to have no effect on me. (Viagra works well for me.)]
So I do want to try TRT again, but I’m left with my key fear: Will there be a more gradual or “gentle” TRT protocol I can do (and/or a way of keeping my BPH at bay) without Finasteride so that I can have some of the benefits of TRT? Or are there many men who simply can't do TRT due to BPH?
I'm happy to pay what Dr. Saya costs, and to wait to talk to him, but with my BPH history, is there any point? I'd love to hear advice from other forum members who may have dealt with BPH.
(By the way, I’m kind of amazed by the number of members on this forum with deep knowledge of this subject who are willing to help – this place is really kind of astounding.)
Long version: While I can’t say I feel “horrible”, I still have mild anxiety and depression, nothing strikes me as fun, I’ve gotten notably more forgetful and “brain foggy”, I have zero interest in sex, and am adding fat and losing muscle. I have a physique that might even be a bit worse than this:
In fact, I have all of the issues that drove me to try TRT five years ago, but they’ve gradually worsened since then.
BPH: Normally, I have mild but very manageable BPH with adequate but not 'great' urine flow. But it's never bothered me, nor do I feel I have many nighttime trips to the bathroom.
Earlier TRT experience:
About five years ago, I did TRT with someone who prescribed:
Test Cyp 200 @ 26mg/daily injections
1/4mg Anastrazole daily, except ½ mg MWF
HCG (can’t find notes on how much)
100mg pregnenolone daily
30mg DHEA daily
Result: I felt amazing quickly. In fact, the first night I wanted to run wind sprints at 1 am. (I know this will be attributed to a placebo effect, but I wasn’t expecting TRT to work.) That week confidence soared, I was energetic, super attracted to the opposite sex – it was awesome. Yet after just a few days at this dose noticed slowed urination, so my dosage was reduced to 20 mg/day.
But urination was still slow, so I was told to pause for a week. Urination seem to return to baseline, so then I tried again for another week. After a week, urination was again slow, and I had a burning sensation in my scalp that made me fear all my hair would fall out. The last 'straw' for me was when defecating one day, I felt the bowel movement actually pushing my enlarged prostate out of the way as I defecated. I literally had to “push” to get the bowel movement past my prostate. At this point, I was scared I’d have to go to the E.R. at some point to be catheterized to keep my bladder from bursting, so I gave up on TRT. Counting the 'paused' week, my adventure lasted a total of 21 days.
(Recently, I read a post by Dr. Saya where he explained that daily injections can actually have much stronger effect than less frequent injections, so I think this is part of what I experienced.)
As for my scalp, I did wind up losing some hair on the crown and had some recession on the left and right front – basically, like Jude Law’s hair -- but this has gradually happened over the past five years.
Present day: Having “bearable” yet steadily worsening symptoms drove me to find this forum. I decided to try again and see if I could find a doctor who was confident that I could be on TRT successfully, despite my BPH.
So late 2016, I scheduled an appointment with a TRT doctor in my town. I was told to get labs done before the appointment, and here they are:
http://i.imgur.com/z1YkZZB.png
I met with the doctor and liked him a lot. But even though I told him my history, my hesitations about Finasteride and emphasized wanting to start slowly, this was the protocol he prescribed:
Test Cyp 200, 1 ml weekly
Anastrazole 1mg EOD
Finasteride 5mg daily
This protocol seemed aggressive to me, especially in the light of my previous experience, but it seems to be this guy's standard protocol. I called back to discuss things with him and was not able to reach him, and instead spoke to a nurse in his office. She told me that I would need the finasteride if I wanted to avoid hairloss and BPH symptoms. When I asked about Cialis as an alternate way of controlling BPH, she noted that Cialis might help the BPH, but would do nothing to control hairloss.
I guess the aggressive protocol, coupled with an inability to reach him after the initial hour consult, created in me a lack of confidence in this guy. He's not cheap, but it all feels a bit "wham, bam, thank you, man" to me.
So when the supplies arrived, I never started, and instead thought about waiting to consult with Dr. Saya.
[By the way, I did test the Cialis, but it seems to have no effect on me. (Viagra works well for me.)]
So I do want to try TRT again, but I’m left with my key fear: Will there be a more gradual or “gentle” TRT protocol I can do (and/or a way of keeping my BPH at bay) without Finasteride so that I can have some of the benefits of TRT? Or are there many men who simply can't do TRT due to BPH?
I'm happy to pay what Dr. Saya costs, and to wait to talk to him, but with my BPH history, is there any point? I'd love to hear advice from other forum members who may have dealt with BPH.
(By the way, I’m kind of amazed by the number of members on this forum with deep knowledge of this subject who are willing to help – this place is really kind of astounding.)
