WrenchHead80
Member
Hello everyone,
To start I just turned 37 years old. I'm 6'3" and 215 pounds with id say around 15-20% body fat. I've taken Zoloft a SSRI since I was a teenager for anxiety at 100mg a day. I feel that pill is the reason I have low T (based on low FSH and LH #'s). I still take it today. I exercise twice a week in my gym with free weights and run or bike ride 2 days a week also. I would exercise more but I become run down and over trained fast now these last few years since I started exercising in 2004. I always eat right, slept right and trained right but it has always been a battle. So around the age of 23 I asked my Dr to test my TEST. At that time I was around 340 something. He showed me on the chart it was in the norm and not to worry, at the time I believed drs so I said okay. Today after starting to educate myself I realized how wrong he was for saying those numbers at that age were ok. But at that time I said okay and carried on with my life for years.
For the last few years I have had no energy, desire, focus, strength, libido and my mood is in decline. I decided I had to do something for my family and self. I haven't made any progress in a gym in years and had to cut back my exercising to the current twice a week only so I wouldn't feel completely exhausted for the rest of the week. I remembered my test was low years ago and decided to ask the Dr this year to test my TEST again because of all the symptoms I had. So he said sure. My test results came back with
Total test 243 (249-836)
Free test 47.73 (35.0-92.6)
SHBG 17.6 (16.5-55.9)
T3 total 96 (80-200)
FSH 3.4 (1.5-12.4)
LH 3.8 (1.7-8.6)
He would only give me the andro gel. After getting the script I decided to look into it before getting it. Between the crazy price and being worried about my wife or kid touching it I decided to look into a clinic.
The first one I called the guy wanted to start me at 200 test Cypionate a week (based on BW) a AI and HCG as needed. They would show me the first few times till I felt comfortable doing it myself if needed and then have everything shipped to my house afterwards to do it myself. I'd also get blood work done at all proper times. When he said all of this and with my back round with anxiety my whole life I felt that was too extreme lol. Now how I feel stupid. The second place said they would start me at 90 and if I felt fine raise it every week by ten till I felt great and at 7 weeks I'd have blood work to confirm where my numbers are. I ask about other things being needed and they said ONLY a grape seed extract pill a day (there AI). I felt more comfortable at the time with that and my limited knowledge of this stuff at the time. So I started with place two.
First day Tuesday I meet with head dr will call her dr C. Who told me we would start at 90 of Test C if I felt fine the first week we would go up by 10 every week for a few weeks till I felt great and have blood work drawn to confirm I'm in a good range with all my numbers by week 7. When I went back the second week I saw dr C's assistant dr and said I felt fine after the first shot. She then said she was going to give me another 90 shot which is when I said dr C said we would bump it up. She said no we are going to keep you at 90 till week 7 were we would then do test to see where I was. So for weeks 1-7 I was on 90 of test C and took 240mg of grape seed extract a day. Week 2 and 3 I felt better and was thinking I can get off the zoloft for good. The only thing that did not change I felt during week 2 and 3 was my strength. My recovery and stamina even improved. Including my focus, memory, mood, energy level, appetite ect. My body felt like it was working better mentally and physically. So during that time I increased sets in the gym on my two gym days. Unfortunately starting week 4 I felt no improvements anymore and felt I was going backwards now, which I explained to them, but still she didn't want to raise it. Week 7 they took blood right before my week 7 shot. Week 8 I go in to hear my results and get my shot. Turned out it came back at TT 160 FT 6.23 with my estrogen "ok". Didn't ask for the number at the time. Dr C said I'm using up the test and I will need more... oh really! So they actually lowered my already low levels I started at there even more in 7 weeks!
This was the first time seeing her since week one. I told her about how the other lady didn't raise me from 90 as we discussed and she said she would talk to her and explain we are going to now raise it by 10 every week till I feel better again. So week 8 I go back to see dr C's assistant and I got 100. Week 9 I got my 110 shot and around that week I started a steady decline. I go back week 10 to complain and got her to jump me to 130mg. Was very hard to get her to raise it to 130 and she wanted to draw blood right then to see what my numbers were and to test me for weird viruses or diseases I may have causing my problem. One she mentioned that i remembered was lime disease. She believed 130 was going to be too high and my numbers will come back and prove it. Those results came back better but no where near what they should be and no viruses or diseases found. Test was now TT 342 FT 10.43 and estradiol 24.68 . So they raised me to 140 week 11 and I was to do that for four weeks and then have BW done again. At this point I felt they didn't know what they were doing and they didn't mind taking forever to do it since they were getting $50 cash every visit. So I asked for all my blood work copies which I got.
I decided I better get online and really start learning to understand this stuff and buy some books so I can make a educated decision on what to do. As soon as I started learning about this stuff I felt holy shit I should have gone with the first place. AI isn't a scary thing if used right and that may not even be needed if I go with two shots a week which is what I would do. The HCG sounds like a smart move since it keeps my balls working which keeps the overall system happier. Finally I did feel I needed more Test and seeing how my body responded well at first I wasn't fearful of a larger dose if that's what was needed. So I went back for weeks 12 and 13 as I was setting up and getting tested at the first/other place to do the switch. Week 14 was my last week there which was Tuesday 1/16/18.
So what does everyone think went wrong with me? My theory I was under dosed for too long. Those first couple weeks I had the shot and whatever my balls were still putting out, so my test numbers went up. After a few weeks my balls shut down and my only source of test was a 90 shot in my butt once a week which isn't enough for me. I also worry my zoloft has something to do with my problems?
This Tuesday 1/16/18 was my last shot of 140. My stuff came in the next day. I'm supposed to per Dr.
inject 200 test C once a week
inject HCG 330iu's mon/wed/fri
take 1 .50 AI pill mon/thu
I do have a idea of how I want to do this now but to keep the tread from going all over the place I figure I would like thoughts, ideas about everything leading up to this point so far. Then I'll discuss what I have started doing and should I stay with it or change it around.
Thank you for any help given and for reading this whole thing lol.
To start I just turned 37 years old. I'm 6'3" and 215 pounds with id say around 15-20% body fat. I've taken Zoloft a SSRI since I was a teenager for anxiety at 100mg a day. I feel that pill is the reason I have low T (based on low FSH and LH #'s). I still take it today. I exercise twice a week in my gym with free weights and run or bike ride 2 days a week also. I would exercise more but I become run down and over trained fast now these last few years since I started exercising in 2004. I always eat right, slept right and trained right but it has always been a battle. So around the age of 23 I asked my Dr to test my TEST. At that time I was around 340 something. He showed me on the chart it was in the norm and not to worry, at the time I believed drs so I said okay. Today after starting to educate myself I realized how wrong he was for saying those numbers at that age were ok. But at that time I said okay and carried on with my life for years.
For the last few years I have had no energy, desire, focus, strength, libido and my mood is in decline. I decided I had to do something for my family and self. I haven't made any progress in a gym in years and had to cut back my exercising to the current twice a week only so I wouldn't feel completely exhausted for the rest of the week. I remembered my test was low years ago and decided to ask the Dr this year to test my TEST again because of all the symptoms I had. So he said sure. My test results came back with
Total test 243 (249-836)
Free test 47.73 (35.0-92.6)
SHBG 17.6 (16.5-55.9)
T3 total 96 (80-200)
FSH 3.4 (1.5-12.4)
LH 3.8 (1.7-8.6)
He would only give me the andro gel. After getting the script I decided to look into it before getting it. Between the crazy price and being worried about my wife or kid touching it I decided to look into a clinic.
The first one I called the guy wanted to start me at 200 test Cypionate a week (based on BW) a AI and HCG as needed. They would show me the first few times till I felt comfortable doing it myself if needed and then have everything shipped to my house afterwards to do it myself. I'd also get blood work done at all proper times. When he said all of this and with my back round with anxiety my whole life I felt that was too extreme lol. Now how I feel stupid. The second place said they would start me at 90 and if I felt fine raise it every week by ten till I felt great and at 7 weeks I'd have blood work to confirm where my numbers are. I ask about other things being needed and they said ONLY a grape seed extract pill a day (there AI). I felt more comfortable at the time with that and my limited knowledge of this stuff at the time. So I started with place two.
First day Tuesday I meet with head dr will call her dr C. Who told me we would start at 90 of Test C if I felt fine the first week we would go up by 10 every week for a few weeks till I felt great and have blood work drawn to confirm I'm in a good range with all my numbers by week 7. When I went back the second week I saw dr C's assistant dr and said I felt fine after the first shot. She then said she was going to give me another 90 shot which is when I said dr C said we would bump it up. She said no we are going to keep you at 90 till week 7 were we would then do test to see where I was. So for weeks 1-7 I was on 90 of test C and took 240mg of grape seed extract a day. Week 2 and 3 I felt better and was thinking I can get off the zoloft for good. The only thing that did not change I felt during week 2 and 3 was my strength. My recovery and stamina even improved. Including my focus, memory, mood, energy level, appetite ect. My body felt like it was working better mentally and physically. So during that time I increased sets in the gym on my two gym days. Unfortunately starting week 4 I felt no improvements anymore and felt I was going backwards now, which I explained to them, but still she didn't want to raise it. Week 7 they took blood right before my week 7 shot. Week 8 I go in to hear my results and get my shot. Turned out it came back at TT 160 FT 6.23 with my estrogen "ok". Didn't ask for the number at the time. Dr C said I'm using up the test and I will need more... oh really! So they actually lowered my already low levels I started at there even more in 7 weeks!
This was the first time seeing her since week one. I told her about how the other lady didn't raise me from 90 as we discussed and she said she would talk to her and explain we are going to now raise it by 10 every week till I feel better again. So week 8 I go back to see dr C's assistant and I got 100. Week 9 I got my 110 shot and around that week I started a steady decline. I go back week 10 to complain and got her to jump me to 130mg. Was very hard to get her to raise it to 130 and she wanted to draw blood right then to see what my numbers were and to test me for weird viruses or diseases I may have causing my problem. One she mentioned that i remembered was lime disease. She believed 130 was going to be too high and my numbers will come back and prove it. Those results came back better but no where near what they should be and no viruses or diseases found. Test was now TT 342 FT 10.43 and estradiol 24.68 . So they raised me to 140 week 11 and I was to do that for four weeks and then have BW done again. At this point I felt they didn't know what they were doing and they didn't mind taking forever to do it since they were getting $50 cash every visit. So I asked for all my blood work copies which I got.
I decided I better get online and really start learning to understand this stuff and buy some books so I can make a educated decision on what to do. As soon as I started learning about this stuff I felt holy shit I should have gone with the first place. AI isn't a scary thing if used right and that may not even be needed if I go with two shots a week which is what I would do. The HCG sounds like a smart move since it keeps my balls working which keeps the overall system happier. Finally I did feel I needed more Test and seeing how my body responded well at first I wasn't fearful of a larger dose if that's what was needed. So I went back for weeks 12 and 13 as I was setting up and getting tested at the first/other place to do the switch. Week 14 was my last week there which was Tuesday 1/16/18.
So what does everyone think went wrong with me? My theory I was under dosed for too long. Those first couple weeks I had the shot and whatever my balls were still putting out, so my test numbers went up. After a few weeks my balls shut down and my only source of test was a 90 shot in my butt once a week which isn't enough for me. I also worry my zoloft has something to do with my problems?
This Tuesday 1/16/18 was my last shot of 140. My stuff came in the next day. I'm supposed to per Dr.
inject 200 test C once a week
inject HCG 330iu's mon/wed/fri
take 1 .50 AI pill mon/thu
I do have a idea of how I want to do this now but to keep the tread from going all over the place I figure I would like thoughts, ideas about everything leading up to this point so far. Then I'll discuss what I have started doing and should I stay with it or change it around.
Thank you for any help given and for reading this whole thing lol.
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