Is There An I’m Doing Awesome Thread?

[AnotherPersonOnTRT]

Yes, what do we do when we are in this situation, keep donating as needed WITH an daily iron supplement? This is awful. We just have bad genetics? Many many others dont even need to donate while on TRT!

 

[AnotherPersonOnTRT]

I been on TRT for just under seven and a half years now. Every protocol has worked great for me. The only issue I had was HCT for the first two years. I donated blood every 8 weeks. That's when I started daily injections, haven't needed to donate any blood since starting dailies. Zero issues feel great mentally and physically.

I'm sure the blood bank has missed me. Their loss is my gain.

Interesting i have high rbc, hemoglobin and hematocrit issues. I too had to dontate blood every 2.5 months. I tried Daily shots too, did not work for me . I am now trying Daily Subq shots in the stomach for the last month, so far also has not worked for me .

How much you taking a day???

 

[Vince]

Interesting i have high rbc, hemoglobin and hematocrit issues. I too had to dontate blood every 2.5 months. I tried Daily shots too, did not work for me . I am now trying Daily Subq shots in the stomach for the last month, so far also has not worked for me .

How much you taking a day???

Anywhere from 16 mg - 20 mg of testosterone daily. I would stick with sub q for at least 6 months. Hopefully you're HCT will get into range. I don't like the stomach for sub q, I used the love handles.

 

[Fortunate]

Anywhere from 16 mg - 20 mg of testosterone daily. I would stick with sub q for at least 6 months. Hopefully you're HCT will get into range. I don't like the stomach for sub q, I used the love handles.

@Vince, it's funny - this is the type of minutia I tend to think about. I have pondered whether or not I feel different with love handle vs. abdomen injections. Jury is out. Do you prefer love handles because the injection itself is better for you that way? Or, is your response to the injection different if you inject love handle vs. abdomen?

 

[AnotherPersonOnTRT]

@Vince, it's funny - this is the type of minutia I tend to think about. I have pondered whether or not I feel different with love handle vs. abdomen injections. Jury is out. Do you prefer love handles because the injection itself is better for you that way? Or, is your response to the injection different if you inject love handle vs. abdomen?

I personally dont care, will do anything to control my high rbc, hemoglobin and hematocrit levels. I willing to even try cream, but got told there is an adjustment period for this too, not a like to like transition. I want to give subq shots more time to see if they do anything.

What do you feel like when you your own Ferritin levels get too low? Do you then eat a lot of red meat and iron supplements?

 

[Vince]

@Vince, it's funny - this is the type of minutia I tend to think about. I have pondered whether or not I feel different with love handle vs. abdomen injections. Jury is out. Do you prefer love handles because the injection itself is better for you that way? Or, is your response to the injection different if you inject love handle vs. abdomen?

I tried the abdomen and never liked it. The love handles though are very easy for me, I feel like I could just inject there and skip the VG and shoulders. But it's nice having six locations so that's why I do all six.

 

[Systemlord]

Ur not worried about ur iron levels dropping too low donating so frequently?

I've never had ferritin issues before with phlebotomies, it's always unchanged in lab testing. The vitamin D excess is more of a concern with regards to low ferritin.

Not everyone is going to have problems with low ferritin when donating frequently.

 

[Gman86]

I've never had ferritin issues before with phlebotomies, it's always unchanged in lab testing. The vitamin D excess is more of a concern with regards to low ferritin.

Not everyone is going to have problems with low ferritin when donating frequently.

What do u mean vitamin D excess? When ferritin is low it can cause vitamin D toxicity?

 

[bixt]

This thread is now contrary to the title. All this talk about Vit D excess, low ferritin, low iron, monthly phlebotomy, high hct and rbc is depressing.

Then again I suspect that 99/100 people on TRT are doing awesome, with "bad" protocols to boot. Its the other 1% that comes here, so there is that bias.

 

[Fortunate]

This thread is now contrary to the title. All this talk about Vit D excess, low ferritin, low iron, monthly phlebotomy, high hct and rbc is depressing.

Then again I suspect that 99/100 people on TRT are doing awesome, with "bad" protocols to boot. Its the other 1% that comes here, so there is that bias.

@bixt, thank you for righting the ship. This thread is all about success stories.

 

[Cooper]

@bixt, thank you for righting the ship. This thread is all about success stories.

This thread is now contrary to the title. All this talk about Vit D excess, low ferritin, low iron, monthly phlebotomy, high hct and rbc is depressing.

Then again I suspect that 99/100 people on TRT are doing awesome, with "bad" protocols to boot. Its the other 1% that comes here, so there is that bias.

I believe majority of people who are successful do not feel need to visit this or other similar sites anymore or at least not regularly so hard to gauge actual success rate.

 

[Fortunate]

I believe majority of people who are successful do not feel need to visit this or other similar sites anymore or at least not regularly so hard to gauge actual success rate.

This is absolutely true. There is massive selection bias for anyone who is on this forum. That said, I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see if anyone who frequents this site is doing well. For example, there may be someone who has a thyroid issue that happens to be doing well from a TRT standpoint. Then, there are people like @readalot who is not even on TRT anymore, who comes here simply to share his knowledge and help people.

 

[tareload]

This is absolutely true. There is massive selection bias for anyone who is on this forum. That said, I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see if anyone who frequents this site is doing well. For example, there may be someone who has a thyroid issue that happens to be doing well from a TRT standpoint. Then, there are people like @readalot who is not even on TRT anymore, who comes here simply to share his knowledge and help people.

BTW, I love your tag line! I need to add one like that...

Off TRT for the time being but libido and guys down below are not loving it. Trying to hold that FFMI steady but those gainz are only leased at best.

Compared to @BigTex I need to join the local elderly women's book club as my new hobby. Perhaps I can give them engaging lectures of the pharmacokinetic profile of labially applied testosterone cream.

If they really want more I'm inviting @madman as the guest lecturer.

 

[Anonymon]

I came into all this with PFS and although I’ve had plenty of ups and downs, I’m still far better than not, and when things are going well I’m a lot better than before across most metrics. I still have issues with flat muscles that macros do little to help with, dry skin, and I suck at retaining water and being hydrated in general, but mentally when things are going better I’m still better than I’ve probably ever been in most respects.

For me the bigger issue is actually thyroid and cortisol related. When I get that closer to right I feel like you’d expect someone to feel on TRT. Maybe even better. Kind of like I’m living in bullet time by comparison to everyone else and you’re just trying to fit in as everyone moves and thinks at a snail’s pace.

I can’t retain glycogen well at all but for the most part outside of some T3 experiments, I just kind of get stronger too. I was already elite level there, but no matter what, even when I’m not trying and just farting around, strength goes up. Speed too in my case, pushing better than 6 minute miles despite not trying to increase that at all and just keeping up with what I was doing.

 

[MIP1950]

This thread is now contrary to the title. All this talk about Vit D excess, low ferritin, low iron, monthly phlebotomy, high hct and rbc is depressing.

Then again I suspect that 99/100 people on TRT are doing awesome, with "bad" protocols to boot. Its the other 1% that comes here, so there is that bias.

I agree.

 

[nippy]

H

I haven’t had any problems with trt. My doctor is pissed I’m off antidepressants but. Guess if I can find the real reason behind my problem I had without the help of a qualified doctor it’s always going to upset them.
Only took me 6 years to finally find my problem. Fixed it in a couple of months. Weaned off ssri and now I don’t have them withdrawals every day when the medication is due.

May 2019 was given a script. Been happy and hard ever since.

Loving having to stick something in my ass twice a week

I don’t do anal shots .just a joke

Hey.. have you had any libido issues while on or off the SSRIs ?

 

[Phil Goodman]

This is absolutely true. There is massive selection bias for anyone who is on this forum. That said, I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see if anyone who frequents this site is doing well. For example, there may be someone who has a thyroid issue that happens to be doing well from a TRT standpoint. Then, there are people like @readalot who is not even on TRT anymore, who comes here simply to share his knowledge and help people.

I think that’s definitely true from the aspect of “people who are doing great generally aren’t looking for answers”. I came here as part of my research to be as informed as possible before making the jump so I’m sure there are people like me as well though. And again overall I’m doing great and don’t regret it at all. And this place has been an invaluable resource for information that probably helped me get where I want to be quicker. The other side of that, though, is that there could be people who are doing great then read all these threads and get inside their own head. The mind is extremely powerful and can definitely influence many things. Couple that with the fact that adjusting to TRT means getting used to a more active mind and it can be a recipe for placebos and nocebos along with lots of other things. An important aspect is to realize life it supposed to be up and down and that TRT won’t make you forever 18. It can definitely make 45 = better but it can’t make 45 = 18. And while you definitely need to monitor labs(which I think everyone in general should do a better job of), it’s important not to stress about every little thing and blame it on the test. Worrying about your blood pressure while on TRT is probably worse for your blood pressure than the TRT.


Not to rant or derail the thread though, but I imagine lots of guys are doing awesome with their protocols. I’d be interested to see how the stats for prescriptions change in regards to starting, stopping, and time spent on TRT each year.

 

[Queequeg]

A few years ago a friend of mine described some of the symptoms that he was having. I said, "You need to have your testosterone checked."
His Dr. said, "No. You're too young
" He was roughly 28. He insisted and surprise, surprise had total t of about 140.
He regularly texts me thanking me for the suggestion. Most recently I got this text, "We should hold each other accountable for working out. Feels wasteful to ignore this gift lol."
Anyway, another example of someone I know, who is benefitting from testosterone.

 

[Cataceous]

... I’d be interested to see how the stats for prescriptions change in regards to starting, stopping, and time spent on TRT each year.

Some studies suggest problems.

Work by Schoenfeld et al. [50] has found that adherence to topical TRT is traditionally low and that by six months post prescription, only 37.4% of men continue on the medication. This number dropped further to 15.4% after 12 months [50].​

[R]​

Of course that's just topical, and probably low-concentration as well. But in this study there's a pretty high attrition rate for injections too:

Results: The patient characteristics were similar for patients who received topical TRT or short-lasting TRT injections. Of the patients who discontinued therapy during the follow-up period, the percentages of patients who were still on therapy after 3 months were 52% and 31% for topical TRT and short-lasting TRT users, respectively. For cyclic users, there was an attrition rate of approximately 40% to 50% of patients in each cycle. For both topical TRT and short-lasting TRT injections, the gap between stopping and restarting therapy tended to decrease over time.​

​

Conclusions: In this analysis, high discontinuation rates were observed. The treatment pattern of TRT may be related to the disease state rather than dosing, daily use, or mode of administration.​

[R]​

 

[Fortunate]

I think that’s definitely true from the aspect of “people who are doing great generally aren’t looking for answers”. I came here as part of my research to be as informed as possible before making the jump so I’m sure there are people like me as well though. And again overall I’m doing great and don’t regret it at all. And this place has been an invaluable resource for information that probably helped me get where I want to be quicker. The other side of that, though, is that there could be people who are doing great then read all these threads and get inside their own head. The mind is extremely powerful and can definitely influence many things. Couple that with the fact that adjusting to TRT means getting used to a more active mind and it can be a recipe for placebos and nocebos along with lots of other things. An important aspect is to realize life it supposed to be up and down and that TRT won’t make you forever 18. It can definitely make 45 = better but it can’t make 45 = 18. And while you definitely need to monitor labs(which I think everyone in general should do a better job of), it’s important not to stress about every little thing and blame it on the test. Worrying about your blood pressure while on TRT is probably worse for your blood pressure than the TRT.


Not to rant or derail the thread though, but I imagine lots of guys are doing awesome with their protocols. I’d be interested to see how the stats for prescriptions change in regards to starting, stopping, and time spent on TRT each year.

Amen, brother! Guilty as charged. I have found myself pondering my TRT protocol a lot and wondering how it may or may not be related to what I am experiencing at the moment. Fortunately, I have also realized this is not a really healthy attitude.