Just started TRT from Japan...

[Angelwitch]

Hi,

I'm an American age 53, living in Japan. I have not been quite myself over the last year. First, I hardly eat and I've really gained weight. Hardly any semen volume, intermittent ED but "usually" can get the job done in that department. Last year in March while I was back in the USA, I went to a private lab and got a test which showed my T serum level at 324 ng/dL, and free at 10.30. This was below "normal" range according to the paperwork I got, at least the total serum was low. I put off doing anything about it until just a few weeks ago and went to a urologist here in Japan and did another test. For some reason they don't give you total serum levels here, they give the free T results at 10.5 (this might be some different scale they use in Japan, very unclear). LH 0.77 (low), FSH 1.65 (low) and prolactin at 12.6 (upper end of the scale). The doc said I was in the low range. So just last week I got my first injection of T ever, ENARMON DEPOT 125mg (Japanese brand). I noticed this brand also has 250mg but I can only get what this guy will offer and that was 125 mg. I am to get this every 2 weeks for the next 3 months. From my reading on here so far, that seems pretty low dose but I'm at the mercy of the doc here - they don't have TRT clinics here where I am at. Took that about 4 days ago, can't say I can tell any differences at all.

The good part, however, is that we have socialized medicine here and it only costs me $9 per visit including the injection.

That's my story so far…thanks for reading.

 

[CoastWatcher]

Welcome to Excelmale. You are in an unenviable position - your protocol is far from ideal and you have limited options. If you have been reading material here, you realize that success, for most of us, comes with multiple injections of smaller amounts of testosterone over the course of a week. The half-life of testosterone is such that 125mg every two weeks is simply going to leave you feeling...bad. Does the possibility of private medical care exist for you in Japan? If not, would your doctor be open to information you obtained via a second opinion consultation with Defy's Medical, via the telephone, some of the most knowledgeable TRT practitioners in the US?

 

[Angelwitch]

I live in a rather small town, I'm probably lucky to be getting what I am getting. It would probably be impossible to get this guy to consult with someone else overseas, he doesn't even speak english (I'm fluent in Japanese).

I have a few options.

1) Quit it totally and try to go natural. Now I'm kind of worried that the 125mg might make it worse.

2) Try to talk him into giving me the 250 mg dose, or let me come once per week instead of every other week. People in Japan generally do not question their doctors, he might take offense to that.

3) I go to the Philippines about 3 times per year, and I know some guys who have been getting Nebido injections which supposedly last 3 months, you can buy it over the counter at the drug stores there. This would be my least preferred thing to do, however.

 

[ERO]

100 mg per week is generally considered a replacement dose, so how your doc thinks 125 over two weeks is going to help is just beyond comprehension. And that is totally aside from the fact that you should be injecting half your weekly dose every 3.5 days. Say Monday morning and Thursday evening as an example. If you could get the 250 dose and permission to self-inject you could do fine, though. Get yourself some syringes and inject every 3.5 days.

Nebido has a lot longer effective half-life than most forms of Testosterone, but 3 months is too far between injections for that as well. 3 months is what is advertised, but not what typically works for guys that have tried it.

 

[Vince]

I live in a rather small town, I'm probably lucky to be getting what I am getting. It would probably be impossible to get this guy to consult with someone else overseas, he doesn't even speak english (I'm fluent in Japanese).

I have a few options.

1) Quit it totally and try to go natural. Now I'm kind of worried that the 125mg might make it worse.

2) Try to talk him into giving me the 250 mg dose, or let me come once per week instead of every other week. People in Japan generally do not question their doctors, he might take offense to that.

3) I go to the Philippines about 3 times per year, and I know some guys who have been getting Nebido injections which supposedly last 3 months, you can buy it over the counter at the drug stores there. This would be my least preferred thing to do, however.

It would be nice if you could buy it at a drugstore and self-inject. If there's no legal ramifications. You would still need proper labs, probably would be too much to do on your own.

 

[OMI100]

Hmmmm "He doesn't even speak English." Does he read English? I think a lot of the text used in some med schools overseas are standard English medical text?