Levels checked

[Mademan32]

Hello all, I'm new to posting but have been reading on site for months now, im 36 yrs old and I've been on TRT for over 5 years now and life has been perfect until about 4 months ago, I went from 150mg a week to 200mg, I've been dealing with anxiety and depression and feeling as if my TRT isn't doing what it did for many years, I just had my levels checked last Wednesday and here they are
TESTOSTERONE 727.75*ng/dL123.06 - 813.86 ng/dL
TESTOSTERONE FREE, CALC 237.8*pg/mL 30.6 - 152.0 pg/mL
TESTOSTERONE FREE PCT 3.3% 1.0 - 2.8 %
TESTOSTERONE BIOAVAILABLE 557.5*ng/dL72.0 - 355.0 ng/dL
TESTOSTERONE, BIOAVAILABLE% 76.6% 23.6 - 65.8%
SEX HORMONE BINDING GLOBULIN 13.10*nmol/L 14.55 - 94.64 nmol/L
ESTRADIOL 41.5*PG/ML <=60.7 PG/ML
LH <0.07*mIU/mL
FSH <0.30*mIU/mL

I was also prescribed an Al but not sure how to dial in as my previous lab a month ago estrodial showed 18, I've lost interest in everything I love, wether it be sports or family, nothing excites me anymore, any advice would be great, not sure if I posted in correct thread

 

[lowe2sucks]

when did you use AI? 1) when you first started using it 2) when you used it last time

 

[Mademan32]

I was just put on Al a few months ago, never used it for 5 years, I just took .25 mg tonight but haven't used it since my levels last month were down to 18, previous month it was 39, now this month 41

 

[lowe2sucks]

im gonna just copy what i posted in other thread few minutes ago

i stopped responding to trt after anastrozole overdose.. my best after e2 crash was hot flashes, low libido, fatigue and dry ****.. maybe i will have more success with natural testosterone because i tried everything to make trt work - hcg, dhea, pregnenolone, 80mg weekly, 200mg weekly... either i feel like i am in male menopause on it or like bipolar person super emotional mood swings
wasted 3 years to make it work I could already restarted my ass many times during this time
some start trt and in few weeks they feel best they ever felt but usually it stops and they feel less "great" because "honeymoon" period is over. most require some tweaks to their protocol. I think it's impossible to feel great all the time unless you are on steroids but in that case you will die young

yes they are five months old. im on trt. i crashed my e2 hard during cycle started to feel bad after 1 week or so after intoducing anastrozole during my cycle (that was 1year ago). been on t all this time. tried higher trt dose to increase e2 it went to 93 as you see on labs but low e2 symptoms still here. i was feeling awesome before that anastrozole e2 crash.
usually with this level you expect high e2 symptoms but im still dry, joint clicking brain fog, hot flashes, anxiety and all nasty low e2 symptoms

maybe this will clear things up for you

 

[Mademan32]

Only reason I went on it, is cause one day i had a pretty good anxiety/panic attack and knew something wasn't right with me, prior to that I had been feeling like the injections weren't doing what they had the past 5 years

 

[lowe2sucks]

interesting. so you already felt like shots weren't doing much for you before you started on anastrozole?

 

[Mademan32]

But I didn't have any anxiety/depression issues just the feeling of low t, which my labs said otherwise

 

[Mademan32]

Yes, and when I say life was perfect for the last 5 years I mean it, my wife never could understand why and how I was so happy ALL the time, now I'm on wellbutrin and know I'm not a depressed person, something is wrong chemically

 

[lowe2sucks]

I can't recall exactly who said this but I am pretty sure it was one of the well known specialist in TRT in USA
something about if you are on testosterone solo you dhea, pregnenolone levels go down and while it might not affect your trt outcome short term it can effect it long term (meaning it will do jack shit for you after some time).. maybe that's what happened to you we can only guess because you don't have dhea-s and pregnenelone-s labs
one question
did you feel just like you had lowish testosterone or like you've been neutered (chemically castrated)?

 

[Mademan32]

DHEA, NON-SULFATE 2.5*ng/mL 1.5 - 9.2 ng/mL
I just had dhea-s checked also, I didn't put it, I should have

 

[Mademan32]

No I'd say I just felt like I had low T, now my sex drive is gone, my excitement for anything is gone also

 

[Mademan32]

I'm usually pretty good at being able to tell when something ain't right within me, just frustrating when a Dr just looks at numbers, which ain't the same with everyone

 

[lowe2sucks]

you ain't alone at this I had something similar happened to me and I just couldn't figure out reason why trt isn't working same way as it was working first years.. I decided to come off and pray that within few years my natural T will raise to hopefully middle of the range so I feel decent because trt doesn't make me feel different than low T so I got nothing to lose. hopefully you will figure this out
i am mad i didn't come off sooner because the longer i stayed on it the more difficult it is to raise natural testosterone to decent level

 

[Mademan32]

How long have you been off? How has it been going? Did you go cold Turkey? I tried to see if I could do that and by day 14 or so, I had 0 energy

 

[lowe2sucks]

i've been off since winter 2018 so basically about 4 months. my last protocols were barely elevating my levels to midd range (we started low with doctor and I am very happy we did so I believe it results in less shut down.. i also had hcg my last half a year of trt). these 4 months we very up and down honestly started with most days were super shitty then some few ok days here and there. now i have some good days here and there but it's 50/50 I never can tell how I will feel tomorrow (either low t or more or less decent). but at least i have hope that it will get better (can't get worse)
yes i came off cold turkey

 

[Mademan32]

I've been contemplating talking to Dr about working my way off also, I've heard you can't quit cold Turkey but at this point I'm willing to try anything, its truly affecting my marriage and my well being, have you thought about clomid? I've read a few things on it some stuff good, some terrifying

 

[lowe2sucks]

i would never touch that poison... anything anti estrogen is bad your health (even though might make you feel good short term) but that just my opinion and experience.

 

[Gman86]

So just to clarify, you were on 150mg/ week for 5 years, no AI, and then out of the blue you just started feeling like TRT stopped working for you? Or after 5 years you made a dosage change from 150mg to 200mg, and then that’s when all the problems started?

Also, were those labs drawn while on 200mg/ week and the AI?

Lastly, have you always just injected once weekly?

 

[Mademan32]

And theres the terrifying part, lol, I guess the only thing that gets me by is knowing I'm not alone, but that doesn't make me feel any better, I believe alot is psychological, you know how happy you can be, I tell my wife i know how great i can feel and now I've got high Hope's to feel that way again, hopefully we can all figure out our happy place again

 

[lowe2sucks]

I get what you are saying mademan32 we get addicted to how we feel with high levels of testosterone and perfect hormonal balance but think about this there are men out there who have low testosterone and don't even know that such thing as trt exists and still live good lifes. we trt folks take feeling great for granted but because we don't produce such high t levels naturally (we would never be able to do such thing) you should accept feeling like lowish testosterone. it's hard to re learn to live with low t levels after you've being at the top range but if one can do such thing he will never be depressed when things with trt don't go well