New Member Intro 54yr old triathlete

[Kennyyoli]

Hi everyone
Obvious new member, 54 years old. Endurance athlete who has surprisingly found himself with a low libido and testosterone in the 189-192 range. Currently in a reduced training cycle due to Covid and a sore achilles, but usual training distances are around 50-60 miles a week running, and 80-90 miles bike. I swim 3 or 4 x a month, since that is my strong event.
Recently sought out some help, and have been prescribed .15ml sub q injections of testosterone cypionate daily, (200 mg/ml), and NP Thyroid 60mg tabs 1x per day. Just here lurking about to see if this is going to be successful at prescribed levels, and if I need to be doing anything else. So, hello. Glad to be here and glean some knowledge to help
I'm looking to improve my sleep, libido, and recovery, all of which have taken huge hits over the past 2-3 years.

 

[Cataceous]

Welcome to the forum. If you're in this for overall health and well-being then half or less of the prescribed dose is a better starting point. Normal daily testosterone production in men is 3-9 mg. Your current prescription gives you 21 mg. Daily injections may be overkill, but the information you gather while doing them is valuable. Your serum testosterone will end up fairly constant after some weeks and the resulting dose-response relationship will be useful in the future. Just be sure to measure your SHBG along with total testosterone. These readings allow for a calculation of free testosterone. The dose response is more linear in free testosterone.

 

[Kennyyoli]

Awesome info. I am absolutely in this to feel better, and more my “old” younger self, if that makes sense. I was recovering, and sleeping, and performing better as recently as 3 years ago, and I’ve been on a steady decline for about that long. I plan on keeping notes daily, incorporating them into my training logs. Sounds like that will be valuable as I figure things out.

 

[Cataceous]

Be sure to skim this article: Onset of effects of testosterone treatment and time span until maximum effects are achieved
It will help you to be patient while waiting for results. Retaining detailed notes on your TRT is a very good idea.

Keeping your testosterone doses and serum levels in normal physiological ranges will help you to avoid some of the possible problems of TRT, such as elevated levels of hemoglobin, hematocrit and estradiol. Less easy to avoid are issues stemming from the suppression of the HPTA, which involves a reduction in numerous hormones: kisspeptin, GnRH, LH and FSH. Loss of LH and FSH frequently leads to testicular atrophy. Some find this to be a minor cosmetic issue that can be ignored. Others inject hCG to offset the loss of LH and reverse the atrophy. It's been hypothesized that in some men the reduction of these other hormones contributes to more subtle problems, such as reduced libido over time. Don't be overly concerned about this, but keep the thought around in case you have problems down the road.

 

[Golfboy307]

Welcome! As a runner and a former marathoner, I can sympathize with your situation. I did not have any hormonal issues until my mid 40's after 7-8 years of training and running 20+ marathons. Looking back, I wonder if overtraining as a middle aged man contributed to my hypogonadism. There are lots of studies out there supporting this hypothesis. I ended up going on TRT which has helped tremendously (after much tweaking). Best of luck to you, and be patient as you find the right dosage. (I continue to run and work out, but at much lower levels).

 

[madman]

Hi everyone
Obvious new member, 54 years old. Endurance athlete who has surprisingly found himself with a low libido and testosterone in the 189-192 range. Currently in a reduced training cycle due to Covid and a sore achilles, but usual training distances are around 50-60 miles a week running, and 80-90 miles bike. I swim 3 or 4 x a month, since that is my strong event.
Recently sought out some help, and have been prescribed .15ml sub q injections of testosterone cypionate daily, (200 mg/ml), and NP Thyroid 60mg tabs 1x per day. Just here lurking about to see if this is going to be successful at prescribed levels, and if I need to be doing anything else. So, hello. Glad to be here and glean some knowledge to help
I'm looking to improve my sleep, libido, and recovery, all of which have taken huge hits over the past 2-3 years.

Way too high of a T dose to start on!

Most are using fixed insulin syringes to inject. (sub-q/IM).

Strength of your test is 200mg/ml (Testosterone Cypionate)

100mg Testosterone Cypionate= 70mg of active T (no ester)



1ml insulin syringe= 100 units

.15ml= 15 units= 30mg of esterified T (Testosterone Cypionate) = 21mg of active T (no ester) as @Cataceous stated.


You would be injecting 30mg of esterified T daily (210mg/week)

Whopping dose to start on to say the least.

 

[madman]

Hi everyone
Obvious new member, 54 years old. Endurance athlete who has surprisingly found himself with a low libido and testosterone in the 189-192 range. Currently in a reduced training cycle due to Covid and a sore achilles, but usual training distances are around 50-60 miles a week running, and 80-90 miles bike. I swim 3 or 4 x a month, since that is my strong event.
Recently sought out some help, and have been prescribed .15ml sub q injections of testosterone cypionate daily, (200 mg/ml), and NP Thyroid 60mg tabs 1x per day. Just here lurking about to see if this is going to be successful at prescribed levels, and if I need to be doing anything else. So, hello. Glad to be here and glean some knowledge to help
I'm looking to improve my sleep, libido, and recovery, all of which have taken huge hits over the past 2-3 years.

Trust me when I tell you that such dose will have your TT/FT/e2 levels very high let alone drive up your RBCs/hemoglobin/hematocrit.



The best piece of advice is to start low and go slow.

The majority can easily achieve a healthy FT level when injecting 100-150mg/week of T.

Sure some may very well need higher doses to achieve such but it is not common.

No point in coming out the gate head first!

 

[Vince]

I would have to agree with the others, your dose is way too high. Can you post the name of the doctor who is prescribing your meds?

 

[scoobydont]

Hi, in a similar spot, just posted a new thread-endurace athlete, 41, fairly competitive, total T 252 ng/dl. But I am only prescribed 10mg cypionate a day a day. Still on the fence about whether to do it or not.

 

[Kennyyoli]

I would have to agree with the others, your dose is way too high. Can you post the name of the doctor who is prescribing your meds?

I don't want to put my doctor on blast just yet. I'm just doing research to see if what I am being prescribed is adequate, which it seems from what I am hearing, to be a bit high. I have another appointment scheduled for Friday, and I am going to discuss this with him.
Until then, I have dropped my dose to half. which will end up being 105mg a week by my calculations.

 

[Kennyyoli]

Welcome! As a runner and a former marathoner, I can sympathize with your situation. I did not have any hormonal issues until my mid 40's after 7-8 years of training and running 20+ marathons. Looking back, I wonder if overtraining as a middle aged man contributed to my hypogonadism. There are lots of studies out there supporting this hypothesis. I ended up going on TRT which has helped tremendously (after much tweaking). Best of luck to you, and be patient as you find the right dosage. (I continue to run and work out, but at much lower levels).

I believe the same thing! I have a few friends who said the same thing, and similarly had low T after years of training. They are the ones who also suggested getting checked out, as both of them did, and get things back on track. They both are being treated and feel great, "better than I had in 12 years" was the quote I got from one of them. Hearing that really pushed me to get checked out.

 

[Kennyyoli]

And thanks to everyone who has responded. Great information and I'm happy to have found this website and forum!

 

[Willyt]

It will be interesting to see how the TRT affects your endurance training. There seem to be different schools of thought.

On the plus side, I noticed that TRT definitely helped in recovery and increased hematocrit levels, but the water retention was a negative for me when endurance training.

 

[Kennyyoli]

I am hopeful. Just would like to be able to sleep, and recover better, and get rid of some of the lethargy that had plagued me increasingly over the past 3-4 years. My libido has been steadily decreasing in the same timeline. I should have done testing sooner. After being encouraged by some training partners I finally went in. I will definitely keep everyone posted that is interested in any performance gains I make, if we ever can get back to having triathlons here in California..

 

[Kennyyoli]

Also, I am new to injections. I have read that the needles that I got from the pharmacy (31g .5cc x 1/2") are pretty small. The problem I am having is drawing the test into the syringe, seems like it is taking a looooong time for a little. I know a smaller number is larger needle size, but not sure how much larger to go? I see some 28g with the same specs. Are those too big?

 

[Vince]

Also, I am new to injections. I have read that the needles that I got from the pharmacy (31g .5cc x 1/2") are pretty small. The problem I am having is drawing the test into the syringe, seems like it is taking a looooong time for a little. I know a smaller number is larger needle size, but not sure how much larger to go? I see some 28g with the same specs. Are those too big?

28g should work just fine. You could also use an easy touch 27G. I inject with a 29G for both testosterone and hCG. Make sure you put extra air in your vial, makes it easy a lot easier to draw from.

 

[fifty]

27G

 

[Cataceous]

Also, I am new to injections. I have read that the needles that I got from the pharmacy (31g .5cc x 1/2") are pretty small. The problem I am having is drawing the test into the syringe, seems like it is taking a looooong time for a little. I know a smaller number is larger needle size, but not sure how much larger to go? I see some 28g with the same specs. Are those too big?

I use 31g exclusively. They are great for minimizing tissue damage. The problem of slow loading is overcome by making a simple auto-loader so you can do other things during the draw. Other designs use an empty two-liter bottle in which the syringe hangs from a vial suspended at the mouth.

 

[fifty]

Dudes who are new to injections don’t need 31g. Too difficult.

I will never understand why you guys are so into 31g for people who are relatively new to injecting. Do you have your newborns drink through a coffee straw?

 

[Vince]

Dudes who are new to injections don’t need 31g. Too difficult.

I will never understand why you guys are so into 31g for people who are relatively new to injecting. Do you have your newborns drink through a coffee straw?

I started with an easy touch 27G half inch syringe. I had no issues with this syringe.