Kroneborge
New Member
Hi,
I'm almost 41, and just got started with TrT. I will give you a short version of a long story.
About 5 years ago I was working out pretty hard (p90x) and trying to eat right (hemp protein shakes in the morning and large chicken salads with plenty of variety of vegetables for lunch and dinner most days). But I had horrible inflammations in my wrists and so was taking a lot of Aleve. Then I started to get this weird pressure in my chest/throat. Not heartburn, but something like that. Almost like something was stuck going down I tried a number of things to fix it, then I tried a new probiotic and had probably a mild anxiety attack and started getting wavy vision.
Fast forward a couple of months (wavy vision is still there). And I decided to try some acupuncture to help with the wrists. The lady put 3 needles into me. On the third one, I blacked out and started shaking and turning green for like a minute. Upon waking up I threw up, and continued to throw up off and on for another 6-8 hours. After that, I really started to feel bad like I was going to die all the time and had really bad wavy vision. I saw a number or regular doctors and got things like an MRI etc. Also got heavy metal screening etc (everything fine but high copper). After western medicine kind of gave up. I saw some not traditional doctors one of which said I had copper toxicity. Hair test analysis also confirmed that, but I still don’t know if that was the real cause of the issues.
Anyway, over the couple of years, I VERY slowly started to get a bit better. I was at least able to make it through the day and support my family. Last year, I started working out again, and was doing ok, then we moved to Oregon (also had a second kid). By July/August my anxiety was getting real bad again (along with the wavy vision) and I was feeling very thin or fragile (mentally). I tried a new doctor who said I had adrenal fatigue, along with low T (around 400). So I made it a priority to distress, also stopped working out and made some other dietary changes to try and help with adrenal fatigue. My anxiety was too high to start any other treatments though (it’s worse when doing dietary changes or supplement/medicine changes).
In December I got additional bloodwork and my T had continued to drop as well as DHEA. So I started on DHEA (15 mg a day). That helped some initially but then the effect seemed to wear off. In April I went and got more bloodwork.
Current scores
DHEA 172 (70-495)
Estradiol <20 (22-85)
Free Test 57 (34-246)
SHBG 19 (20-60)
Progesterone .3 (.2-2.0)
Cortisol 16.2 (6.7 -22.6).
Initially the doctor wanted to put my on a shot every 7-10 days. But I had been reading the testosterone optimization book, and I said I should be on smaller doses more often. After some research she agreed and prescribed. 50 mg every other day (which would be 175 a week)
After that but before taking my first shot, I re-read the interview with Dr Crissler about SHBG and noted where he said that people with anxiety often have low SHBG (yes to both for me), and recommended 50 mg a week. I ended up going with 18 mg every other day or 63 a week. I’ve now done three shots, and seem to be doing ok. No panic attack! Which is always a big win. Also a bit higher energy levels. I was thinking of upping the dosage slightly each week, but then read elsewhere on the forum that it takes 40 days for the level to normalize, so now I’m thinking maybe wait a bit.
Any thoughts?
I'm almost 41, and just got started with TrT. I will give you a short version of a long story.
About 5 years ago I was working out pretty hard (p90x) and trying to eat right (hemp protein shakes in the morning and large chicken salads with plenty of variety of vegetables for lunch and dinner most days). But I had horrible inflammations in my wrists and so was taking a lot of Aleve. Then I started to get this weird pressure in my chest/throat. Not heartburn, but something like that. Almost like something was stuck going down I tried a number of things to fix it, then I tried a new probiotic and had probably a mild anxiety attack and started getting wavy vision.
Fast forward a couple of months (wavy vision is still there). And I decided to try some acupuncture to help with the wrists. The lady put 3 needles into me. On the third one, I blacked out and started shaking and turning green for like a minute. Upon waking up I threw up, and continued to throw up off and on for another 6-8 hours. After that, I really started to feel bad like I was going to die all the time and had really bad wavy vision. I saw a number or regular doctors and got things like an MRI etc. Also got heavy metal screening etc (everything fine but high copper). After western medicine kind of gave up. I saw some not traditional doctors one of which said I had copper toxicity. Hair test analysis also confirmed that, but I still don’t know if that was the real cause of the issues.
Anyway, over the couple of years, I VERY slowly started to get a bit better. I was at least able to make it through the day and support my family. Last year, I started working out again, and was doing ok, then we moved to Oregon (also had a second kid). By July/August my anxiety was getting real bad again (along with the wavy vision) and I was feeling very thin or fragile (mentally). I tried a new doctor who said I had adrenal fatigue, along with low T (around 400). So I made it a priority to distress, also stopped working out and made some other dietary changes to try and help with adrenal fatigue. My anxiety was too high to start any other treatments though (it’s worse when doing dietary changes or supplement/medicine changes).
In December I got additional bloodwork and my T had continued to drop as well as DHEA. So I started on DHEA (15 mg a day). That helped some initially but then the effect seemed to wear off. In April I went and got more bloodwork.
Current scores
DHEA 172 (70-495)
Estradiol <20 (22-85)
Free Test 57 (34-246)
SHBG 19 (20-60)
Progesterone .3 (.2-2.0)
Cortisol 16.2 (6.7 -22.6).
Initially the doctor wanted to put my on a shot every 7-10 days. But I had been reading the testosterone optimization book, and I said I should be on smaller doses more often. After some research she agreed and prescribed. 50 mg every other day (which would be 175 a week)
After that but before taking my first shot, I re-read the interview with Dr Crissler about SHBG and noted where he said that people with anxiety often have low SHBG (yes to both for me), and recommended 50 mg a week. I ended up going with 18 mg every other day or 63 a week. I’ve now done three shots, and seem to be doing ok. No panic attack! Which is always a big win. Also a bit higher energy levels. I was thinking of upping the dosage slightly each week, but then read elsewhere on the forum that it takes 40 days for the level to normalize, so now I’m thinking maybe wait a bit.
Any thoughts?
