TRT - 40yo Male - 1ml/100mg injection every three weeks. Good / Bad? Not
October 5, 2015 5:19 PM Subscribe
This is sort of a follow up to last question i posted... But it was about androgel and this is about injections.Had a full blood panel from internal medicine doctor as I told him that my libido was low. Well, my testosterone level came back at 277 which he told me was low. I was prescribed 1ml/100mg of testosterone cypionate once every three weeks. Ive tried to do my research and from what ive found is that this is bad and should at least be done every week or at least every two weeks. I spoke with him about it and he said he wanted it keep it that way. Should I start it and see what happens? Im worried about peaks and valleys and my test. lasting that three weeks.
Response by poster: Just going by what I have read. Seems everyone takes this weekly or biweekly. I understand its supposed to be long lasting. I did bring it up with doc, he said this is what he wanted. My thinking is if i started and it makes me feel lousy, see the doc and have blood done again and maybe he will up the frequency.
posted by flipmiester99 at 6:27 PM on October 5, 2015
posted by flipmiester99 at 6:27 PM on October 5, 2015
I read the previous thread and I'm still not sure that the benefits of TRT outweigh the risks for you. My husband was prescribed Androgel after months of chronic fatigue, depression, and unexplainable weight gain, as well as trying many other tests and treatments. The difference is night and day, especially with the depression.
You're saying you want to proceed directly to injections for what in the last thread sounded like mild symptoms, and a testosterone reading several orders of magnitude higher than what my husband's reading was. You are rightly worried about side effects. And you want to know if it's a better idea to inject MORE OFTEN than what your doctor recommended?
Please take the advice from a previous thread and get a second opinion.
posted by chainsofreedom at 6:45 PM on October 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
You're saying you want to proceed directly to injections for what in the last thread sounded like mild symptoms, and a testosterone reading several orders of magnitude higher than what my husband's reading was. You are rightly worried about side effects. And you want to know if it's a better idea to inject MORE OFTEN than what your doctor recommended?
Please take the advice from a previous thread and get a second opinion.
posted by chainsofreedom at 6:45 PM on October 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Yeah, Main side effect I was worried about was hair loss. But I understand if that's going to happen, its going to happen with or without trt therapy. Androgel has side effects that could potentially effect my children and wife. I want to give it a go, but that dose at that interval seems very bad, again this is from the research I have found.
posted by flipmiester99 at 6:51 PM on October 5, 2015
posted by flipmiester99 at 6:51 PM on October 5, 2015
If you are concerned about the prescribed dosage, you should get a second opinion.
posted by serelliya at 6:57 PM on October 5, 2015
posted by serelliya at 6:57 PM on October 5, 2015
If your PCP is anything like mine they want to raise your free/total testosterone level to near the middle of a normal range for your age. In my case, my PCP built up the dosage until I reached a target value rather than initially prescribing a large dose, possibly overshooting the target value, and then reducing the dosage.
You did your homework, you voiced your concerns to your doctor, and your doctor provided you with their rationale. If you are not satisfied with what your doctor said, get a second opinion as has been suggested above.
posted by Rob Rockets at 7:08 PM on October 5, 2015
You did your homework, you voiced your concerns to your doctor, and your doctor provided you with their rationale. If you are not satisfied with what your doctor said, get a second opinion as has been suggested above.
posted by Rob Rockets at 7:08 PM on October 5, 2015
Androgel has side effects that could potentially effect my children and wife.
What? No. Dude. The warnings on Androgel are to prevent you from passing it on to your wife or kids by skin-to-skin contact. The side effects affect you and they will be exactly the same with injections. If you are worried about your kids getting into your Androgel then you need to be doubly worried about them getting into syringes and injectable T.
That said - you need to trust what the doctor says. T levels that are too high can really fuck you up. You're already within the normal range for cis men (albeit at the low end).
posted by desjardins at 7:18 PM on October 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
What? No. Dude. The warnings on Androgel are to prevent you from passing it on to your wife or kids by skin-to-skin contact. The side effects affect you and they will be exactly the same with injections. If you are worried about your kids getting into your Androgel then you need to be doubly worried about them getting into syringes and injectable T.
That said - you need to trust what the doctor says. T levels that are too high can really fuck you up. You're already within the normal range for cis men (albeit at the low end).
posted by desjardins at 7:18 PM on October 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
Go with what the doctor prescribed, the every three weeks plan. He's been to med school and learned about things like drug reactions & interactions, you've just googled the stuff. Perhaps he wants to see what results are produced by the lower level of injections before he risks blasting your system with unnecessary or harmful-to-you high doses.
Or just go to another doc and get a second opinion, but don't start self-prescribing yourself into a massive overdose of anything.
posted by easily confused at 1:35 AM on October 6, 2015
Or just go to another doc and get a second opinion, but don't start self-prescribing yourself into a massive overdose of anything.
posted by easily confused at 1:35 AM on October 6, 2015
My thinking is if i started and it makes me feel lousy, see the doc and have blood done again and maybe he will up the frequency.
This is your answer. (And the answer to most things related to T--try it, do blood work, if it looks okay and you don't feel horrible, keep going, otherwise adjust.)
Anything involving T is an inexact science--it depends too much on the individual and even doctors with tons of experience (which your doctor likely doesn't have unless he sees trans men--this was almost entirely the domain of endocrinologists until very recently) have a preference of injection schedule that's based more in received wisdom or experimentation than science saying such-and-such injection schedule tends to work for the greatest number of people.
Given that you have kids, it's understandable to be concerned about Androgel and transference. It's less of an issue with a partner. Pick a time to put it on where you're unlikely to have skin-to-skin contact in the next couple hours, e.g. when you get dressed in the morning, and that's that, pretty much. From talking to people with kids who've used Androgel, it seems the natural hypervigilance at the beginning means they naturally figure out what works in their family. (I know someone who started with a kid who was too young to understand "I have medicine that other people need to not touch". The kid figured out "no shirt = no being picked up" on their own and once sent him away to put a shirt on when he popped out of the bedroom to grab something while getting dressed.)
If your insurance will pay for it, there are other topicals with different application areas. Fortesta (and I think maybe the 1% Androgel, but not the 1.62%) has the thighs as an official application area. Axiron goes in the armpit (how it doesn't run out of your armpit is a great mystery to everyone who hasn't used it (including the drug reps it seems), but people say it doesn't). There are patches (Androderm), but it seems everyone reacts to the adhesive, either off the bat or eventually.
posted by hoyland at 4:34 AM on October 6, 2015
This is your answer. (And the answer to most things related to T--try it, do blood work, if it looks okay and you don't feel horrible, keep going, otherwise adjust.)
Anything involving T is an inexact science--it depends too much on the individual and even doctors with tons of experience (which your doctor likely doesn't have unless he sees trans men--this was almost entirely the domain of endocrinologists until very recently) have a preference of injection schedule that's based more in received wisdom or experimentation than science saying such-and-such injection schedule tends to work for the greatest number of people.
Given that you have kids, it's understandable to be concerned about Androgel and transference. It's less of an issue with a partner. Pick a time to put it on where you're unlikely to have skin-to-skin contact in the next couple hours, e.g. when you get dressed in the morning, and that's that, pretty much. From talking to people with kids who've used Androgel, it seems the natural hypervigilance at the beginning means they naturally figure out what works in their family. (I know someone who started with a kid who was too young to understand "I have medicine that other people need to not touch". The kid figured out "no shirt = no being picked up" on their own and once sent him away to put a shirt on when he popped out of the bedroom to grab something while getting dressed.)
If your insurance will pay for it, there are other topicals with different application areas. Fortesta (and I think maybe the 1% Androgel, but not the 1.62%) has the thighs as an official application area. Axiron goes in the armpit (how it doesn't run out of your armpit is a great mystery to everyone who hasn't used it (including the drug reps it seems), but people say it doesn't). There are patches (Androderm), but it seems everyone reacts to the adhesive, either off the bat or eventually.
posted by hoyland at 4:34 AM on October 6, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by un petit cadeau at 6:22 PM on October 5, 2015