I’m a 53-year old who started lifting four years ago who had great results.
However, last year or so I’ve been feeling tired, low and had a significant drop in libido.
So, three months ago I saw a GP about this and to my surprise he wanted to put me on TRT (gel).
I had 725 T but my SHBG was 74 and he said the only way to bring SHBG down was extra T.
I thought long and hard about this and finally went along.
Now, he booked a bloodtest for two weeks in and then he quit and left town.
This worried me since I live in Sweden and TRT is not common practice, in fact frowned upon by most doctors so now I was alone with this.
The blood test after two weeks showed 1100 T and 68 SHBG. And that was all that was tested. No blood, no PSA, no nothing,
First month I had modest improvements with symptoms but now I must say I don’t experience anything different.
I called my health care provider but they said to call back after summer when there’s a new doc in place.
Dr. Google says be patient, and I been applying the gel everyday for three months but I am a bit worried about the lack of supervision.
I guess my question is should I quit cold turkey or be patient? I will meet a doc sometime next month and hopefully convince them to do more tests.
It sounds like you did not have anywhere near a sufficient medical evaluation prior to starting TRT. It is not dangerous to stop this, though I cannot advise you to start or stop a medication without being your doctor.
No, I figuered it’s not dangerous to quit, except for feeling like shit for a couple of weeks until my hormones are back on track.
But could it be dangerous to carry on for say, a month more?
Then I would have seen a doctor and hopefully got the proper tests.
At the moment my inner hypochondriac is chalking every little physical discomfort up to the trt, because I don’t know what’s happening inside.
Am I too worried about the risks?
I do think my free T has been low and this is probably the only chance I’ll have for trt in Sweden having so high total T.
Again, thanks for the reply, I’m really swinging alone in the wind here.
I’m not a doctor, but if you google the prerequisites to treat hypogonadisim of what most insurance companies (in the U.S.) will cover (for injections) its this:
Lower than 300 Total tested first thing in the morning, Fasted. Minimum 2 tests at least 1 week apart. Some set the threshold at 250.
The fact that your doctor is not doing quarterly or bi yearly testing of PSA, blood thickness, estrogen, ect would scare the crap out of me.
725 total is well above the median for your age, its actually in the top quartile.
I feel a bit more at ease now.
Dr. Google either says trt is no big deal, just look att the jiucers levels, your tiny T-adjustment is more like a supplement.
OR: you will stroke out and mess up your endocrine system for life if you don’t run tests every two weeks.