Well, I'm about midway through my third-quarter of TRT with onmen. I say quarters as they require bloodwork every three months for the first year. The first three months they had me on a suspended cream which did zero. Discouraging start as my hopes were high that I'd start feeling better. My 3 month bloodwork was worse that my base if I'm not mistaken. Luckily, they didn't waste any more time and put me on 40mg cypionate twice weekly. The second three months were better and I started to see improvement in my mood, energy levels and general well being. Fiancée really noticed a difference, she said she didn't think anything was that wrong with me until after I started improving, then realized how bad things actually were. She says it's like I was when we met 10 years ago, whereas the past two years have basically been me dragging my ass everywhere I went, not wanting to do a damn thing but hit the couch from the time work ended until I crashed out. Needless to say I'm very happy. I had chalked most of my symptoms to age and having a career that beats up on you as you get older, I'm glad that isn't always true.
Pinning myself I still can't do, my partner does it for me. I had a huge phobia about needles, and vasovagal syncope, meaning I pass out for needles. Needless to say, I was pretty desperate if I was willing to go through bloodwork every couple months, and ridiculously desperate when I agreed to getting stabbed every three days. The first three months were really hell. We were pinning in the thigh, and most days it was painful AF. Like a hot poker going in. I was told it was the alcohol not being dry completely, that I was nicking a nerve, inserting too slowly. Tried all these things and it was still 50/50 that my injection was going to suck. This obviously didn't help my anxiety, and I found myself tensing up and twitching, which made things even worse. So this is what HAS helped for anyone who is a pu$$y like me;
1. Lay down. I do this for my pins every time, and started requesting the room with the bed at the lab. Because Vasovagal Syncope triggers a drop in blood pressure, laying down almost always fixes the problem. I've never passed out or even gotten light headed if I'm laying down.
2. insert needle quickly, then stabilize with one hand while you inject. Test actually requires a decent amount of pressure and takes around 10 sec for 40mg to be pushed in. If you're wiggling around the needle the whole time, it's gonna eventually suck.
3. If it hurts, stop. A few times I felt the hot burning which I was told may or may not be hitting a nerve? (I have no idea if this is true). Usually I'd jump a bit, then when Kate got all concerned, I'd tell her to just hurry and get it done. I say don't. If it feels at all wrong, stop, remove the needle and find a new spot.
4. Finally, change location. This was the best thing that happened to me at least. I was injecting into my thigh as that's where people are most commonly told to start. Why? Because it's and easy location for a person to do on their own. After going deep on Youtube, it seems that there are a lot of reasons why the thigh probably sucks lol. About one month ago, I convinced Kate to try a glute injection, specifically the gluteus medius. It is literally night and day for me. I haven't had a single painful injection there yet.
So, what was becoming a bit of a nightmare I was seriously considering giving up on, has become a bit of a success story so far. I'm happy I've done this. I used to be very active and lifted regularly for a few years, then found myself having less and less energy and having increasing difficultly recovering post workout. So I stopped, then started to gain weight, then gave up on nutrition, then gained more, and the cycle would just keep repeating itself until I found myself at 236lb. It all ties together, and I'm feeling good about where it's headed.
The one area I'm still hoping for results, and the actual reason I started this all, is libido/drive and quality of erection. Libido has definitely improved, but I still consider it way lower that I believe it should be, and what I was used to in the past. Wood quality is nothing to write home about either. It's improved, but shit isn't going to happen without some manual help to get started, and even then, you couldn't hang a towel on it if you know what I mean. This is still very discouraging to me, so I'd love to hear from the experts. On my most recent bloodwork my estradiol was high (244 pmol/L). They gave me a prescription for Arimidex so we'll see what happens there. My test numbers are considered high now, is this a concern? Testosterone 24.9 nmol/l, and free test 704 pmol/l.
Pinning myself I still can't do, my partner does it for me. I had a huge phobia about needles, and vasovagal syncope, meaning I pass out for needles. Needless to say, I was pretty desperate if I was willing to go through bloodwork every couple months, and ridiculously desperate when I agreed to getting stabbed every three days. The first three months were really hell. We were pinning in the thigh, and most days it was painful AF. Like a hot poker going in. I was told it was the alcohol not being dry completely, that I was nicking a nerve, inserting too slowly. Tried all these things and it was still 50/50 that my injection was going to suck. This obviously didn't help my anxiety, and I found myself tensing up and twitching, which made things even worse. So this is what HAS helped for anyone who is a pu$$y like me;
1. Lay down. I do this for my pins every time, and started requesting the room with the bed at the lab. Because Vasovagal Syncope triggers a drop in blood pressure, laying down almost always fixes the problem. I've never passed out or even gotten light headed if I'm laying down.
2. insert needle quickly, then stabilize with one hand while you inject. Test actually requires a decent amount of pressure and takes around 10 sec for 40mg to be pushed in. If you're wiggling around the needle the whole time, it's gonna eventually suck.
3. If it hurts, stop. A few times I felt the hot burning which I was told may or may not be hitting a nerve? (I have no idea if this is true). Usually I'd jump a bit, then when Kate got all concerned, I'd tell her to just hurry and get it done. I say don't. If it feels at all wrong, stop, remove the needle and find a new spot.
4. Finally, change location. This was the best thing that happened to me at least. I was injecting into my thigh as that's where people are most commonly told to start. Why? Because it's and easy location for a person to do on their own. After going deep on Youtube, it seems that there are a lot of reasons why the thigh probably sucks lol. About one month ago, I convinced Kate to try a glute injection, specifically the gluteus medius. It is literally night and day for me. I haven't had a single painful injection there yet.
So, what was becoming a bit of a nightmare I was seriously considering giving up on, has become a bit of a success story so far. I'm happy I've done this. I used to be very active and lifted regularly for a few years, then found myself having less and less energy and having increasing difficultly recovering post workout. So I stopped, then started to gain weight, then gave up on nutrition, then gained more, and the cycle would just keep repeating itself until I found myself at 236lb. It all ties together, and I'm feeling good about where it's headed.
The one area I'm still hoping for results, and the actual reason I started this all, is libido/drive and quality of erection. Libido has definitely improved, but I still consider it way lower that I believe it should be, and what I was used to in the past. Wood quality is nothing to write home about either. It's improved, but shit isn't going to happen without some manual help to get started, and even then, you couldn't hang a towel on it if you know what I mean. This is still very discouraging to me, so I'd love to hear from the experts. On my most recent bloodwork my estradiol was high (244 pmol/L). They gave me a prescription for Arimidex so we'll see what happens there. My test numbers are considered high now, is this a concern? Testosterone 24.9 nmol/l, and free test 704 pmol/l.
