4 ms·

What's the advantage of IV over oral / nasal ingestion? What is your experience with side effects (testes shrinkage, hair loss, acne, etc.)? For someone with

by yasp 8y ago

What's the advantage of IV over oral / nasal ingestion? What is your experience with side effects (testes shrinkage, hair loss, acne, etc.)? For someone with recurrent anxiety and depression that has been resistant to other, more conventional, treatment approaches, do you think TRT is worth exploring and how does one find a good doctor?

throwawaytrt 8y ago
I do not know of a testosterone formulation approved for IV or nasal. Only for IM which is into the muscle before absorption. Some doctors will allow Sub-Q (in the fat) because several studies have showed it also gets absorbed in fat but at a different rate. Shrinkage is not as bad as you would think, in my case maybe 25%. However, my doctor also prescribes HCG to be injected IM bi-weekly. HCG is an analog to LH - the signaling hormone that tells the testes to produce testosterone. As a result mine are still producing a little bit of test to keep their size and prevent atrophy (I am still fertile as a result). Acne pops up when dosage is going up or down but tends to go away if you maintain a stable dose and blood level concentrations (aka dose timing) for a long period of time. Most people in my family suffer from depression, and I have in the past. I think most of mine was caused by anxiety though. SSRIs when I was a teen never did anything for me. I now am fine with no drugs for it though. If yours is based in anxiety I strongly believe it will help.
- mobilejdral 8y ago
  I would second the HCG (or similar, clomid?) for anyone that wants to prevent atrophy by keeping your LH levels up. From a medical perspective I would be curious if you could play with HCG or similar by itself to cause your natural T levels to rise without having to take T. As an anecdotal single data point of how far you can go after keeping my LH levels as low as I could after around eight months straight my testes decreased around 75% in volume.
- rootsudo 8y ago
  This is really interesting. Previously, I asked my doctor to try it, and my first dose of the T Pill sent me into a panic attack and scared me from it. Same history with family and SRRI use.
jperras 8y ago
> What's the advantage of IV over oral / nasal ingestion? Generally, oral anabolic steroids are more hepatoxic than their IV counterparts. So the advantage is that you end up with less liver damage.
- yasp 8y ago
  Didn’t realize that TRT is a form of “taking steroids”. Makes sense in hindsight.

by yasp 8y ago

throwawaytrt 8y ago

I do not know of a testosterone formulation approved for IV or nasal. Only for IM which is into the muscle before absorption. Some doctors will allow Sub-Q (in the fat) because several studies have showed it also gets absorbed in fat but at a different rate. Shrinkage is not as bad as you would think, in my case maybe 25%. However, my doctor also prescribes HCG to be injected IM bi-weekly. HCG is an analog to LH - the signaling hormone that tells the testes to produce testosterone. As a result mine are still producing a little bit of test to keep their size and prevent atrophy (I am still fertile as a result). Acne pops up when dosage is going up or down but tends to go away if you maintain a stable dose and blood level concentrations (aka dose timing) for a long period of time. Most people in my family suffer from depression, and I have in the past. I think most of mine was caused by anxiety though. SSRIs when I was a teen never did anything for me. I now am fine with no drugs for it though. If yours is based in anxiety I strongly believe it will help.

mobilejdral 8y ago
I would second the HCG (or similar, clomid?) for anyone that wants to prevent atrophy by keeping your LH levels up. From a medical perspective I would be curious if you could play with HCG or similar by itself to cause your natural T levels to rise without having to take T. As an anecdotal single data point of how far you can go after keeping my LH levels as low as I could after around eight months straight my testes decreased around 75% in volume.
rootsudo 8y ago
This is really interesting. Previously, I asked my doctor to try it, and my first dose of the T Pill sent me into a panic attack and scared me from it. Same history with family and SRRI use.

jperras 8y ago

> What's the advantage of IV over oral / nasal ingestion? Generally, oral anabolic steroids are more hepatoxic than their IV counterparts. So the advantage is that you end up with less liver damage.

yasp 8y ago
Didn’t realize that TRT is a form of “taking steroids”. Makes sense in hindsight.