.

Damn, I'm definitely out of that range.
I'm in Toronto, Ontario
Where are you from?

AB... I think it all depends on the doctor and the lab they send blood too.
My GP told me the lab in town has different ranges for thyroid numbers compared to a town 45 mins away. He said the lab here will refuse to test blood for T3 if TSH is within range. So he told me to be book an appointment in the next town over lol...

Keep trying to find a doctor. It's a lot better to properly medicate for low t when going through a doctor. There;s a mountain of things that need to be monitored on TRT that you simply can't do yoruself.
 
You natural test levels are shut down already. You are only taking 125 mg of Ugl test. It will take 4 weeks or so to be at full amount. You are only 2 weeks in.
First off your Ugl test might not even be accurately dosed, so you may only be inject 100 mg.
I forgot are you using test 250 or t400. If t400 it will likely take longer because they use a deconate ester, and then you’ll need 150 mg a week because of the extra ester weight.

You want to speed things up, do an extra injection this week and next. You’ll perk up a bit more.
As for your depression, you’ll need to work thru that, because even if you get it together hormonally, mentally you may need to push yourself out of the rut. I know way easier for me to say than actually do. Every night and morning pay attention to the little things that are better and focus on that. Get excited about that. You know like you morning wood. That’s a great sign, you should hype yourself up about that because that means the test is working, you are getting there.

Think more of the positives you are getting and less about your motivation.
Like I got a boner this morning, I’m going to jump out of bed smack my wife with it, why, because I got a fucking boner that’s why. And she will think wtf, and you’ll laugh. Or if she’s in the bathroom, bang it on the door. It will make a unique sound, lol.
Or, I had to move my office, fuck picking shit up seemed a lot easier, I didn’t get winded, damn, it’s getting there.
I hope you understand what I mean.

Just remember, you are a beautiful butterfly, bwahaaa....sry...
 
I'm using Testosterone Cypionate @ 125mg/week.

Yeah you're right. I was able push through mentally to force myself to go to the gym for the past 2 weeks. So it can be done.
I will definitely take your advice and pat myself on the shoulder for getting things done or seeing changes. Even if progress feels minor at the moment. It can mean more in the long run. Thanks for the motivating post.
Its like when you have an injury. A month later you are still in pain, but if you look back to what it used to be like, well you are in great shape now, lol
Start a log to progress you progress. But only the positives, nothing about the black cloud hanging over you today and crap like that. Now that you know you are going to be fixed, time to get positive mentally again. The old you is gone buddy.
I do an injury log, so that way I don't get frustrated thinking its never healing.
 
I'm using Testosterone Cypionate @ 125mg/week.

Yeah you're right. I was able push through mentally to force myself to go to the gym for the past 2 weeks. So it can be done.
I will definitely take your advice and pat myself on the shoulder for getting things done or seeing changes. Even if progress feels minor at the moment. It can mean more in the long run. Thanks for the motivating post.

Keep at it.

Set smaller attainable short term goals. It can be pretty powerful to reach goals you have made for yourself.

Just small things to keep you busy but accomplishing things as well.
 
Got to tell you man been following this as I am in the same spot you were. Just to high to be considered low but for my age I should not be bordering the normal threshold.

Will continue following what you’re doing hope this all works for you
 
You could try upping your test to 250mg per week, that's still a very conservative dose. Your right, at 125mg/week u could just be supplementing your natural levels for synthetic and not getting into an optimal range. Also it's best to take 2 shots so Sunday and Thursday (1/2ml twice a week). This keeps your hormone levels more stable and usually ppl feel better this way. You should be using 1inch or 1.5inch needles in your glute shots. I thought i read u were using 5/8 , correct me if im wrong. U have to make sure u get the needle into the muscle. The glutes have lots of fat there is no way a 5/8 is long enough. U can use the 5/8 for your deltoids.

I agree with the old guy u gotta set some short term goals. Examples: strength goals r great, rep goals, diet and nutrition goals etc. I am kind of at a stand still life is a bit messy for me right now so i set some fitness goals for myself. So i have something to work towards and look forward to. Best thing to do is get out a calendar and start preparing your goals. Just write what u are going to accomplish by what date and then write down how u r going to do it. If u don't know how research how.

Always remember u never fail at any goal u don't give up on and the harder it is to reach the goal the more rewarding it is.
 
You could try upping your test to 250mg per week, that's still a very conservative dose. Your right, at 125mg/week u could just be supplementing your natural levels for synthetic and not getting into an optimal range. Also it's best to take 2 shots so Sunday and Thursday (1/2ml twice a week). This keeps your hormone levels more stable and usually ppl feel better this way. You should be using 1inch or 1.5inch needles in your glute shots. I thought i read u were using 5/8 , correct me if im wrong. U have to make sure u get the needle into the muscle. The glutes have lots of fat there is no way a 5/8 is long enough. U can use the 5/8 for your deltoids.

I agree with the old guy u gotta set some short term goals. Examples: strength goals r great, rep goals, diet and nutrition goals etc. I am kind of at a stand still life is a bit messy for me right now so i set some fitness goals for myself. So i have something to work towards and look forward to. Best thing to do is get out a calendar and start preparing your goals. Just write what u are going to accomplish by what date and then write down how u r going to do it. If u don't know how research how.

Always remember u never fail at any goal u don't give up on and the harder it is to reach the goal the more rewarding it is.
His needle length is fine for the volume he is injecting. I’ll do 1 cc with a 5/16” length needle without any issues.
Over 1 cc obviously deeper is better.
Maybe he is going sub q, lol.
 
I would still recommend he does his injections IM for best results. That's my personal recommendation.
That is fine. I prefer sub q myself. I just don't like the feeling of penetrating the muscle anymore. Once in a while, I'll do IM just for fun and I hate it.
Plus I like the fact I will never get scar tissue in my muscle nor do I get unsightly lumps in my shoulders.
 
It’s funny I was going to mention how the changes will probably be subtle and you won’t even notice unless you are really focusing. Clearly this is exactly how it has gone for you.

More is not better necessarily with TRT as it is looong term. You are doing well at 125 and unless BW shows different you should be staying there.
 
November, 21, 2019: Surge of Energy
I had a good day today so I figure I would document it here. I made this blog to track how I was feeling throughout this process.
I noticed more and more that I don't have much negative thoughts. It hit me and I was like "Wait a min, today is a good day".
So I came here to check out your comments and write this.

This morning my wife didn't go to work until later and my libido was ready to please. So we got in on. It was very good, Better than usual.
She went to work and came home and we went again. I feel more into it each time as of late. It was something I disregarded in my last update.
It was due to how lousy I was feeling that day. It clouded a positive thing I took for granted.

I'm definitely more attracted to her than usual. She is beautiful and has a really nice figure and always turns me on, but with how I was feeling in the past, it was always hard at times to really want to actually have sex and go through with it it.
We did have sex but it was always spaced out so much. Sometimes once a week or more. So this is all a good sign of progress.

I felt even more confident today as well. I took my dog out for his bathroom break and I interacted with a dog owner about their dog.
I didn't have any anxiety or nervousness to initiate that myself. I also noticed bringing my dog back inside that I was walking taller.
I had never felt that upright before. I usually feel like I'm always looking down and hunched over with poor posture. it feels like I do that just so I don't have to look at anyone.

We were home and ate dinner today and I dunno what came over me afterward. I had this surge of energy. Like something was filling up inside of me. Like this power surge of energy and positivity. I told my wife, "I feel so incredibly good right now." I felt charged up.
I wanted to take a jog around the city. It felt insanely good. It was like an endorphin dump or something. I dunno.
I didn't even know what I was doing and I ended up washing all the stuff in the sink by hand, even though the dishes, pots and pans were the amount that we usually set aside for the dishwasher. It's like I had this energy to burn. It was like the cloud of fog from my brain was clearing.
I hadn't felt like that in a LONG time. Everything I pickup felt super light. I wanted to do anything and everything.
I even picked up my wife just to show her how energetic I felt. She only weighs 105 lbs but she felt like air to hold.
It was definitely a good day and I will continue to take the advice you've all given me recently and make note of the positive things that are going on around me.

Things like this help me be more convinced I'm feeling good and on a good path and it's not placebo or once in a blue moon.
So far the dose of 125mg a week is helping. If it's not enough due to natural testosterone suppression taking place,
I will indeed raise the dose a little bit more after a few more weeks at the current one. I will make a change around week 6 if I don't see any improvement or decrease in my progress and feeling.
I will also see if I feel the "dip" in my mental state, mood, and energy and switch to twice a week injections if need be in the next few weeks to keep levels stable to avoid the dip. I'm still not "there" yet but it was a nice glimpse as what most of you all have told me about this process.
It's really like I had felt the old (young)me for a little bit.

Thanks for the feedback and support as usual
-Magnus



I inject intramuscular. I use 25g 1" for my glutes and 25g 5/8" for my deltoids.

I saw this and wondered if your wife may be reaching out for help, thought you should know....kdNh_ETtsNTqZalCVm3g7WiDvHzbC2cVgaB5zy7H3qs.jpg
 
Even if your hormones become perfect, it may take a bit to get mentally good. You need to retrain your patterns. You’ll get there. Anything is better than where you were
 
TRT Week 4:

So Week 4 is just about completed and it was just another week. I still take the same 125mg dose of Testosterone Cypionate.
(I want to note, I don't have any side effects of my current dose of Testosterone. I'd like to also add that I have had issues with bloating for many months since May/June which have been actually reduced since starting this self TRT Protocol)

The good news is that even going 1-2 times a week to the gym is showing a significant difference to my physique. I notice I'm finally losing some weight after so long of trying in the past to work out and eat cleaner and less calories. Seems like it's finally working this time since starting TRT on my own. It's definitely doing something. It's still mentally difficult but I do force myself to go to the gym and do a couple of workouts a week. I do train hard when I'm there. So as long a I go, 1-2 days is better than zero days. So it's something for now.

Energy,motivation and confidence wasn't really there this week at any point. I didn't have much shining moments for those kinds of things compared to previous weeks. I had a few small victories, which were great but I'm still waiting to get "there'.

Yesterday and Today have been lousier than usual in terms of mood and such.
Yesterday being the worst day of the week. I'm starting to understand the whole "peaks and valleys" deal with how you're feeling injecting once a week. I really feel like it tapered off. I can honestly say that as I write this, I feel like I did before TRT.
This specific dose for 4 weeks hasn't shown a significant energy improvement for a consistent period of time. Even at it's peak days.
I do still sleep really well and morning erections are still there. Libido isn't really there as I hoped.
The TRT has helped me feel less groggy in the morning for the most part but Yesterday and Today have been rough and those symptoms returned.

As for Week 5 & 6: I'll keep the dose the same and see how I feel for the next 2 weeks. I still don't feel what most have felt in regards to the energy/motivation they've all felt after 3-4 weeks. I'm still patient and will wait it out a few more weeks.
I've only felt that strong reduction of lethargy for 1-2 days out of the week or sometimes just an hour or so once a week.
I will do some blood work after week 6 and see where my levels are at and then decide what to do next.
I am strongly considering just doing twice a week injections to avoid the drop in mood but also probably up the dose at week 7 depending what the blood tests show. By week 7, if I don't feel anything significant in terms of energy and such, I'll raise the dose but only a little.

I just had a question: When is the best time to do a blood test? Should I do it the day before the next injection?
If I inject once a week on Mondays. Would it be best to do it the following Monday before the injection?

I'm still patient and I'm just simply documenting how I feel. Good and bad.
I take everything day by day and week by week.
Thanks for reading
-Magnus

Yes get BW on theMonday. The dr say to test 1/2 way between shots but I prefer to test at my lowest point.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Switch to more frequent injections, like every 4-5 days, watch some youtube videos on sub q injections, it will make the more frequent injections bearable. I go back to my original question I asked when you first posted, what else are you doing to try and get out of this rut? I'm not with everyone else here that seems to think injecting some test is the magic fix all...there's clearly some mental health issues at play that you need help with....I live with an anxiety ridden wife so I say this from a place of understanding, not judgement.
 
I force myself to get out of this rut when I notice too many lousy days strung together. I spend more time outside, I take 8 flights of stairs in my condo coming back in a few times a day, I exercise, eat cleaner, drinking more water etc. I try to not sit around and wait for something to happen.
I'm proactively trying different things to feel better with other external factors on top of the TRT dosage.

The thing is, I do feel better mentally for brief spurts here and there.
So I know all this is definitely doing something, as it comes out of nowhere. My mood has been so good at times, I feel like it's surreal.
I know this is a work in progress and I know it's not a magic bullet. I know there will be highs and lows.
I definitely will split the dose. I'll do it in a few weeks, as I'm going away with my wife for a week. I don't want to get used to it and then have to briefly go back to 1 week so soon. I'll continue on the current protocol for now. Get blood work after I come back from the trip and see what my levels say. I will also adjust dosage if I am not feeling optimal.

Way to go....sounds like you're on the right track! When things get bad do you have anyone to talk to? Is there certain triggers for the lousy days? For me with my wife and her anxiety there are certain triggers that will set her off, for example illness' with our children, something as simple as one of our kids coming down with a cold is enough to send her to a bad place mentally, there are other triggers but being aware of them allows me to see them coming and help immediately and also talk her through situations we've been through in the past....anyway I wish you the best pal and sounds like you have a holiday upcoming with the wife to look forward to, enjoy!
 
I feel society is slowly getting better with understanding mental health isn't a weakness or a matter of simply "sucking it up". or uncommon...especially for men there's a stigma that needs to go away....life is hard enough without feeling the need to apologize for having anxiety/depression etc....keep leaning on your friend, your wife, this board, making progress....wishing you the best pal.
 
@MagnusPrime

happy to see you are progressing. Stay the course for now until you see no betterment for a couple to three weeks, then you can think about increasing your dose a bit.

When I have more time I’ll read through your entire post but just glad to see things are headed in the right direction.
 
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