Actually I think you are right on the money with this one mate. I was thinking to do similar and just see how I will feel. I am very curious myself. Give the body rest from all the hormonal waves and shit and see what happens. In the meantime get as healthy as possible and take notes. Thing is if TRT is messing me up then all the other variables I throw at it is just band aid and doesn't treat the root cause. My goal is to be as sharp and mentally focused as humanly possible and without strange waves like now on TRT. One moment feeling great then going out somewhere and boom shit starts hitting the fan. Honestly I had my fair share of side effects that makes me never ever want to try it again. I started my experiment as a trial just to see if raising my FT from borderline low will help with my cognition, braig fog, some body aches and dont remember what else, need to check my logs how I was feeling before starting. So I can tell 100% that my cognition has went the other way. Memory issues as well. Harder to talk about what I want with the exact words that I want. Short temper. Bouts of heath, like hot flashes or something like that. And brain fog. Def more I can relate to but the picture is clear. Whats interesting is that I was feeling awesome on the E5D 100mg protocol till I got sick with a flu or whatever fuck that was and then shit hit the fan. Feels like it changed something in my brain, like a neurostransmitter/s got turned off and boom started having BP spiked, feeling off, those hot flashes, etc, and since then I couldnt make it work, no matter what I did. But tbf I was already doing a lot to feel that good and if to have normal BP readings and feel great requires so much then it also raises a question is that actually beneficial for me long-term or detrimental? It makes no sense having BP in sub 110/70 then after getting sick 150/90...I doubt it that without TRT I would have seen such a drastic jump, but who knows...Anything is possible...
Well, this is humbling to read, as I was the one that suggested the EOD protocol which was working well for me. I guess this is another example of how different we all are with our reactions to TRT. I do relate to your description of feeling like you are "injecting poison", which is very much how I felt on cypionate injections. That makes me wonder if you couldn't find a different formula that you react better to like I have.
No worries its all good and glad I got that out of the way. Experience is priceless. Who knows and to be fair I can't be bothered anymore. Took the risks and payed the price. It is what it is. Time to move on.
Yeah I hear you but thats for the majority. I'm the minority in many different aspects mate and been all my life. Plus the heavy chronic stress volatile lifestyle ain't helping the issue as well. I'm pretty sure if I was all set financially and being able to relax just a bit I would be in a totally different headspace and more or less would have a chance to benefit from T or any other supplements. When there is chronic stressor involved it changes the dynamics completely but for now it is what it is and I have to adapt and keep moving forward. Do what best while taking all the hits and keep moving forward.
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Forgive me if its been address but I wonder how high your test was to be feeling anxious and what not. I'm at 500- 600 TT and I feel much better than in the 1000's
Well I've ran different doses from 75mg to 175mg per week. Was feeling most stable at 100mg E5D fwiw. But then got sick for like 3 weeks and shit hit the fan. BP started spiking and started feeling a lot worse then before and once I got better I just couldn't make it work again feeling a lot of side effects and just decided to get off. I have #s noted down in this journal but too sick right now to search. Before TRT my baseline was ruffly in the 450s to 500s of TT and borderline low cFT. Trial was to see if raising my FT would help me feel better and it didn't. Pros and cons to everything but more sides for me then I like so not much use for me. I have tons of test and deca left so might give it another go sometime in the future if I decide to try one more time.
Did your test levels rebound to a "normal" physiological level?
I haven't done a blood test yet but I am nearly 8 weeks without my T injection FWIW. I'm guessing I have recovered but how well and how the #s look I have no idea.
In some ways, we sound similar. After 10 years of prescribed TRT and not much to show for it, except more muscular, I'm considering a break. Poor sleep has been a constant for 20 years, which is when bipolar re-emerged. I've been reading, again, a book by the late Dr. Broda Barnes on hypothyroidism. I started back on desiccated(1 grain) in the evening and, in the morning, 10 mcg of liquid T3. Actually slept 7 hours. I know I'll likely change things around if I feel I need to tweak it. Both Barnes, who started as an endocrine physiologist, then went to medical school, and Ray Peat, also an endocrine physiologist, saw treating not just overt, but subtle problems with the thyroid or the HPTA, as a critical key to overall physical and mental health, as well as sexual function.
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Bel, I know you've been struggling to regain your health. I indeed see parallels in the issues we deal with. And, like you, I've got a bedroom with boxes of supplements that never helped me or helped a little, then turned around and bit me in the ass, LOL. It's possible that the H. Pylori infection might have messed up your gut. I've gone through periods, mostly decades ago, when health and sleep were okay, then, like a biological/metabolic switch turning on or off, it all goes to rubbish, then, weeks or months or in one case, a year, I'd be back to feeling okay. For the past 20 years, its been, to quote the Grateful Dead song, 'Truckin', "a long strange trip". Mental illness is a misnomer. As I said to Vince, it's a whole body illness which sends you down a rabbit hole from which you never seem to emerge.
