Believe me, I like discussing and learning about PED's as much or more than anyone but.... Nobody cares what I think, and this is just me babbling, but we are very fortunate to have Dr Nichols here and I feel like we should keep our discussions with him to TRT as that's why he is gracious enough to be here and share his knowledge with us. Of course, if he wishes to expand his discussions beyond TRT, that's his decision but I don't think we should push the issue further. I'd like him to stay around a while. Just my thoughts.
Thanks for spreading the awareness on TRT. It prompted me to undergo a little investigation of my own, and I had a question if I may.
I'm an otherwise healthy 36 year old male. I'm around 111kg at 6'2''. My lifts are 220kg 3x2 squat, 228kg x4 deadlift, 155kg 3x2 bench, 100kg 3x2 press. I'm very consistent with diet and programming while getting 7-8 hours sleep a night. Lately I've made some progress on bench (1-2kg/month) and press (0.5-1kg/month) over the last few months. I've just recovered from proximal hamstring tendonitis, so no squat progress recently. Deadlifts stalled for months, so I've recently switched to rack pulls/haltings.
Life has been beating me up pretty bad the last few years. I'm depressed. My tolerance for stress is very low. I wake up during the night in a panic. I get angry easily. I get short term memory loss and vertigo sometimes when there's pressure at work. My sex drive is dead and often I can't maintain an erection while having sex. Often I can't even get an erection in the first place. My wife certainly isn't the problem there.
I went to the pathologist myself and had a testosterone test done. The result was 19.1 nmol/L (551 ng/dL). Given my symptoms, training activity and testosterone test results, is there a chance it's too low?
You are a textbook example of hypogonadism. Get it treated.
I should clarify the erectile disfunction began only in the last few months. Although I suspect that doesn't change much.
I appreciate the confidence. If only I lived in the USA, I would merely use the recommended clinic. If only I could just get a prescription from them and it would legally apply here in South Africa.
Now I must begin the arduous task of interviewing some practices/doctors to find the one who's willing to do the treatment properly according to the wisdom here. I would appreciate some notes, if you don't mind.
What kind of testosterone doses should I expect to receive? How often? What would a reasonable testosterone level be when tested that we could expect the symptoms to disappear? I read elsewhere on this forum levels of 1000 - 2000 ng/dL are reasonable — is that correct?
Perhaps I may find a doctor who will provide the same answers I receive here.