Why must his psychiatrist be the one who prescribes the TRT?
Hey Coach,
I have a friend and trainee who is in his early 60s and is clearly dealing with low T problems: trouble sleeping, stiff and sore all of the time, poor recovery from relatively low stress training days and major depressive disorder. He’s also bipolar and is uncertain that his psychiatrist would be on board for prescribing or recommending TRT.
You present a very convincing argument for starting a patient on TRT under circumstances like these and I was hoping that you could recommend some compelling studies/articles to present to his doctor?
Why must his psychiatrist be the one who prescribes the TRT?
From my own experience, the best Dr. to go to would be an endocrinologist. Psychiatrists don't have experience with TRT, and thus don't prescribe it. This is exactly how they should approach it, since doctors shouldn't prescribe treatments they don't know about. Find an endocrinologist with testimonials or reviews online from satisfied patients who receive TRT. Then you know you're dealing with one who's not squeamish about prescribing it.
Just go to a TRT clinic. We know they will prescribe it.
He previously had asked his psychiatrist if TRT would have negative side effects in regards to treating his bipolar disorder and at the time his psychiatrist felt like it would interfere with the process of getting his meds right.
I’ve almost convinced him to try it without consulting his psychiatrist, but he still wants to check with her before proceeding.
I told him I’d ask around and dig up some studies/articles for him to present to the doc.
What is his level as per the last test?
Prescribing testosterone is not always as easy as some would think. Some states require multiple tests documenting low levels, which are low for age etc. so if a person tests 400 they can’t necessarily just say I’m symptomatic and decide to take exogenous test legally to hit 1000 or whatever.
Which states?
He never had it checked to his recollection. I recommended he get it checked at a t-clinic years ago, as it has been proven to help treat depression. He then mentioned this to his psychiatrist, who said it wasn’t a good idea at the time because they were trying to get his meds right. He was then hard to convince otherwise.
Recently he had to get off a med that had been linked to alzheimer’s and he sunk into a pretty bad depression. He stopped training, got out of town for two months and was almost hospitalized twice. He’s back now and wants to get his life in order.
Seems to me they’re always trying to get his meds right, because he gets depressive, lethargic episodes, at least partly, from having low T. But I’m not a doctor...