TRT questions

[Inky]

I just started trt today. My level is @320.

I am taking primarily to see if it affects depression, helps me lose weight and adds any kind of thickness to my dick. Other than that I don't have a good reason to take it.

My questions:

1. Will it absolutely make your balls shrink and how much? And how soon?

2. I have a full head of hair at 45 y.o. Losing it is not an option. How likely to lose my hair?

3. It talks about energy boost. I read that as anxiety and not depression relief. More energy I do not need. And I have sever sleep apnea and it has a warning about that too. More of that I don't need.

4. What is it like for sex drive? I am not married so wanting to have sex constantly would be more annoying than anything to me.

5. Will I crash terribly if I stop taking it? I know you stop producing your own after a while. How long does that take?

6. I read that trt is for life. Why is that? I do not want to be locked into taking a drug for life.  

[Inky]

Forgot to add:

I am getting the gel from by pcp, not an andrologist or endo. Is there a real good reason I should go to an andrologist? Would they do anything different?

The reason why we decided on the gel is it gets out of your system the fastest should anything go haywire like with mental side effects.

[Inky]

Sorry, one final thing.

Can you just take it for 2 or 3 months to see what happens?

Will your body stop producing it that quickly if I decide to stop?

[Dressa]

My thoughts...

I was on trt for about a year and a half...

I lost weight
No remarkable libido changes
Ball shrinking is as far as I know always a result. I was  bit scared.
They looked like peas.
It did nothing for peyronies
I chose to stop with the gel...you gradually do this. And for me there was nog big deal...no horrible come down effects.
I am in the low end of normal testosterone. Testosterone value has to be measured along a lot of other factors so you really should see an andrologist. You can have a pretty low T value and still function as normal.

[Inky]

When you stopped did your balls come back or is it permanent?

[TonySa]

It's not permanent.

[Dressa]

Yes takes some time but they will get back to normal. Go ser an andrologist especially if you are low but not below normal. Testosterone insufficancy is not very common in your age. A lot of money is to be earned by companies that advertise this kind of treatment.  

[McChicken94]

1. No, been on for a year now and for me it is not bothersome and I might have lost some volume, but not even sure. My balls are small, they were small before. And yet they are no raisins, so I don%u2019t think any woman would even notice. Especially considering peyronie%u2019s I feel like testicle size is almost a non issue. Penis size I can not argue it matters. Testicles, I genuinely feel is something men care about and women generally don%u2019t. Sure, some fetishize them and some like the sensation of testicles slapping against them during sex. Other than that nobody else but yourself actually cares unless you got tiny tiny balls and even then women will likely only wonder if you are fertile and healthy at that point. Maybe after years and years it will be that bad and then there is a plan B which would be to get your hands on HCG. Also take HCG if fertility is a big deal to you. I am not on it as it is hard to get your hands on trough a doctor and underground you never really know for sure. It also doesn%u2019t stay potent for more than about 2 weeks after mixing. Then it gradually loses strength. But even some pro bodybuilders than took high doses of testosterone have fathered children sometimes even while being on. You also don%u2019t know how fertile you are anyway unless you tested it before.

2. I am balding on TRT. I am balding off TRT as well. Male pattern baldness is in my genes as my dad is bald too. I did not notice TRT accelerating the rate at which I%u2019m balding. DHT causes balding. DHT often rises from an increase in testosterone as it is a male hormone too and I believe it is converted from testosterone to dht in the body. So it can increase balding, but indirectly and it is mostly individual. Just like how I have a dryer skin type, so I do have an oily skin from the testosterone now, but I do not get acne and it actually made my eczema on the hands disappear. My point is that I feel the sides are not that bad and in many ways you might actually have worse %u201Csides%u201D from being low T if you truly need it, then if you were on a properly dosed trt protocol. This is why you aim for maybe a little high, but no steroid doses cause at some point it will only cause sides and not make you feel any better. Balance is key. Going from low to normal testosterone won%u2019t suddenly make you go bald if you oterwise wouldn%u2019t. I mean.. I ain%u2019t no expert but it would not make sense to me that someone who is prone to balding does not get balder from T, while someone who is not prone to balding now goes bald just from a T increase. But there are guys who notice it as a side and they take Finasteride to lower DHT which can have nasty sides. Especially worth noting on this forum is that DHT is vital for penile health and some even reported getting erectile issues and peyronies like symptoms from Finasteride. Low testosterone symptoms that never recover even with TRT too. Google finasteride syndrome. I would rather go bald myself.

3. Sleep apnea is a though one cause it can make it worse I believe. But sleep apnea in and on itself can also lower testosterone, I believe by inhibiting your sleep quality. So if you can, try and fix this problem and you might not even need TRT. Don%u2019t know much about sleep apnea though, so I don%u2019t know if it is curable at all. The energy you don%u2019t need to worry about. I think most of the energy it gives you is positive. For example, I now work out a lot more and enjoy it better than before. My anxiety is still high, but it was like thst before. But socially my anxiety is actually better and I have more of a idgaf attitude where I was shy and insecure before. It comes in waves and it%u2019s still a work in progress though. Not like I suddenly feel like the Terminator. Lol

4. This one has been weird to me. The thing is.. I isolated myself for years and was afraid to even get intimate cause of my penile issues mostly. And the first weeks on TRT all I noticed was more morning wood. That eventually went away kinda, then like month 2/3 I had a phase where I was horny all the time and that settled down as well. Overall I do not feel more horny really. I had a high libido with low T as well. But I do feel my desires changed but could also be the fact I get older now at 26. But lately I am not much in the mood for kinky porn stuff and fantasize more about vanilla stuff and imagine myself being with someone I like irl for example instead of watching people have sex on a screen. You might think it is reversed, but I feel in my experience since TRT I have less of a kinky approach to sex now. Could be age, could be a slight change from the TRT. Not sure.. but if your fear is to turn in a sex addict, don%u2019t worry. You might notice it at first, but you will manage it.

5. Not exactly sure when you shut down, but it will probably happen after a month or so already. The longer you take it, the longer it takes to recover. Some guys never recover, some within weeks. Even PCT can%u2019t guarantee anything (dont take em clomid gave me permanent eye floaters) but will speed up your recovery. The reason they say TRT is for life is not because it will absolutely destroy your own production forever. Most people DO recover after a couple months. But you just can%u2019t be sure which is why you should only take it if you really need it. If you are already low you don%u2019t have much to lose imo. In a way you are already shut down. But if my levels were naturally optimal I likely wouldn%u2019t have bothered taking any more testosterone. Then again, there are people who function well on low levels and then I guess maintaining these low levels is enough for them. I think the most important thing here is to be honest with yourself in what you really want, if you are willing to risk for example losing fertility, if the testosterone really helps you or not and if you are truly commited to pinning yourself for the rest of your life or rubbing gel every single day...

6. This one I already answered kinda. The good news about quitting trt is that you will not die like a diabetic might without insulin. But you will feel like garbage and be left with low T. But you are already low T, so might just be worth it.

By the way.. If you are gonna do this, you should do this well. I took a bit of a risk, I am not on perscription and buy my own supply instead. It is because doctors here are not willing to perscribe and when they do they will not do proper protocols, they will not test for the right things (estrogen, red blood cell count, the two things that are common to get out of wack from trt and should be monitored). They also would perscribe either gel or a really really bad protocol for injections. I don%u2019t want to rub myself with a gel for life and I do not want to deal with fluctuating hormone levels cause of a bad protocol. So now I use insulin needles to inject subcutaneously twice a week. This keeps my levels stable and each shot is a relatively low dose so it also decreases the risk of side effects or estrogen rising. Do yourself a favor and if you do this, do it in a way that you feel works well for you cause it is for life and you don%u2019t want to be stuck with a bad protocol, bad doctor and not feeling well as a result. Don%u2019t settle for things like having to go into the office for your shot or whatever and do A LOT of searching and reading on the topic yourself. Hope any of this was usefull else it is just a lot of reading lol.