Testosterone Treatment

[PizzaDeliveryDude]

Just visited a local specialist who recommended testosterone treatment in the form of a pellet placed in the buttocks for health and increased performance.

Thoughts?

[tlg]

Go for it!

Report your results.

[Tim Mailloux]

what kind of specialist?

I have low T (Hypo-Gonadism) that was diagnosed while my wife and I were going through fertility treatments. I have been seeing a Reproductive Endocrinologist that specializes in male reproductive issues included low T, and his opinion is that testosterone patches, pills and creams are all garbage. The best results come from T injections or HCG injections, or a combination of the two. I take Test-Cyp injection because they are much cheaper with my insurance and I can easily do them myself with an Rx. I started off taking .7mg twice per week and that put my T levels in the stratosphere, I now take .4mg injections twice a week and that keeps my Free T level well within the therapeutic range. If you have normal T levels and you’re looking for performance enhancing benefits you are going to need a larger dose and there will be side effects. The biggest one being water retention, weight gain, higher estrogen levels and increased risk of prostate issues.



Did this specialist diagnose you with low T? what were your total T and free T levels ( and the corresponding lab reference ranges for those two test) that he based his diagnosis on?

[OldChipper]

and you can't/shouldn't race.

[Alaska Mike]

I could go to any number of "specialists" and get prescribed testosterone, human growth hormone, and any number of other things on the US Postal menu. This, despite the fact that my testosterone levels tested in the "high-normal" range for my age group last spring. Sure, it would give me a boost in recovery or whatever, but at what cost? The negative long-term health consequences for me and my family (cross contamination) far outweigh the short-term benefits. It just doesn't add up.

Then you can go into the sporting and ethical issues...

Decreases in performance come with age. Accept it. You can train harder and smarter to mitigate them, but that's just reality.

[EpicFailure]

his opinion is that testosterone patches, pills and creams are all garbage.

LOL!

Patches, pills, creams and gels all "work."

[Wookiebiker]

LOL!

Patches, pills, creams and gels all "work."

Yea, I distinctly remember a one ... Floyd Landis wearing a testosterone patch during his massively long breakaway on stage 17 to win the 2006 TDF.

Seems like it worked quite well for him.

[Tim Mailloux]

LOL!

Patches, pills, creams and gels all "work."

They may work, but not nearly as good as injections.

[Code001]

I'm working for almost all my life in fitness. In all that time I never see any negative effect of testosterone or any other AAS in relative normal dosages (I think it's not ok from my side to talk about how many grams of testosterone, sustanone, or any other AAS someone need) and with ok PCT + if you take 8 weeks AAS, minimum 16 weeks off).
I was working with plenty of athlets and I never see any pro that is "clean" and I was working with plenty of them (swimmers, BB, waterpolo, fotball etc.).
Most important thing is to have really, really great PCT with plenty of time between cyclus.
If you taking AAS for some results in sport, you need to have at first great diet, great treining, plenty of rest and after all that quality AAS with prepared PCT. You need some great minerals, vitamins and you need some pills for liver.
All other things like what type of AAS, dosages, PCT ect. is theme for your "doctor" because that really depends of pearson and for what kind of sport (you can't use same AAS and dosages for sports like cycling and for BB).
I was always take for cycling some testosterone like propionate in combination with oral winstrol (stanozolol) etc.
After cyclus your liver AST, ALT will be higher than normal but all that will go on normal numbers after minimum 6-8 weeks off and with ok PCT.
When your testosterone is high, maybe you will feel some strange feeling (not so pleasant ) in you ba..s but that's only for short time.
You need to everyday check yor nipples and if you feel strange pain you must take pills for that because of too high dosages of testosterone you can have problems with estrogen and gynecomastia. If you don't take pills for that, only way to remove knots under nipples maken due gynecomastia is with surgery (surgery is really extreme case but I was see that on plenty of people and if you look some body builders with low BF, you will see on plenty of them knots under nipples and now you know why they have that ).

Good luck!

P.S.

Teststerone pills are great like 5mg methandrostenolone (dianabol/bionabol/you-name-it) but injection is better for your liver.
Patches are really trowing your money on very low dosages of testosterone and they are really garbage.
All that is talking over 20 years of experience with that and all this info is from "first hand".

[durianrider]

Yea, I distinctly remember a one ... Floyd Landis wearing a testosterone patch during his massively long breakaway on stage 17 to win the 2006 TDF.

Seems like it worked quite well for him.

It was a blood bag that gave the boost as was the fact he was the first GC rider ever to ride to power so his attack looked crazy to the other guys but it was actually all ridden at wattages he knew he could handle.

No way a T patch will give that effect but a blood bag with a few pills of prednisone sure can if you pace to watts you know you can sustain. Look how much sugar he was taking in on that stage as well. Allen Lim was his coach at the time aka Dr Skratch.

[JSR]

No way a T patch will give that effect but a blood bag with a few pills of prednisone sure can if you pace to watts you knowr you can sustain.

Surely an anabolic steroid would be more appropriate then a corticosteroid.

[EpicFailure]

They may work, but not nearly as good as injections.

Unless you're a pro bodybuilder with body dysmorphia, most topical testosterone treatments work just fine.

[Alaska Mike]

Most cyclists don't want the hardcore testosterone. Most of the stuff used during the hi-test years is considered weak sauce by body building standards. The goals is muscle recovery from hard efforts, not muscle bulk.

I can believe Floyd wasn't actively using testosterone at the time he was popped. I figure he was when he withdrew that blood bag that led to his miraculous comeback, though. Guess Arnie Baker was no Ferarri when it came to math.

Nah. Stay away from that junk unless you have a legitimate need. An no, dominating Tuesday Night Worlds is not a legitimate need.

[duriel]

I've had a bunch of blood work done, I don't see anything about testostone levels. Is that part of a standard lab workup, or is it some wierd name that I don't know about?

[Srode]

I've had a bunch of blood work done, I don't see anything about testostone levels. Is that part of a standard lab workup, or is it some wierd name that I don't know about?

I never see it in my blood work. You would probably need to talk with your physician about symptoms that support a need to test it to have it done and covered by insurance.

[Alaska Mike]

I specifically asked my doctor to check it after a coupe years of declining performance. He ran a bunch of blood work and other tests, and they all came back normal. In fact, the testosterone was high-normal for my age.

"Have you ever considered that you're just getting older?" he asked.

Some people, through genetics, training, diet, and lifestyle manage the effects aging better than others. Life ain't fair.

[BacDoc]

I specifically asked my doctor to check it after a coupe years of declining performance. He ran a bunch of blood work and other tests, and they all came back normal. In fact, the testosterone was high-normal for my age.

"Have you ever considered that you're just getting older?" he asked.

Some people, through genetics, training, diet, and lifestyle manage the effects aging better than others. Life ain't fair.

^ This!

If you want to know your levels just ask your primary care doc to prescribe the full blood work that most insurance pays almost 100% even with high deductible. My insurance has $10,000.00 deductible and they pay 100% of the $2500.00 bill. This is for full blood chemistry, hormone panel and vitamin/mineral along with urinalysis.

If you’re under 50, once a year is good to see your levels if everything is in the reference range, be aware that “reference range “ varies with lab and is based on sick population. The more I learn about health and wellness the less important being in range is and the more important info is the ratio of those numbers. Over 50 twice a year is good to track health or lack of.

Testosterone and growth hormone decline with age and really won’t improve cycling performance, especially at recreational level even high level. Strength and performance in sports like body building, power lifting and CrossFit it is absolutely an advantage. For cyclists the major benefit of testosterone/hgh is injury recovery especially bone fractures. Here it will make a huge difference especially if the patient is over 40.

If you’re truly “low T” than testosterone replacement can change your life for the better and there is peer review on health benefits to TRT in low T patients. This is not sports performance but heart health, bone density and other metabolic conditions that result from low T.

If healthy and your levels are consistent with age then don’t even bother with TRT. It’s not expensive but requires more effort than any results you expect. You won’t drop your buddies if you’ve never dropped your buddies and ****** is more effective than TRT if you’re looking for sex performance. Hormones are powerful and work wonders if careful monitoring by qualified doc for injury recovery and low T patients.

That said, the future of medicine is hormone therapy along with stem cell and peptide therapy. Especially for the elderly. When I get into my late 60’s (64 now) I’m hoping they have the technology down. I’ve seen incredible results from patients I co manage, fit geriatric patients in their 70’s on hormone protocols and the only downside is cost.

[BacDoc]

and you can't/shouldn't race.

Testosterone has anabolic effects and increase in muscle mass and strength is likely for those who are in range and use exogenous testosterone. Benefits for cycling are basically zero until you get into 60’s and up to slow muscle loss but even that is not big advantage. Maybe track cyclist/sprinter can get an edge but bike racing is more dependent on power to weight ratio and anabolics can actually cause problems with that.

If you haven’t read Tyler Hamilton’s book Secret Race, I suggest you do to get a great perspective on the benefits of PED and cycling. Those pros try everything and use what works, testosterone wasn’t the game changer like blood bags and EPO were. And this is at the pro level. Now they probably still micro dose EPO, SARMS, steroid cocktails etc but pretty sure testosterone isn’t a factor. I could almost guarantee that you can give the best Cat 1 guys in your area testosterone replacement therapy and it wouldn’t change their power or VO2 numbers and some might even lose performance due to anabolic effect.

Fastest guys I ride with are all very lean, super skinny but super powerful. I would love for any of them to get on a TRT program, at least I can get some draft when I’m on their wheel!

[Srode]

Testosterone has anabolic effects and increase in muscle mass and strength is likely for those who are in range and use exogenous testosterone. Benefits for cycling are basically zero until you get into 60’s and up to slow muscle loss but even that is not big advantage. Maybe track cyclist/sprinter can get an edge but bike racing is more dependent on power to weight ratio and anabolics can actually cause problems with that.

If you haven’t read Tyler Hamilton’s book Secret Race, I suggest you do to get a great perspective on the benefits of PED and cycling. Those pros try everything and use what works, testosterone wasn’t the game changer like blood bags and EPO were. And this is at the pro level. Now they probably still micro dose EPO, SARMS, steroid cocktails etc but pretty sure testosterone isn’t a factor. I could almost guarantee that you can give the best Cat 1 guys in your area testosterone replacement therapy and it wouldn’t change their power or VO2 numbers and some might even lose performance due to anabolic effect.

Fastest guys I ride with are all very lean, super skinny but super powerful. I would love for any of them to get on a TRT program, at least I can get some draft when I’m on their wheel!

interesting perspective - I thought the main change in the movie Icarus was the use of Testosterone and he saw a rapid improvement in FTP. Also thought it raises Hct which is one of the big drivers of V02 (also one of the risks of the therapy if it get's too high).

[Alaska Mike]

Testosterone helps with recovery. Most cyclists go with very small doses compared to your average gym doper to avoid gaining unwanted mass. The "red eggs" and patches Hamilton refers to are pretty weak sauce, but they do help a rider bounce back from repeated hard efforts- thus allowing them to train more and reap the benefits.

It ain't EPO or a blood bag, but it does have an effect.

[thighmaster]

interesting perspective - I thought the main change in the movie Icarus was the use of Testosterone and he saw a rapid improvement in FTP. Also thought it raises Hct which is one of the big drivers of V02 (also one of the risks of the therapy if it get's too high).

Lance has a podcast with this guy and told him he only needed the EPO. The blood inprover does way more than steroids or HGH.