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badazzwhitedude
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I dug up an old article on a doc that was suffering fatigue, weight loss, aching joints, loss of muscle definition, etc, due to low testosterone levels. He did some experimentation with Test Cyp, Androderm patch, and Halo. It shows how all three affected him, his training, and how he felt in general. It is a very long read, so you will need some time. I thought I might share it. Here it is, starting before any testosterone therapy:
"I had some blood work done on myself. For the most part my blood tests were normal. I tested my free serum testosterone, which in an adult male ranges from 225 to 950. Mine was a whopping 71! There had to be some mistake. This couldn't be true. I repeated the test. Now it was 68! At this rate I would be in pumps and high heels within two months.
I shared the results with several of my colleagues, but no one seemed to be able to figure thm out. Next I saw an endocrinologist (hormone specialist). He wrote me a prescription for a 10-cc vial of test cyp and told me to play with it until I found a dose that maintained my level in a normal range.
After two months of experimentation I found that injecting 250 mg about every other week worked best for me. My level would peak out at about 1250 two days after the injection and bottom out around 250 two weeks later. Once my level regulated, a strange change began to happen. My strength came back. In fact, over the next year I became stronger than I ever had been before. I gained all my weight back plus an additional five pounds. My bodyfat dropped from around 11% to 8.5%. All my aches and pains were gone. Instead of requiring enormous amounts of sleep, I found I could function very well on less sleep than ever. I even became a nice guy again. I didn't enjoying sticking myself in the butt twice a month (the injection left me sore as hell), but the discomfort was a small price to pay considering the alternative. Great! Problem solved, right? Not quite.
For about a year and a half I did very well. Through consistant, very intense workouts and careful attention to my diet, I was able to achieve slow but steady gains in strength and size while keeping my bodyfat essentially unchanged. After about a year of therapy, I actually reached strength and bodyweight levels higher than they had been at any point in my life. I felt better than ever, and despite working long hours and often functioning on as little as two or three hours of sleep a day, I never missed a workout and was always able to maintain my desire and intensity. This past spring, however, about one and a half years after I though my problems were solved, the bottom fell out once again.
For no apparant reason everything started to slip. My strength began to fall again. I became irritable and fatigued. My back, hips and legs began to ache again. True, I had been working long hoursand sleeping very little. I was 39 y/o. Was my body telling me enough was enough and I should slow down? I refused to accept that prognosis. I've always worked hard. I've never allowed my age to serve as an excuse for not performing well and I never will. Something else was going on. It was time for more blood work.
I had a testosterone level drawn 48 hours post injection. This is when my level would generally peak. The result was 1000. Still quite good, but about 250 points lower than it had been. This reading also coincided with a time when my physical symptoms were quite tolerable. I had a second level drawn the morning I was due for another injection. Normally this level would be around 200. The result was 79!
For reasons I can't explain my body had found a way to metabolize the testosterone much more rapidly. I was unable to find a colleague who could explain this process to me and I couldn't find any medical literature myself regarding it. While this thought doesn't directly apply to my problem, I wonder if the tolerance that bodybuilders often develop to anabolics could be related to my problem. We've always explained this tolerance as a result of the "receptor down-grade theory" -i.e. the muscle cell receptors become less sensitive to the testosterone, thus requiring larger amounts for the same effect. This development wold not have been the effect purely of the overall testosterone level in the bloodstream. Perhaps there are multiple factors at work here. The scientific reasons for this phenomenon are the topic of an entire other paper and I won't dwell on them here. The bottom line is that, once again, I had a problem that require solving.
At first I tried keeping my dose (250 mg) unchanged and injecting every 10 days instead of every 14. Surprisingly my level after 10 days came in at 167, still well below normal. Next I switched to weekly injections of 150 mg. This dosage maintained my level within the normal range (albeit low normal) between 300 and 400. Still, I felt this approach would eventually fail as well. My time was running out, as was my testosterone. I had to find a solution...fast!
The Experiment
The hardest part about performing any experiment is controlling all the variables. In my case, these were diet, training and rest. I kept the frequency and volume of my workouts unchanged. I would do only two exercises per bodypart (three for chest and quads). After warminng up, I would do one massive set beginning with the heaviest weight I could handle for 4 to 6 strict reps, immediately drop the weight 10 to 20 pounds, again go to failure, drop the weight, etc. Each exercise would consist of 5 or 6 drops until the muscle was totally exhausted and flexing it against air was nearly impossible. i trained each bodypart once a week on a Mon/tues/Thur/Fri schedule. I found these workouts intense and exhausting while spending only 30 to 40 minutes' total time in the gym. This routine gave me steady gains and required a minimal amount of time out of my busy schedule.
I kept my diet strictly between 2000 and 2400 cals per day. The majority of cals came from nutrient-dense food-replacement supps. Steamed veggies and salads rounded out my menu. I allowed myself one cheat meal per week when I would go out to dinner and eat whatever I wanted. My supps consisted of antioxidant vits and HMB at four grams per day. I found this dose was more effective than three grams for me.
Rest was a problem. I never sleep much, but, good or bad, this schedule was going to be consistant. As far as weight and bodyfat were concerned, I began the experiment at 6 feet, 185 pounds, 9% BF.
Everything was in place. I held all testosterone supplementation for 10 days to ensure my level would fall nice and low. I had multiple baseline blood tests drawn. With the exception of a testosterone level of 79, everything else was exceptable.
On day one I injected myself with 250 mg of test cyp. At first, of course, my strength and energy levels were down. By the end of the first week I noted a slight increase in strength and overall sense of well-being. I wasn't quite as irritable, but I still didn't feel great.
On day three I had a minor outbreak of acne on my shoulders and upper back, but this problem cleared up completely after five or six days. I also noted a little breast tenderness, but this sensation was also gone after a few days. By day 10 my strength and energy had leveled off and begun to slip. At the end of the second week my strength was declining, my level of fatigue was quite high and my motivation to go to the gym was all but gone. By day 14, my test level had fallen to 87.
Since I had been experiencing this routine for some time, I didn't pursue it any further. Instead I chose to inject myself with 150 mg on a more frequent basis. At 48 hours my level had climbed to 520, but over the next seven days I noticed little change in strength or anything else. I had no obvious sides. Seven days later with a test level of 150, I injected myself with 200 mg, which was an increase of 50 mg. My level now peaked around 600 and I was able to maintain my current strength. I rechecked my level seven days later and found it had bottomed out at 200.
I continnued this schedule for the next three weeks. I found I could maintainmy strengthand endurance at this dosage, but my baseline was well belowmy former level. While I stopped losing strength, I was weaker than I had been. my endurance, energy and bodyweight were better, but still not what they once were. I had no sides at this dosage. I had no acne or hair loss, and all tests regarding kidney and liver functions remained normal. So at the end of phase one I weighed 183 pounds and BF was 10%.
Phase two involved the use of the Androderm patch. The patches are supposed to be applied at bedtime and peak levels are reached 8 to 10 hours later as they are in the normal male. They then gradually decline and reach a low at bedtime when the patches are replaced.
I started with the recommended two patches applied every 24 hours. The first few days I noticed little change. After about a week I had slight increases in strength and energy. My mood improved, But I still didn't fell all that great. I had no acne, excessive irritability, or any other obvious sides. The only problem I had was that the skin beneath each patch would turn very red, but this redness would disappear after two or three days. By consistantly varying the areas to which I applied the patches, I was able to keep this problem to a mininum. At the end of the third week I drew more blood. My test level was 298. Since this sample was drawn early in the morning, a time when my level should have been peaking, I knew that my level was probably still below normal the remainder of the day. My liver and kidney function remained fine.
Next I added a third patch each day. After a few weeks I started to notice changes. My strength returned, my mood improved, and my increase in energy was dramatic. For the first time in months I found myself wanting to train again. I could put in a busy day at work, consistantly running on a 12-hour shift in E.R., and still head straight to the gym for a hard workout. I had no sides, my weight increased slightly to 187, and BF was at 8.5%. My test level after three weeks of three patches per day was 598. I could live with that. Liver and kidney functions remained normal.
It was time for phase three. The choices for oral testosterone in the US are poor. The only ones still available are methyltestosterone and fuloxymesterone (Halotestin). I chose Halo. Halo is a drug with a nasty rep. It's been accused of tirning the meekest, mildest-mannered bodybuilder into a raging, zit-covered, bald-headed, baby-eating monster - a drug so terrible that even the late Dan Duchaine recommended avoiding it. Even my BB friends warned me about it. "If you think you are irritable now, that stuff will make you want to beat up wour grandma."
'Wow, this must be some pretty wicked stuff,' I thought. But it was all in the name of science right? I started this phase with one ten-mg Halo twice a day. This is the normal recommended dosage of the drug. After a few days I began to wonder what all the hoopla was about. I didn't feel any different. I hadn't kicked my dog or beat my wife. I didn't fantasize about becoming an ax murderer. My strength and intensity remained about the same. 'Not so bad,' I thought after the first week. Then some surprising devlopments started to occur.
My stregnth began to drop. I was constantly tired and began to experience the same major mood swings. The muscle hardness that BB's claim to achieve from this drug was non-existant. Trying not to panic here, I began to think that somehow my body had gown resistant to testosterone supplements. I increased my dosage to three tabs per day. My problems grew progressively worse. My strength fell rapidly. I had no motivation to do anything but sit alone in my house with the doors locked and the shades pulled down. I had become downright depressed. My fatigue grew unbearable. The simple task of getting out of my car, once again, became a major effort. The evryday aches and pains that we all learn to live with as BB's were magnified tenfold.
By now I had increased to five tabs per day. My sypmtoms continued to worsen. After four weeks on the Halo I couldn't tolerate it any longer. I broke down and drew more blood. The biggest surprise was my test level. It was 25 - barely above the level of a prepubertal child!
By this time I'd had enough. I slapped on three adroderm patches and injected 100 mg of Depotestosterone to give myself a little jump start.
About four weeks after the experiment, believe it or not, I'm still not back to normal. I didn't notice any difference at all for about two and a half weeks, but my sypmtoms are now nearly gone. I'm starting to feel normal again. My strength is almost back to normal, and my weight has stabilized at 185 pounds.
In many ways this experiment left me with more questions than I had when I started. Why is my body so resistant to test? Why did all this happen in the first place? And why did the Halo have no effect whatsoever? Still, my poking, pill-popping and patching did give me a chance to experience different forms of testosterone therapy and to personally determine the effectiveness of each. For me the new Androderm patch appears to work best. Other may react differently.
Male testosterone definciency treatment may be crude, but it is available. The effectiveness of each form of supplementation may vary, so don't give up. At the very least I hope I may have helped people who may be experiencing similar symptoms to realize testosterone deficiency may be the problem. I will continnue searching for answers to the many questions that remain..."
I thought it was interesting how all three methods affected him, showing blood levels, etc. Also how there appeared to be "receptor down-grade" after long-term continuous use of injectable test and how it affected blood levels. Hope you enjoyed. I know it's a long read.
"I had some blood work done on myself. For the most part my blood tests were normal. I tested my free serum testosterone, which in an adult male ranges from 225 to 950. Mine was a whopping 71! There had to be some mistake. This couldn't be true. I repeated the test. Now it was 68! At this rate I would be in pumps and high heels within two months.
I shared the results with several of my colleagues, but no one seemed to be able to figure thm out. Next I saw an endocrinologist (hormone specialist). He wrote me a prescription for a 10-cc vial of test cyp and told me to play with it until I found a dose that maintained my level in a normal range.
After two months of experimentation I found that injecting 250 mg about every other week worked best for me. My level would peak out at about 1250 two days after the injection and bottom out around 250 two weeks later. Once my level regulated, a strange change began to happen. My strength came back. In fact, over the next year I became stronger than I ever had been before. I gained all my weight back plus an additional five pounds. My bodyfat dropped from around 11% to 8.5%. All my aches and pains were gone. Instead of requiring enormous amounts of sleep, I found I could function very well on less sleep than ever. I even became a nice guy again. I didn't enjoying sticking myself in the butt twice a month (the injection left me sore as hell), but the discomfort was a small price to pay considering the alternative. Great! Problem solved, right? Not quite.
For about a year and a half I did very well. Through consistant, very intense workouts and careful attention to my diet, I was able to achieve slow but steady gains in strength and size while keeping my bodyfat essentially unchanged. After about a year of therapy, I actually reached strength and bodyweight levels higher than they had been at any point in my life. I felt better than ever, and despite working long hours and often functioning on as little as two or three hours of sleep a day, I never missed a workout and was always able to maintain my desire and intensity. This past spring, however, about one and a half years after I though my problems were solved, the bottom fell out once again.
For no apparant reason everything started to slip. My strength began to fall again. I became irritable and fatigued. My back, hips and legs began to ache again. True, I had been working long hoursand sleeping very little. I was 39 y/o. Was my body telling me enough was enough and I should slow down? I refused to accept that prognosis. I've always worked hard. I've never allowed my age to serve as an excuse for not performing well and I never will. Something else was going on. It was time for more blood work.
I had a testosterone level drawn 48 hours post injection. This is when my level would generally peak. The result was 1000. Still quite good, but about 250 points lower than it had been. This reading also coincided with a time when my physical symptoms were quite tolerable. I had a second level drawn the morning I was due for another injection. Normally this level would be around 200. The result was 79!
For reasons I can't explain my body had found a way to metabolize the testosterone much more rapidly. I was unable to find a colleague who could explain this process to me and I couldn't find any medical literature myself regarding it. While this thought doesn't directly apply to my problem, I wonder if the tolerance that bodybuilders often develop to anabolics could be related to my problem. We've always explained this tolerance as a result of the "receptor down-grade theory" -i.e. the muscle cell receptors become less sensitive to the testosterone, thus requiring larger amounts for the same effect. This development wold not have been the effect purely of the overall testosterone level in the bloodstream. Perhaps there are multiple factors at work here. The scientific reasons for this phenomenon are the topic of an entire other paper and I won't dwell on them here. The bottom line is that, once again, I had a problem that require solving.
At first I tried keeping my dose (250 mg) unchanged and injecting every 10 days instead of every 14. Surprisingly my level after 10 days came in at 167, still well below normal. Next I switched to weekly injections of 150 mg. This dosage maintained my level within the normal range (albeit low normal) between 300 and 400. Still, I felt this approach would eventually fail as well. My time was running out, as was my testosterone. I had to find a solution...fast!
The Experiment
The hardest part about performing any experiment is controlling all the variables. In my case, these were diet, training and rest. I kept the frequency and volume of my workouts unchanged. I would do only two exercises per bodypart (three for chest and quads). After warminng up, I would do one massive set beginning with the heaviest weight I could handle for 4 to 6 strict reps, immediately drop the weight 10 to 20 pounds, again go to failure, drop the weight, etc. Each exercise would consist of 5 or 6 drops until the muscle was totally exhausted and flexing it against air was nearly impossible. i trained each bodypart once a week on a Mon/tues/Thur/Fri schedule. I found these workouts intense and exhausting while spending only 30 to 40 minutes' total time in the gym. This routine gave me steady gains and required a minimal amount of time out of my busy schedule.
I kept my diet strictly between 2000 and 2400 cals per day. The majority of cals came from nutrient-dense food-replacement supps. Steamed veggies and salads rounded out my menu. I allowed myself one cheat meal per week when I would go out to dinner and eat whatever I wanted. My supps consisted of antioxidant vits and HMB at four grams per day. I found this dose was more effective than three grams for me.
Rest was a problem. I never sleep much, but, good or bad, this schedule was going to be consistant. As far as weight and bodyfat were concerned, I began the experiment at 6 feet, 185 pounds, 9% BF.
Everything was in place. I held all testosterone supplementation for 10 days to ensure my level would fall nice and low. I had multiple baseline blood tests drawn. With the exception of a testosterone level of 79, everything else was exceptable.
On day one I injected myself with 250 mg of test cyp. At first, of course, my strength and energy levels were down. By the end of the first week I noted a slight increase in strength and overall sense of well-being. I wasn't quite as irritable, but I still didn't feel great.
On day three I had a minor outbreak of acne on my shoulders and upper back, but this problem cleared up completely after five or six days. I also noted a little breast tenderness, but this sensation was also gone after a few days. By day 10 my strength and energy had leveled off and begun to slip. At the end of the second week my strength was declining, my level of fatigue was quite high and my motivation to go to the gym was all but gone. By day 14, my test level had fallen to 87.
Since I had been experiencing this routine for some time, I didn't pursue it any further. Instead I chose to inject myself with 150 mg on a more frequent basis. At 48 hours my level had climbed to 520, but over the next seven days I noticed little change in strength or anything else. I had no obvious sides. Seven days later with a test level of 150, I injected myself with 200 mg, which was an increase of 50 mg. My level now peaked around 600 and I was able to maintain my current strength. I rechecked my level seven days later and found it had bottomed out at 200.
I continnued this schedule for the next three weeks. I found I could maintainmy strengthand endurance at this dosage, but my baseline was well belowmy former level. While I stopped losing strength, I was weaker than I had been. my endurance, energy and bodyweight were better, but still not what they once were. I had no sides at this dosage. I had no acne or hair loss, and all tests regarding kidney and liver functions remained normal. So at the end of phase one I weighed 183 pounds and BF was 10%.
Phase two involved the use of the Androderm patch. The patches are supposed to be applied at bedtime and peak levels are reached 8 to 10 hours later as they are in the normal male. They then gradually decline and reach a low at bedtime when the patches are replaced.
I started with the recommended two patches applied every 24 hours. The first few days I noticed little change. After about a week I had slight increases in strength and energy. My mood improved, But I still didn't fell all that great. I had no acne, excessive irritability, or any other obvious sides. The only problem I had was that the skin beneath each patch would turn very red, but this redness would disappear after two or three days. By consistantly varying the areas to which I applied the patches, I was able to keep this problem to a mininum. At the end of the third week I drew more blood. My test level was 298. Since this sample was drawn early in the morning, a time when my level should have been peaking, I knew that my level was probably still below normal the remainder of the day. My liver and kidney function remained fine.
Next I added a third patch each day. After a few weeks I started to notice changes. My strength returned, my mood improved, and my increase in energy was dramatic. For the first time in months I found myself wanting to train again. I could put in a busy day at work, consistantly running on a 12-hour shift in E.R., and still head straight to the gym for a hard workout. I had no sides, my weight increased slightly to 187, and BF was at 8.5%. My test level after three weeks of three patches per day was 598. I could live with that. Liver and kidney functions remained normal.
It was time for phase three. The choices for oral testosterone in the US are poor. The only ones still available are methyltestosterone and fuloxymesterone (Halotestin). I chose Halo. Halo is a drug with a nasty rep. It's been accused of tirning the meekest, mildest-mannered bodybuilder into a raging, zit-covered, bald-headed, baby-eating monster - a drug so terrible that even the late Dan Duchaine recommended avoiding it. Even my BB friends warned me about it. "If you think you are irritable now, that stuff will make you want to beat up wour grandma."
'Wow, this must be some pretty wicked stuff,' I thought. But it was all in the name of science right? I started this phase with one ten-mg Halo twice a day. This is the normal recommended dosage of the drug. After a few days I began to wonder what all the hoopla was about. I didn't feel any different. I hadn't kicked my dog or beat my wife. I didn't fantasize about becoming an ax murderer. My strength and intensity remained about the same. 'Not so bad,' I thought after the first week. Then some surprising devlopments started to occur.
My stregnth began to drop. I was constantly tired and began to experience the same major mood swings. The muscle hardness that BB's claim to achieve from this drug was non-existant. Trying not to panic here, I began to think that somehow my body had gown resistant to testosterone supplements. I increased my dosage to three tabs per day. My problems grew progressively worse. My strength fell rapidly. I had no motivation to do anything but sit alone in my house with the doors locked and the shades pulled down. I had become downright depressed. My fatigue grew unbearable. The simple task of getting out of my car, once again, became a major effort. The evryday aches and pains that we all learn to live with as BB's were magnified tenfold.
By now I had increased to five tabs per day. My sypmtoms continued to worsen. After four weeks on the Halo I couldn't tolerate it any longer. I broke down and drew more blood. The biggest surprise was my test level. It was 25 - barely above the level of a prepubertal child!
By this time I'd had enough. I slapped on three adroderm patches and injected 100 mg of Depotestosterone to give myself a little jump start.
About four weeks after the experiment, believe it or not, I'm still not back to normal. I didn't notice any difference at all for about two and a half weeks, but my sypmtoms are now nearly gone. I'm starting to feel normal again. My strength is almost back to normal, and my weight has stabilized at 185 pounds.
In many ways this experiment left me with more questions than I had when I started. Why is my body so resistant to test? Why did all this happen in the first place? And why did the Halo have no effect whatsoever? Still, my poking, pill-popping and patching did give me a chance to experience different forms of testosterone therapy and to personally determine the effectiveness of each. For me the new Androderm patch appears to work best. Other may react differently.
Male testosterone definciency treatment may be crude, but it is available. The effectiveness of each form of supplementation may vary, so don't give up. At the very least I hope I may have helped people who may be experiencing similar symptoms to realize testosterone deficiency may be the problem. I will continnue searching for answers to the many questions that remain..."
I thought it was interesting how all three methods affected him, showing blood levels, etc. Also how there appeared to be "receptor down-grade" after long-term continuous use of injectable test and how it affected blood levels. Hope you enjoyed. I know it's a long read.
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