Hi Badguysingh.
You really are anxious about the prospect of TRT aren't you?
I can say - hand on heart - that it really is no big deal...honestly. If you do need TRT then you will look back in a year or two, or even in a month or two and think..."
My, my, I'm feeling so much better. Why did I worry so much?"
Okay, so maybe I'm understating how you should be feeling. It is okay to be a bit apprehensive, and it's understandable you've got lots of doubts and questions. Afterall, we're talking about a lifelong change, commitment, and reliance on a hormone that is powerful and unfairly, in my opinion, often gets a lot of negative press. I had a million and one questions about TRT too. I still have questions about it now, after 12 twelve years. However, I have no doubts or regrets about being on it.
In answer to your questions:
1. Nearly twelve years. Started in 2001/2.
2. I had testicular cancer and my remaining testicle didn't produce enough testosterone. I endured over a year of psychiatric/doctor/psychologist visits and depression tablets to attempt to cure a problem they (doctors) thought was in my mind. Many blood tests later concluded I had low T. Before therapy I was depressed, low energy, felt like I had flu all the time, low libido, poor erection quality, getting fatter, muscle quantity decreasing. Generally felt as life wasn't worth living.
Within weeks of therapy commencing many of these symptoms eleviated and I felt more "alive" and happier. Over the following months my body chemistry changed my mind, mood, and even physique. I noticed that my waist line was shrinking and I was looking more muscley (without weight training at this point).
The bad points are few: I don't get the sexual urges or amounts of sexual thoughts as I did prior to therapy/cancer. I know that how I feel will often depend on whether I've just had my fortnightly testosterone injection, or if I'm due my next one, when levels are lowest. I also suffer with higher blood pressure now which could be age (42) but it could also be due to increased red blood cell count; a side effect of therapy. Either way, it is now controlled by BP drugs and beta-blockers. This medication also counters the occasional panic type attacks that I suffered at night. These often happened a day or so after an injection, and may have been due to the bodily response of high levels of testosterone in my bloodstream at night, when levels are naturally at their lowest.
These minor issues aside, I feel better all round in my health than at any point since my youth. Actually, physique wise, I'm probably better looking physically than at any time in my life. I was a naturally, very, very, skinny kid. I was 130Ibs and 5'9" tall. That was thin. Now, I'm the same height but 190Ibs and around 12% bodyfat. Quite a difference, and one that wouldn't be possible without the help of the HRT for sure.
3. You can live a long and normal life if you don't abuse them and eat healthily, exercise regularly, and don't partake in bad habits too much.
However, low T can cause all manner of problems: metabolic disease; diabetes type 2; osteoporosis, obesity; hear disease; cardiovascular disease; respiratory disease; pulmonary disease; arterioscerosis; ad nauseam...
If you are deficient of testosterone in amounts deemed healthy for you personally, then therapy could well significantly extend your life span, rather than shorten it
.
No reason at all why you shouldn't be able to live a long and healthy life on therapy: 70-80 years or more!
Hope this helps.
Craig
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