Growth from my Endocrinologist

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03-20-2004, 07:40 PM
topcat50

Growth from my Endocrinologist

To cut quickly to the chase I have been into weight training for 15 yrs and have lots of sensible cycles behind me . I'm 50 yrs and have recently had my endo do all the bloodwork thats needed to put me on growth . To convince him that I was running low hormonally , even at my age , I came off of a test cycle that I was on to give him the results that I desired . I forgot to say that the reason that I'm going through him is because my insurance will pay for it . My bloodwork results showed my test levels being extremely low and he has started me off at 300 mg every other week, an insult to us that know better and I am about to start the growth at 4iu daily . I'm happy with the dosage of gh but I 'm wanting to up my test dosage on my own , not extemely but to about 600 a week . He will be periodically doing bloodwork to check values and I'm afraid if he sees my test levels pretty high he might stop all therapy . Thoughts on this appreciated . TC
03-20-2004, 08:53 PM
JohnnyB

My endo hasn't given me a scrpit yet, I have low HGH/IGF-1 but he does check my test levels when running my HGH/IGF-1

JohnnyB
03-21-2004, 03:16 PM
einstein1905

Sorry, I don't see any way around it. If you're administering the shots yourself, you can time things as you did the first time to allow for low test levels upon bloodwork, assuming blood tests will be planned well in advance and won't be very frequent. If they are somewhat frequent, it wouldn't be a good idea to let test levels fluctuate for the sole purpose of maintaining a script.
03-21-2004, 06:19 PM
topcat50

Thanks Einstein, Your right about the test fluctuations . I don't have a script for the test , I have to go to his office to get those injections . I'm getting the pin for the growth . I was just curious , since that will not be enough test for the gains that I'm used to , if I could probably run propionate @ 100 mg several times per week and get away with it if I stopped 4 or 5 days before my next bloodwork is done . Do you think that would work or do you think my levels would still be to elevated ?
03-21-2004, 06:30 PM
flexshack

Quote:

Originally Posted by topcat50

My insurance will pay for it .TC

btw, how or better yet, why?
03-21-2004, 06:55 PM
einstein1905

Quote:

Originally Posted by topcat50

Thanks Einstein, Your right about the test fluctuations . I don't have a script for the test , I have to go to his office to get those injections . I'm getting the pin for the growth . I was just curious , since that will not be enough test for the gains that I'm used to , if I could probably run propionate @ 100 mg several times per week and get away with it if I stopped 4 or 5 days before my next bloodwork is done . Do you think that would work or do you think my levels would still be to elevated ?

How often will they be checked? You can stop the prop in time to get levels back to where they should roughly be just by him giving you your every other week shots. The number of days you'll need to stop will be dependent upon the mgs of prop you'll be shooting weekly in addition to what the doc's giving you. In any event, you should have plenty of advanced notice for blood tests, and I can't imagine they'd be very frequent. As long as the tests aren't very frequent, you should be able to manage it just fine. You'll need to do some calculating to figure out where your plasma test levels should be, based on what he's giving you alone so you know how many days before you'll need to stop the prop shots.
03-21-2004, 07:23 PM
JohnnyB

Quote:

Originally Posted by flexshack

btw, how or better yet, why?

Because it's a medical need, mine will pay also if the proper tests are run and the Doc fill out the paper work.

JohnnyB
03-21-2004, 10:03 PM
flexshack

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

Because it's a medical need, mine will pay also if the proper tests are run and the Doc fill out the paper work.

JohnnyB

oh, but i not so sure i understand. what qualifies it as a medical need? is it b/c his hgh levels are below the normal level? is this what the insurance companies qualify as a medical need?
03-22-2004, 08:46 AM
JohnnyB

Quote:

Originally Posted by flexshack

oh, but i not so sure i understand. what qualifies it as a medical need? is it b/c his hgh levels are below the normal level? is this what the insurance companies qualify as a medical need?

Yes, the medical feild is finding out that low hormones are the cause or contribute to some medical problems

JohnnyB
03-22-2004, 11:27 AM
topcat50

Flex, I am almost 51 years and am a very successful business man . Aside the work that I do for the business that I work for I'm on several committees that require meetings and planning for other areas in our business . I do not sleep but maybe 3 hrs per night and do not have much energy to push myself through my day . I don't feel like I have the mental sharpness that I did a few years ago and I have to wake up every morning and feel as good as I possibly can . I went to my endo with these problems and he did my bloodwork and discovered that my test level were low and my Igf-1 level was low also . I recently went in and he did a stem test and an adrenaline test that took a whole day of injecting cortisone in my vain and drwing samples every thirty min. for a couple of hours . That afternoon I took a propananol tab and two L-Dopa tabs and again he took my values every thirty minuites for a couple of hours .Thats the test that has to be done to be put on growth . All Prescription plans will not pay for this but mine does . Hope this helps in answering your question .
03-22-2004, 11:46 AM
flexshack

Quote:

Originally Posted by topcat50

Flex, I am almost 51 years and am a very successful business man . Aside the work that I do for the business that I work for I'm on several committees that require meetings and planning for other areas in our business . I do not sleep but maybe 3 hrs per night and do not have much energy to push myself through my day . I don't feel like I have the mental sharpness that I did a few years ago and I have to wake up every morning and feel as good as I possibly can . I went to my endo with these problems and he did my bloodwork and discovered that my test level were low and my Igf-1 level was low also . I recently went in and he did a stem test and an adrenaline test that took a whole day of injecting cortisone in my vain and drwing samples every thirty min. for a couple of hours . That afternoon I took a propananol tab and two L-Dopa tabs and again he took my values every thirty minuites for a couple of hours .Thats the test that has to be done to be put on growth . All Prescription plans will not pay for this but mine does . Hope this helps in answering your question .

thanks, great explanation. do you know why they injected cortisone? and also why the l-dopa and propananol? actually, i don't even know what propananol is. thanks again topcat50.
03-22-2004, 11:49 AM
topcat50

Einstein, As soon as he finds out the final dosage that I will recieve I will access my needs and go with the addition of the propionate . I'm not sure how to go about calculating my plasma test levels to figure out how many days I should cleanup before my next profile . If he decides to continue with only 200 mg every other week , I will probably run the prop @ 100 mg eod. Do you think the propionate will be out and my levels be back to his values if I stop maybe four days out ?
03-22-2004, 11:53 AM
topcat50

The cortsone was administered to check my adrenaline values . He found out that I was a candidate for the growth after my Igf-1 test values came back low . The Tabs were given and bloodwork taken to check to see how many iu's to start me out on . Thats my understanding of all of this .
03-22-2004, 01:31 PM
einstein1905

Quote:

Originally Posted by topcat50

Einstein, As soon as he finds out the final dosage that I will recieve I will access my needs and go with the addition of the propionate . I'm not sure how to go about calculating my plasma test levels to figure out how many days I should cleanup before my next profile . If he decides to continue with only 200 mg every other week , I will probably run the prop @ 100 mg eod. Do you think the propionate will be out and my levels be back to his values if I stop maybe four days out ?

You can get a rough estimate of your plasma test levels by calculating as follows: This is just a rough estimate with made up half lives
Assume a 5 day half life and you're shooting every 5 days @ 250mg....
(250mg).... (250mg + (250mg*0.5))......(250mg + (250mg*0.5) + (250mg*.25)).......(250mg) + (250mg*0.5) + (250mg*0.25) +(250mg*0.125))....etc
You just need to plug in your doses and half-lives.
You can turn it into a formula too, which would make things easier.....I have a program someone made to calculate plasma levels. I can email it to anyone that wants to check the math to see if it's accurate.
03-22-2004, 04:34 PM
topcat50

Thanks Einstein, I'll give it a try . Thanks for all of your feedback . TC
03-22-2004, 04:48 PM
flexshack

Quote:

Originally Posted by einstein1905

You can get a rough estimate of your plasma test levels by calculating as follows: This is just a rough estimate with made up half lives
Assume a 5 day half life and you're shooting every 5 days @ 250mg....
(250mg).... (250mg + (250mg*0.5))......(250mg + (250mg*0.5) + (250mg*.25)).......(250mg) + (250mg*0.5) + (250mg*0.25) +(250mg*0.125))....etc
You just need to plug in your doses and half-lives.
You can turn it into a formula too, which would make things easier.....I have a program someone made to calculate plasma levels. I can email it to anyone that wants to check the math to see if it's accurate.

yes please. i am very interested in that program. can you email it to me please? if yes, then i will pm you my email address.