Coming off HRT to stimulate natural test production

[Astrozombie]

Hello,

I am a long time lurker, but this is my 1st post. I am an HRT patient. I had a lot of symptoms and was tested once on my own through salivatest.com and then twice through a blood test by my Dr.

I consistently came back with levels just above 200, and my Dr. prescibed 5mg Androgel daily.

I did that for 3 months and felt only mildly better. I received another blood test and my results were the same. I am assuming the natural production stopped and the androgel was taking over but I was still low. My Dr. prescribed 10mg Androgel daily, and told me to apply it differently (I had taken some bad advice on using it on the abdomen and started using it on the chest/shoulders).

After starting the 10mg I felt great. This stuff was working. I then retested after 3 months on the 10mg and came in at 950. Fantastic! Now here is the tricky part...

My doc says that he wants to see if this will stimulate my natural production and took me off cold turkey. It has only been 5 days, and I'm not seeing anything negative yet, and want to make sure I don't psych myself out.

My doc said the HRT can stimulate natural production and I should take a break unless I want to be on HRT for the rest of my life (I am 32). Note, he did say that if I completely "crashed" I could call him and he would immediately start me up again, and that we will retest in 3 months to see where I'm at no matter what.

If I can get off HRT and have natural production on my own then I'd love it, but I've never heard of this method before. Opinions and thoughts are welcome.

[viking850]

Sounds like you have a pretty good doc. there. Consider yourself lucky! I have never heard anyone say that HRT can "stimulate natural production", on the contrary whenever there is an external source of Test., your own natural production stops completely. There are situations where Clomid or HCG is used in an effort to "jump start" the HPTA(natural test. production). But it is done using those drugs, not Test. I think that in a short time you will know if you are "crashing" by your earlier symptoms or if your own levels are at a decent level (you will feel like you do know).

I think that if the latter is the case, take a look at what your natural levels are and see if that is acceptable to you. Do a little research on male Test. levels and illnesses associated with low levels. After you look at the pros and cons you will be in a better position to make a decision about this and I think you doc. will appriciate the fact that you took the time to be informed about this. BTW, HRT is a lifelong commitment, not something you "cycle".

[Kevan]

I agree, the best thing to jump start you own production is HGC, ask your dr. about that if he wants you to be producing your own.

[scotty082865]

snip...
I did that for 3 months and felt only mildly better. I received another blood test and my results were the same. I am assuming the natural production stopped and the androgel was taking over but I was still low. My Dr. prescribed 10mg Androgel daily, and told me to apply it differently (I had taken some bad advice on using it on the abdomen and started using it on the chest/shoulders).

After starting the 10mg I felt great. This stuff was working. I then retested after 3 months on the 10mg and came in at 950. Fantastic! Now here is the tricky part...

My doc says that he wants to see if this will stimulate my natural production and took me off cold turkey. It has only been 5 days, and I'm not seeing anything negative yet, and want to make sure I don't psych myself out.

My doc said the HRT can stimulate natural production and I should take a break unless I want to be on HRT for the rest of my life (I am 32). Note, he did say that if I completely "crashed" I could call him and he would immediately start me up again, and that we will retest in 3 months to see where I'm at no matter what.

If I can get off HRT and have natural production on my own then I'd love it, but I've never heard of this method before. Opinions and thoughts are welcome.

I would caution that your doc does not know what he is talkign about. Exogenous testosterone will not kick start your HPTA. Just does not work that way. The HPTA (hypothalimus-pituitary-testes-axis) receives only negative feedback from the applied androgel. The best way to kick-start production is to go on PCT (post cycle therapy ) with hCG and/or Clomid.

I am a long-time TRT patient (implanted pellets) and maintain around 1500 ng/dl serum. Even then, my doc has me on low dose hCG (essentially synthetic LH/FSH). hCG directly tells the testes to start production, even in small amounts. But it alone will not start your axis. For that you need to stimulate the hypothalimus & pituitary with clomid typically.

Scotty

[Astrozombie]

Ok thanks for the info guys. So far it has been just over three weeks and I'm pretty much back in the same situation where I started. It took about a week for the effects of the HRT to wear off and start feeling crappy again. I didn't realize how well it was working.

I'm going to give this another two weeks before going back to my Dr. to see if anything changes, but I appreciate the info.

[kaorialfred]

reread scotty post.

I am 33 started HRT or TRT with Testim gel (supposely better absorbtion than Andro)
I have tried to go with out any injections or gel and within two weeks I was crashing. So the fact that your doc told you that, I would get a second opinion.