Some chest tightness and can't sleep since starting HRT???

[PistolPete33]

I'm about 6 weeks into my TRT protocol and for the past week or so I feel I have some tightness in my chest. Not sure if it's an early sign of a cold but when I take deep breaths I can feel some tightness in the center of my chest. Not sure if it is something to be concerned about and if my protocol could be causing these symptoms. I'm currently taking 100mg/Test C every 3.5 days IM.

I'm also not sleeping at all since starting TRT. Not sure if it's because I'm working out more and my body is aching or if I just can't sleep. It's really impacting my mood and energy levels. I went to bed at 10:30 last night and couldn't fall asleep until after 2:30 am and this was after taking Melotonin at 2am.

Thoughts?

[dhickey]

That's a pretty heafty dose. My E2 was sky high at that dose. Once E2 was dealt with my T level was 1200 two days after injection. I seem to metabolize T pretty fast, so you could be much higher.

Have you checked T and E2? You should probably check RBC and hemocrit as well.

[steroid.com 1]

100 mg of test every 3.5 days is not TRT; it's a low dose cycle.

We would need to see blood work to determine if its serum related symptoms or not.

Are you under a Physician's care?

[PistolPete33]

Yes, I'm under a physicians care. I don't have bloodwork scheduled for another few weeks so I'm not sure. The only bloodwork I have is when I first had it pulled.

[MuscleInk]

Have you at least checked your blood pressure? Any other symptoms? Difficulty breathing? Headaches? Confusion? Dizziness? Any pounding in your head or chest or feeling like you can hear your heart beat in your head?

[PistolPete33]

Have you at least checked your blood pressure? Any other symptoms? Difficulty breathing? Headaches? Confusion? Dizziness? Any pounding in your head or chest or feeling like you can hear your heart beat in your head?

No not really. Had blood pressure checked last week and it was perfect. No headaches, at one point I did feel I could hear my heartbeat but it only lasted a minute or so. Not sure if I was hyper focused on it though. No confusion or dizziness. I haven't given blood yet and know I need to this week but not sure if something serious is going on.

[crazy mike]

I agree with everyone. And 100 mg test cyp @ 3.5 is of course 200mg wk and I consider that low dose cycle. Or for me gliding between cycles and never coming flat down. I've done allot of that when I was young and had no problems. Being everyone different it is effecting you different but as MuscleInk said if your BP and pulse are good then prob no emergency just keep a small log n monitor your vitals and call the doc and get his advice but not to panic. BP will effect your eyesight and all the MuscleInk said. Also your pain and discomfort level is a monitoring sign...Be cool
Always a good idea to check BP everyday if you are feeling frail with the TRT.... ...crazy mike

[MuscleInk]

No not really. Had blood pressure checked last week and it was perfect. No headaches, at one point I did feel I could hear my heartbeat but it only lasted a minute or so. Not sure if I was hyper focused on it though. No confusion or dizziness. I haven't given blood yet and know I need to this week but not sure if something serious is going on.

As suggested, BW would be helpful. Difficult to diagnose but glad to hear BP and HR are normal range.

What's your H2O intake like?

[PistolPete33]

As suggested, BW would be helpful. Difficult to diagnose but glad to hear BP and HR are normal range.

What's your H2O intake like?

It is normally high but whenever I'm stressed out I go back to drinking soda so I've been drinking a lot of soda and only a small amount of water. I need to get off the soda ASAP. Could the sugar/caffine be causing the issue?

[crazy mike]

It is normally high but whenever I'm stressed out I go back to drinking soda so I've been drinking a lot of soda and only a small amount of water. I need to get off the soda ASAP. Could the sugar/caffine be causing the issue?

IMO, the caffeine could cause you some added tension but all this would show in the BP and HR. If you are nervous and anxious you can have some tightness due to muscular and not show in the BP. BP and HR are the key here to any type of possible failure....crazy mike

I'm bi-polar I a very serious case and have allot of experience with this topic of chest tightness and BP n HR issues....yep, crazy mike

[LT75]

Take it down to 100mg a week and see if you feel better till you get your blood work. 200mg a week is way too much for TRT.

[HRTstudent]

My first thoughts are polycythemia.... check your hematocrit and hemoglobin to make sure they aren't going too high.

Too much T can effect many aspects of your health. It sounds like you might be susceptible to increased anxiety as well, which is quite common in men who take too much testosterone .

Not to mention, you very well don't NEED 200mg of T per week. Most doctors start on half that or less. I do (personally) like the idea of 2 shots per week as opposed to 1. I would keep that the same.

[MuscleInk]

Stimulants at low doses can cause headaches and some chest tightness at higher doses typically with tachycardia. Withdrawal from stimulants can also be a factor but I'm not sure these alone would be enough to cause your symptoms. Dehydration can lead to muscle spasms and headaches as well.

Hypercholesterolemia, hyperlipidemia, polycythemia and many other conditions can be factors for sure. This is where BW will provide better diagnostic criteria.

[Rusty11]

Excessive amounts of soda, sugar, caffeine causing stress, tight chest, and sleepness nights...nah, never heard of that.
Seriously though, are we talking a couple of sodas or a few Mountain Dew Big gulps? Of course, I know next to nothing, but it seems that a T dose as high as yours, coupled with a TON of soda/caffeine may not be the best combo. As the others have said, bw is your friend. Or cut the T down to half that amount. But, do something or things may get worse. Good luck.

[endo518]

Thought 100-200mg per week was an accepted dose for TRT? Granted 200 is on the high side, but still an accepted dose. Obviously it's individualized though, so 200 may be too high for you personally so in that case getting blood work and adjusting from there should be a first step.

[PistolPete33]

Starting now the soda is DONE. Otherwise, my diet is quite clean which is good but Soda is my one vice in life for sure. I'm going to start there and also going to give blood asap to see if that helps any. I'm also going to contact my Dr. and see if I can have bloodwork drawn so I can see where I stand with everything. Should I give blood before or after I have the bloodwork drawn?

[junk2222yard]

I am a little late to the party here, but had something similar a couple months in. Do you have asthma? One of the symptoms of high E2 (which is likely at the T dose you are on) is "Asthma like issues (due to increased water retention around the lungs)"... I found this mentioned at:

http://www.*************.com/forum/s...H-TESTOSTERONE

*Above blocked out URL is Crisler's All Things Male website.

[Rusty11]

Well, maybe just cut down to one soda. I know I'm addicted to my morning cup of coffee, but I try to just have the one. You'll probably get a throbbing headache if you cut out all caffeine at once. Although, I wouldn't know about that. I haven't missed my caffeine dose in 30 years.

[lacey23]

I would not listen to people telling you to lower your dose. Atleast not yet. What I would do is get bloodwork done, and then lower the lose if the blood work calls for it. 100mg every 3.5 days is not necessarily a low dose cycle either. It may be for some people. And, for others it may not be. I average 168mg/week, and am at about 2/3 of the normal range.

The symptoms you are experiencing can be from high e2, or high test, or other things. But, without seeing bloodwork it's hard to tell what the deal is. We can speculate one what it is (and in all probability be correct), but can't really give any advice until seeing bloodwork. I'd just try to do the best you can with melatonin for the time being, and correct things after your Dr's apt. Sometimes you have to 'stick with it' through rough patches on TRT to get an accurate reading of bloodwork before making changes.

If you were first starting on TRT I wouldn't suggest 200mg/week. But since you've been doing it for 6 weeks you might as well stick with it.


Edit- Also, did you notice any improvement when first starting? Did you frontload? At what week did these problems start?

[PistolPete33]

In the 2nd week I started feeling better emotionally but it's been in the past week or week and a half that I started having these sides.

[lacey23]

In the 2nd week I started feeling better emotionally but it's been in the past week or week and a half that I started having these sides.

Are you still feeling better emotionally? Any E2 sides like puffyness, ED, crappy mood,etc..? I'm kind of confused with the sleeping side effect as in the OP it says you've had trouble sleeping since starting TRT, but here it sounds like it happened in the last week/week and a half.

Assuming you didn't frontload, your test levels (and thus E2 as well) would have started hitting their max levels around week 4-5. So, that time frame corresponds with possibly having too high of E2 and/or test levels that started creeping up once you achieved max levels. If that is the case once you get BW, fixing those issues should help.

Its possible high RBC/HCT levels would cause some of these things, however i kind of doubt they would come up this quick unless you respond really well to test injections and your double the test range or something.

Also, since you're not on HCG that may be something as well. When I've tried TRT w/o HCG I would have troubles sleeping, and adding in HCG helped in that regard (though this seems to differ from person to person).

Really impossible to say 100% without blood work, but those are the things I would look at first.

[PistolPete33]

I am taking HCG twice per week. It could be high E2 levels for sure. I did one cycle a few years ago of test C and had tons of E2 issues. The sleeping issue has been over the past 3 weeks. Not sure if it's related to the TRT or from my recent move from my previous house. It could be a combination of the 2 but the first week here I slept like a baby.

[lacey23]

Ah, I did not know you were on HCG . 200mg/week with HCG on top is a pretty big dose.

If that is the case, then yeah. I imagine high E2, possibly high crit/rbc. But, see how the blood tests go first.