Interesting appointment with my Primary Care Doc

[Youthful55guy]

I think I mention a couple months back that I was having issues with my PCP renewing my script for HCG. Turns out it was just miscommunication. I had to go though her assistant to get messages to her and her assistant is clueless. Things got all messed up. However, I was getting concerned that my doc might not want to continue doing medication management for male HRT. She admits that she has no idea what she's doing, but trusts me to manage the program based on several years of her monitoring the program while I went to an expensive A4M doc.

Anyway, in my paranoia that she would cut me off, I started stockpiling both T and HCG from "alternative sources". Going into the appointment, I had a stash of 7 months of HCG, 1.5 years of T-cyp, and 1.7 year of T-prop (I use a 180/20 mg/mL blended T).

So after my appointment and talking her through the issues face-to-face, I now have a script for 10,000 IU HCG with 6 refills good for a year and 10 mL 200 mg/mL T-cyp with 3 refills good for a year.

I wonder if I can sell this stockpile in a garage sale?

[Beetlegeuse]

I think a PCP who listens to and respects your objectives for your own health care is golden. She's a keeper.

Regarding the stockpiling, this past July NPR published news of a study concluding that expiration dates on meds mostly are bogus. They tested 14 different meds each of which was more than 30 years old and found 12 of them still had nearly 100% of their original potency.

Which, IMHO, lends two possibilities. Either the medical community hasn't bothered to test the long-term decay of drugs so they're erring on the side of caution, or they're knowingly using an absurdly short shelf life to get you to throw out perfectly good drugs and go pump some more cash into the pharmaceutical industry.

Regardless, the hCG I buy is marked with a 2-year expiration date. It's normally already several months old when I get it, and I buy in bulk to hold down the cost. It hasn't happened yet but I'm pretty sure I'll eventually get around to reconstituting a vial of it that is past its expiration date. But I don't especially care. So long as I don't crack the seal on the vials, do keep them in the dark and in a controlled climate, I don't think that date is worth the ink it's printed in.

T-cyp I dunno from but I see no need to unload the hCG.

[kelkel]

Anyway, in my paranoia that she would cut me off, I started stockpiling both T and HCG from "alternative sources". Going into the appointment, I had a stash of 7 months of HCG, 1.5 years of T-cyp, and 1.7 year of T-prop (I use a 180/20 mg/mL blended T).

I'm borderline paranoid about running out as well. My doc over-writes every script for me as I don't want to be micro-managed by pharmacies. I've got a stockpile of scripted items to die for.

[Youthful55guy]

I'm borderline paranoid about running out as well. My doc over-writes every script for me as I don't want to be micro-managed by pharmacies. I've got a stockpile of scripted items to die for.

Agree with both you and Beetlegeuse. My plan is to keep at least a year supply of everything on hand and then rotate stock. I've worked in the medical industry for most of my life and expiration dating is usually based on accelerated aging tests to come up with a date that satisfies FDA for the approval process (usually high temp and humidity conditions). Manufacturers can then (or sometimes forced) to run normal gaining tests and then petition to readjust the expiration dating if necessary or desirable. Often though, there is little incentive for them to invest in the process.

Regarding my HCG, I keep the lyophilized stuff in a temperature and humidity controlled mini refrigerator in my office, so it's under pretty much ideal conditions. I should have no problems at all using it within the expiration dating with a year supply in hand.