TRT/TestC/depression?

[PeteyP]

I started TRT Test C almost 4 weeks ago 200mg week after my first injection I felt like crap, severely depressed and horrible feeling of despair for approx. A week and a half. Now i have a friend who has just started the same dose. Now he is going through the same thing except it seems to be lasting longer with him. Is this common for Test C? How long does it last (approx.)? Is there anything that can be used to counter this effect?

[austinite]

Pete, is your protocol by doctors orders or are you self-treating? It's not uncommon to feel sluggish while your blood levels out with treatment. Soon you'll need additional bloodwork to see how the new protocol is working. I'm surprised at the "Starting Dose" a bit. Do you have any bloodwork you can show us?

[PeteyP]

No blood work on hand but yes Dr. prescribed and i go back for BW in 3 days. I feel great now! The depression side was strange i even told my wife that if the feeling continued throughout treatment that i was not going to continue. After it passed i started feeling great and still do! I was just asking for some insight to see if it was very common. My friend goes back in two weeks. I will tell him if he doesn't stop feeling strange to call the doc .

[adrenaline99]

How long did it take for you to start feeling great? I'm going through something similar, I am approaching week 4 and haven't felt anything except a slight libido boost, (on 100mg cyp/week)

[PeteyP]

It took me almost 2 weeks. After my third injection i started to feel great! My workouts are just mind blowing now and only 4 days in on fourth injection. I was hoping some of the veteran guys would jump in on this thread and offer some insight.

[ZenFitness]

When I started TRT I felt great about 3 weeks in and it lasted for a few more weeks. After that time, I crashed emotionally for a couple of weeks which then evened out. The difference though is I started on pellets. When I switched to injections a couple months later, I was already evened out.

Thus, I would say some up and down is normal as your body adjusts to the new hormone levels. The good news is that it does stabilize... the initial high you get doesn't last forever, but you'll find yourself feeling much better overall than before (at least I have).

[PeteyP]

Thanks Zen!

[AnabolicDoc]

I started TRT Test C almost 4 weeks ago 200mg week after my first injection I felt like crap, severely depressed and horrible feeling of despair for approx. A week and a half. Now i have a friend who has just started the same dose. Now he is going through the same thing except it seems to be lasting longer with him. Is this common for Test C? How long does it last (approx.)? Is there anything that can be used to counter this effect?

I think bc of the high dose of test, what your feeling may be due to estrogen conversion. But that doesn't quite explain why your symptoms and away on their own.

[PeteyP]

Thanks for your input Doc! Even with 1mg letrozole EOD?

[steroid.com 1]

High dosages one time a week like yours at 200 mg can put downward pressure on SHBG.

When that happens a man can get symptoms like depression and anxiety.

Also, like Doc pointed out, elevated E2 can do the same.

Need blood work.

Post everything here in this thread complete with ranges and we'll jump in and help.

[AnabolicDoc]

Thanks for your input Doc! Even with 1mg letrozole EOD?

No definitely not, you left that out. But then the opposite can be the cause add that much letro can bottom out your E2.

[PeteyP]

Thanks GD! Dont have my blood work on hand at the moment. This is my fourth week going back to Dr. Friday for BW so im sure after that he will dial in all of my dosages. All the research and posts I have read in the forum suggest that this Dr. Has got me on some crazily high dosages! Im assuming thats only until my 2 blood test.

My initial BW was Lab Corp . Test was 300 and free test was .89 I can not remember the ranges but i do remember that 300 was at the lower of mid range and free t was lower than the low range. Estrogen and estridol was both mid range but cant recall off hand.

The meds and dosages are HCG 250iu DAILY Cyp 200mg week Letrozole 1mg EOD! I dont mind the 200 Cyp but seems to me that the Letrozole and HCG dosages are insane!

[PeteyP]

Ok DOC.... that would probably explain my sex drive tanking then? I equated it to the fact that im under a lot of stress but maybe the letrozole has added to that.

[PeteyP]

Thanks all for the input. I will try to get BW and everything posted here tonight!

[ZenFitness]

I can say from experience that low E2 will kill libido and erection performance. That was part of my early problem on test (although I wasn't on an AI but was taking some herbal supplements that I suspect contributed).

The good news is that your libido will surge as your E2 rises into a normal range i.e. mid teens to mid twenties... at least I've noticed the times when mine gets low and then I correct it.

[PeteyP]

Here is my very first set of BW that my DR. based my starting dose off of. Please keep in mind that on 4/26 I will be @ Dr. drawing for new labs and I will post those asap. Also I'm 29 and never been on any aas or anything not even otc supplements

My Level Range
E2 23 pg/ml 20-75

Cortisol 3.90 mcg/dl 6.70-22.40

DHEA S LVL 130.80 mcg/dl 5.00-700.00

PSA .59 ng/ml 0.00-4.00

Lipid Profile
Cholesterol Total 144 mg/dl <=200
Triglycerides 193 mg/dl <=150
HDL 33 >=40
Low Dens Lipoprotien Chol. 72 mg/dl <=130
LDL HDL Ratio 2.2 mg/dl <=3.6

MG 1.6 mg/dl 1.6-1.25

Free T3 3.4 pg/ml 2.4-6.8

Estrogen 71 pg/ml less than 200 pg/ml

Free T4 .8 ng/ml .6-1.6

TSH ULTRA 1.051 mcIntUnit/Ml .340-5.600

TEST 300 ng/dl 168-746

Test,Free .87 ng/dl .95-4.30

protocol

test Cyp 200mg Weekly
HCG 250 iu Daily
Letrozole 1 mg EOD

Let me know what you think! also wondering if anyone can tell by this BW why my Test was so low? or is it just Lack of sleep and stress maybe? Thanks again to everyone for helping.

[bp2000]

Letro is the strongest of all the Ai's. Usually guys go for Armidex instead... your tanked sex drive is from the letro driving down your estrogen. Be careful of crushing your estrogen could cause bad sides like achey joints and just feeling bad.

[PeteyP]

Thanks BP I'm going to talk to my doctor friday and see what he thinks we need to do probably just cut my letro back. Will know more after BW. It takes about 6 days to get the results from what i can tell.

What is a more "normal" dose for letrozole? I know each persons needs are different. Just wondering what doses some of you guys are on?

Also can you take letro every 3 days?

[Moparman]

Just stop the AI for a while. I was taking 1 mg anatrazole 2x a week and had bad sides. Not depression but no libido, hi anxiety, poor hard ons. So thinking I was still too high E so I took it eod. Lmao. I was a mess.

Got some bw and it showed no E. so I stopped for a week and I'm better. Now I just took .25 mg anastrazole today. I'll try that 2x a week until next bw

[PeteyP]

Thanks Mopar!

[PeteyP]

If my E2 has or is close to bottoming out would that cause horrible mood swings also? I've been up and down for the last two weeks mad enough to chew the bumper off a car and two seconds later happy as heck then sad ..... its been a wild ride.

I read gdevine stickie on E2 and therapeutic treatment didnt see anything about mood swings only depression.

[ZenFitness]

Yes. I will have libido, mood, and erection quality swings with low E2. I also get super-obsessed and anxious.

[ZenFitness]

It's also can feel like a long road to get dialed in. It takes time and patience.

[PeteyP]

Ok thanks again Zen! Should I ask the Dr. To run an Certain BW besides an estrogen sensitive assay?

[ZenFitness]

My last doc wouldn't do the sensitive test only the "normal" E2 test. I had to ask even for that... he only looked for total and free test.

I would suggest on your next blood work to get the total test with free, the sensitive E2 test, and I don't see a prolactin test above. I'm not a pro/vet here, so please take it FWIW... others may have good input.

I now have a new doc that will let me basically write my own labwork, so I'm putting together a standard list I plan to track 3 - 4 times a year (http://forums.steroid.com/hormone-re...-lab-work.html)

[PeteyP]

I do believe i have prolactin in with that BW just tried to post just the necessary stuff it was late and i had to get some sleep. I will definitely request the sensitive estrogen and will make sure prolactin is included!

Thanks Zen!

[PeteyP]

At Dr. Office now going to ask for estrogen sensitive assay and test for prolactin. Any other suggestions?

[PeteyP]

Ok Dr. Is running an estrogen sensitive assay along with normal tests. Also switched my protocol

Old protocol
200 cyp weekly
1mg letrozole eod
250iu hcg daily

New protocol (until new BW results)
150 cyp every 6 days
.5 mg anastrozole daily
200iu hcg daily

Can anyone tell me why or how any of the protocol changes make sense besides the switch to anastrozole?

Does this look ok or is my doc a quack?

[PeteyP]

Bump

[ZenFitness]

My new doc put me on .5 mg anastrozole a day and my E2 (not sensitive) came in at 9 after being on it for a week. It's a complicated story, but he doesn't know I had the E2 test although I told him I was going to dial back my anastrozole dosage to every other day. I'm still feeling like my E2 is probably too low, so I'm going to pull it back further and get my "official" blood test this next week with my new doc.

I think the results of your E2 test will help sort this out for you. 200iu hcg daily seems high to me, but I'll let others chime in who know more than I do.

[PeteyP]

Thanks Zen. I didn't really care for the way my Dr. Acted today so i have found another that is personal friends with family of mine so I'm going to interview him next Friday! Doc today just acted like i was questioning his status as a "GOD"! He is very self righteous!

[ZenFitness]

I feel your pain PeteyP. I have found more often than not that doctors suffer from the same problem you found with the self-righteous behavior. My first doc almost fell out of his chair when I asked about hCG and then basically told me I was an idiot because it formed a hormonal negative feedback loop. I told him that's true but that's not the point... but he didn't hear beyond that. He just said "no, no, we are not considering this at all, case closed." Then when my E2 comes in at 9 he says, "Yep, in range no problem." LOL, yeah right you go live with an E2 of 9 you prick.

[PeteyP]

Yea mine totally wiped my E2 clean....he knew it was going to happen! Been on letro 1mg eod for two f n months! Id he didn't know it would i sure don't need to be going to him! I think he did it because he just happens to own the compounding pharmacy that i have to get all my meds from! So i think he did it so i will have to keep coming back more often than just for bw!

[PeteyP]

I'm now on day 4 of my new protocol. Starting to feel a little better. Mood swings have definitely slowed down. I'm still feeling a little sluggish. But overall compared to last week I would say feel 50% better. Still no sex drive at all though.