Alrighty - Here comes the novel:
Background - Was a high school "athlete" sat around 5'11 and 230-240 with numbers of benching just under 300, squatting and deadlifts over 405. Ended up gaining a ton of weight in college and hit 340, somehow got married, lazy, and divorced. During the divorce ran into the gym like it was my job and went from 340 down to 260 by eating sub 1500 calories a day and surviving on 4 monsters a day. Started eating right and trying to put on strength and sat around 280 benching 315, squatting 315, and deadlifting close to 500.
It was around 2018 (30 yr) where I started to burn out and feel overly sluggish and the gym just wasn't feeling right anymore. Read online about "brain fog" and talking to a therapist about my life path, decided to have my PCP check my test levels. July of 2018 I was around 180 (I think this is nanograms/deciliter reference range was 350-900). PCP thinks this is ok, and wants to retest in a few weeks. Next test was just over 200 and I was for sure that I was a candidate. PCP thinks that the "diet" of sub 1200 calories and caffeine abuse crashed the endocrine system. I believe when you're under producing its classified as hypogonadism.
Got a referral to a urologist and had the numbers checked again and put on a dosage of 150mg a week - Injection on Tuesdays and bloods on Saturdays (but blood tests every 6 months). After the first injection, I felt a bit "energized" but believe that it was 100% placebo and didnt buy it. Fast forward to the next morning and the morning wood was something of legend. Wasn't the normal morning routine, was like I was a teenager again and ready to go at the slightest moment. One of the symptoms of low test that I was told was the lack of "performance" which I didn't exhibit but rather everything was enhanced. It was truly like performance enhancement right out the gate. The sleep that I had experienced week 2 of injections was intense. I slept for 6ish hours due to work stressors but ended up feeling like I had gotten 10+ hours.
Cue the first month check up after running on 150mg shots, my levels crested over 900 and was "out of reference range" so I got dialed back. The dialing it back was a godsend as with the "high dosage" I found I was turned on by weird shit, and remember watching an ad for oreos and popping wood like I was freshman seeing his first pair of tits. Doc reduced my dosage to 100mg week and that seemed to be the sweet spot of sitting around 750-850 levels. I was told people do not respond the same and some people need higher dosages to hit reference levels.
Protocol remains the same - Pull and then Pin quads. Just the dosage has been tweaked over time to keep me close to top of the range.
Now the fun part - When sitting around 900-1000 early on, I was able to eat between 5k-8k calories daily and sat at 280 and got stronger and stronger. I didn't keep my eating in check and ballooned back up to my current 315 in pursuit of the 405 bench, you know, eat big get big. My 315 bench went to 385 within 3ish months of starting. This wasn't my reason to start, but one hell of a benefit. Pre Covid I hit 425 raw bench and 290 on a seated military press. Performance in the bedroom was heightened - felt like it was lasting longer and stronger.
Now the bad part - Per my PCP the increased test levels have "advanced my hair aging" and I am starting to thin a little on the top (not something I am terribly vain about, I am a goon to begin with). The jewels shrank to about 1/3 of their size, not going to lie, I didn't notice much change other than some pain the first few weeks, but there was one day during my shower that I was washing and was very confused. This was a huge psychological hit and honestly took way too long to come to terms with the change. PCP and Urologist both claim that it potentially limits you ability to have kids. Weekly injections are pretty annoying as is the 1ml vials and keeping stocked up on supplies. (pro tip - with insurance the syringes typically are not priced per quantity but per pick up, local pharmacist hooked me up with 50 quantity for the price I was paying for 8). I did have a lapse once in the 4ish year cycle were I was off for about 2 weeks (stupid change in insurance) and went to feeling like absolute dogshit and my sleep suffered.
Post Covid - I have stayed on my current protocol and am starting to trim back down with appropriate diet. Have also cut caffeine down to nearly zero over that time.
Would recommend everyone to get their numbers checked and regularly have bloods done, been a life changer for the better in my situation.
willizm is seeing, which can both be a pro and con lol.
