Top Testosterone Replacement Therapy Mistakes
We see so many mistakes on the message boards and have so many people come to us for help following a litany of errors. The Top Testosterone mistakes have a multitude of consequences from health risks, to side effects, to quality of life impairment to abandoning programs. There is one commonality, however, though in most of the mistakes. The patients are not getting proper guidance and oversight from a HRT specialized physician. Some mistakes seriously impacted their quality of life, or resulted in men stopping testosterone prematurely.
Top Testosterone Mistakes:
Poor physician testing and follow-up: Setting a baseline for your assorted hormones is critical to starting your program and just as important is getting a follow-up test at the 2-3 month mark and then, only if everything is going well, doing regular six month blood test follow-ups. Just as important, is an ongoing conversation to discuss the Low T symptoms that are driving the desire for TRT and then continually assessing your improvement against them. Recording the quantitative and qualitative improvements is a good idea as well. Even if you get a proper physician prescription, If they do not have proper testing follow-up you are taking your health in your own hands as if you were buying off of the black market. This is the top testosterone mistakes.
Buying black market testosterone: First, this is illegal. Testosterone is classified as a controlled substance under the Anabolic Steroids Control Act. Testosterone is classified as a Class III controlled substance in most states. In NY, it is considered a Class II controlled substance so violators of laws around testosterone will deal with most of the same laws surrounding crack cocaine. Some men are not able to find a physician to test and prescribe testosterone for them, some live in a world where that illegal behavior seems normal (amongst their gym peers) and others are lazy. Testosterone, and anabolic steroids, are illegal to use without a medical diagnosis and resulting prescription. Even with a diagnosis and prescription it is still illegal to import testosterone from other countries.
Using black market testosterone: The use of any street drug is dangerous as you can never be sure of what you are getting or putting into your body. Are the communicated dosages accurate? Is there any testosterone in there at all? Was the injectable developed in a licensed and inspected clean/sanitary room?
‘Cycling’: Testosterone Replacement Therapy should never be described as cycling on and off of a program. The therapy is a program to maintain a healthy lifestyle versus something to pump up on. Thinking that needing to give your body a break after a cycle means you are likely considering supraphysiological levels versus raising them to upper normal levels. What someone cycles supraphysiological levels of testosterone, they are more likely to trick their testicles into thinking they are over producing. When you stop at these levels you will have little to no testosterone in your system until your HPG hormonal axis normalizes and put your Low T symptoms at great risk and stress
Wrong dosage: Start slow and manage from there. Every individual is different so it is important to evaluate their current levels and symptoms. We advise starting slowly and re-testing between 4-8 weeks after starting but also discussing feelings in the first two weeks. At the 6 week testing mark it is a good time to assess progress and alter medication and dosage appropriately. We also use a qualitative testing and scoring to help assess the alteration of the symptoms inside the body. Different men react to different dosages.
Overreaction to an unrelated concerns: TRT is not the only thing that will be influencing your body when you are involved with it. New medications can increase cholesterol and triglycerides and/or liver enzymes and be unrelated. It is not unusual for physicians not well trained in HRT to prematurely blame testosterone or other hormones. Physicians who are not well versed in HRT are smart to be very cautious and attribute any signal to potentially be a result of your testosterone therapy, however, this does not serve you well and is a result of their non expertise in treating that patient and employing poor judgment. After the fact, the stopping of TRT, in these scenarios, does not fix the problems and the consequences are the issues of abruptly stopping their program in the onset of feeling tired, depressed, and reduction in libido.
Lack of expertise in understanding and managing and side effects: Without proper guidance from an experienced physician, we see lots of men stopping or not properly dealing with: nipple swelling, moodiness, acne, hair loss, perceived lack of benefit, or unrelated prostatic specific antigen (PSA) increase due to a prostatic infection. Having physician guidance where you know how to manage these side effects is essential to proper patient care and understanding how and why these symptoms manifest themselves is critical to managing them. Typical guidance might be to change the delivery (cream, Subq, IM, etc.), adjust the dose, add supplemental medication to counteract the potential problem (aromatase inhibitors, etc.). This is why TRT under the guidance of an experienced physician is so important. Do not blindly trust an experienced physician who does not have extensive experience in this specialty just because they are a physician. True experience and understanding of TRT and HRT are critical.
Not finding the right physician: Not all good trust-worthy physicians have the expertise to properly manage your hormone balancing. This field is evolving rapidly as we learn more and reteach decade’s old misinformation. Being in an HMO that requires you to see certain physicians does not help but finding an experienced HRT expert makes a world of difference versus using an overly conservative physician that is undertrained and fearful as a result of their lack of expertise.
Life style factors non conducive to testosterone therapy: Many lifestyle decisions are non-conducive to the results people seek from testosterone therapy and some counter act the program. Lifestyle choices and habits including: smoking, drinking in excess, smoking marijuana regularly, weight, lack of exercise, blood sugar or lipid issues, not attending Physician scheduled follow-up or adhering to their advice. Exercise, healthy sleep habits and a healthy diet with specific vitamins and minerals are able positive influencers on your testosterone production.
Top Testosterone Replacement Therapy Mistakes
Saleamp Design March 16th, 2015
Posted In: Low T Info, Testosterone Therapy, Uncategorized
Tags: acne, anabolic steroids, Anabolic Steroids Control Act, hair loss, health risks, HRT specialized physician, Low T symptoms, moodiness, nipple swelling, physician prescription, testosterone, testosterone production, Testosterone replacement therapy, testosterone therapy, Top Testosterone Replacement Therapy Mistakes
