Featured Archives - Testosterone Replacement Therapy

A Testosterone Pellet Patient’s Review

I've tried it all: Gels, shots and pills. The gel was terrible. The pills will destroy your liver. The shots were OK for the first five years, but the weekly (or bi-weekly if you want to avoid the peaks and valleys) testosterone shots got old after awhile. Switching between shoulders, thighs and gluts each week felt like doing The Macarena and I still felt like a pin cushion.

That left only the pellets and, I gotta say, I was very disappointed. Had I opted for the name-brand Testopel version, things may have gone better. The ones I got from the Trader Joe's compounding pharamcy were not good at all.

The biggest problem with pellets is if it's not working for you, you'll still have to wait for them to dissolve to get another type of testosterone. That means 3-6 months of waiting. I lost muscle, got depressed and was super lethargic for a couple of months. My review of testosterone pellet therapy? It sucked.

Back to injections for me! "Heeeey Macarena!"

Low Testosterone and Depression in Men

I'm feeling pretty down and out at the moment, which prompted me to write this. Right now I'm doing an experiment to try and get my natural testosterone levels back again, but so far it isn't working. My last test results came back WAY under normal levels for someone my age, and I'm really feeling it.

In fact, I feel JUST like I felt when I decided I'd had enough and was going to see a doctor in the first place, way back several years ago. He diagnosed me with depression and wanted me to take anti-depressants. Having never been "the depressed type" and knowing what I knew from talking to bodybuilders about steroids, I asked him if he would mind running a blood-test to find out what my testosterone levels were at. As suspected, they were very low. So rather than treat a symptom of low testosterone (i.e. depression), we started treating the low test levels with Androgel. Within days I felt like a new man. I was happy, energetic, full of life, sharp at work, more fun in the bedroom.... just like my old self again.

If you're a man over the age of 30 and you are starting to feel depressed, yet have never really been the type to get depressed before, get your testosterone levels checked before committing to treatment with anti-depressants.

It may be that you really do have depression brought on by all the stress that comes with growing up (kids, job, mortgage...) but it doesn't hurt to check. And it may be that your doctor will want to put you on anti-depressants for awhile anyway in addition to hormone replacement therapy (HRT) but at least you'll know what is likely the cause of that depression.

So here I am again with low testosterone, feeling completely depressed, but just knowing what is causing that depression makes it so much easier to deal with. I'll feel better once I get my testosterone levels up into normal ranges again, whether naturally or through medication.

Update: If you've read more recent content on testosteronereplacement.org, you'll know that I am still on TRT. I am on it for life. After six months of being off TRT, my natural levels still had not returned to normal.