Self medicating - making the jump

[buddha1097]

All,

I have been a TRT patient for a few years now. The last year due to finances has me self-medicating, no blood-work.

Question; will I need to halt my protocol prior to lab tests? If not i suspect labs to return w/ T in the high normal-high normal range.

Thoughts?

thanks

[austinite]

Welcome, Buddha.

More importantly at this stage, is to get blood work done. If you haven't monitored your blood work in that long, it's likely that you have some issues to attend to. A complete blood count should be priority at this point. Once you've resolved any potential issues (High RBC/hCT, etc...) then you can start looking at Therapy.

But to answer your question, if you want your natural levels to appear on the test, yes, you would have to halt treatment and wait until exogenous testosterone clears.

At that stage you can look into getting the following:

- Testosterone, Total
- Testosterone, Free
- CMP (Comprehensive metabolic panel)
- E2
- PSA
- LH/FSH
- Lipid panel

Best of luck to you.

[buddha1097]

How long would you suggest? I am 2 weeks off to date. My blood pressure was high, my iron was thru the roof. I gave blood and halted my shots. But now I can feel the lethargy etc creeping in.

[Justin]

Any client that is currently on TRT must present legal proof that they are on TRT in order to see one of our physicians. If this is not the case, if you are self-mediating and your testosterone levels come back high, you will not qualify for standard treatment with testosterone even if you do need it. What would more than likely happen is the doctor would put you on HCG only for a time and ease into getting a good baseline reading of your natural testosterone production and then start a full TRT program. That may not sound as appealing, but it is the best option.

And austinite is right, it's a good idea to always know what's going on internally.