35 years old with Hypogonadism

I have low testosterone and my Dr. put me on Androgel 5mg daily. It worked great for a couple of months, but then my employer changed my insurance on me and it went from a $50 copay to $250 a month.

So I went to the Dr. again and he switched me to testosterone cypionate injections, 100mg once a week.

He said that the 10 ml @ 200mg would allow me to take a 0.5 ml injection and get 20 injections from the one bottle or vial. However the first week it only lasted 4 or 5 days and then I was feeling horrible again.

So I called the Dr. office and one of the other doctors said I could take another 0.5 ml injection 2 days early but only that one time. So I did and almost immeaditely started to feel much better.

But once again the second injection only last for another 5 days. I went as long as I could but by the 6th day I felt so horrible that I gave myself another injection and I normally get faint when I see needles.

So that just shows how terrible I felt. I went to the Dr. office again but could not see the same Dr. and the one I saw had no clue what to do so she called another Dr. and that Dr. said that I was already taking the max. dosage at 0.5 ml once a week.

Which they say is the Max. dosage because the the factory literature says the dosage is 50-400mg every two - four weeks.

Which if you go on the every four weeks 0.5 ml once a week is 400mg per four week period. However if you use the 400 mg every two weeks that would mean that I am only taking half of the Max. dose.

Can you please shed some light on this vague statement in the drugs literautre that every two - four weeks could mean two different dosage one at 400 mg every four weeks or 800 mg every four weeks if you were to follow the 400 mg every two weeks.

Thanks, very Confused.

Hello there,

The main problem is your dosages are being taken too far apart from one other. The ideal injection schedule for testosterone cypionate is closer to every 3 days.

It's half life is around 6 days so you can imagine why you're experiencing a drop off in therapeutic effects after 4-5. So you can imagine doctors prescribing injection schedules of every 2-4 weeks is insane!

It leaves you a physical, mental, and emotional roller coaster.

Also I would add an anti-estrogen, Arimidex starting at 0.25mg every other day. High estrogen can block the therapeutic effects of testosterone resulting in escalation of doses in order to feel better.

I would suggest asking your doctor to get your estradiol levels (ideal is 20-30 pg/ml) checked and going to a 3 day injection schedule. 100mg total a week should be enough. The average male produces around 70mg so you should be more than covered.

Good luck!

Brian Hildebrandt