Testosterone Replacement Therapy: A Tip on How to Avoid Hell

Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) has sparked heated debate in the past, with some seeing it as an effective treatment for men with low testosterone levels and others seeing it as nothing more than “roids”.
I am in the former category, and I cannot sing praises loud enough about the benefits of being on TRT. However, I had to go through 2 years of hell on it first.

Jump back to two and a half years ago, I knew something was wrong with me. My mood was low all the time. I never had energy. I was emotional soup and worst of all, I had gotten fat. Needless to say, that in this kind of state, a man doesn’t really think about “getting it on” - which is another symptom on its own.

 I didn’t reach out and speak to someone about it. Oh hell no! There isn’t a man alive who will volunteer to stick his hand in the air and bring attention to his very own sewer state. Instead, I lurked in the background in certain groups for men & dads to eavesdrop on conversations, hoping that I would hear about someone feeling the same. What I got was exponentially more than I expected.

There were literally hundreds and thousands of these guys who were talking about having felt like crap before but were now a million times better. Immediately, I wanted in on the solution. What were they doing that helped them go from “sad Steve” to “kick-ass Keith”?

The answer was simple. TRT.

It made perfect sense. After all, testosterone (the male hormone) is the very mark of manhood, right? It’s the fire that courses through a warrior’s veins. It’s the absolute measure of manliness. Low testosterone causes fatigue, muscle and strength loss, mood swings, and even depression. I had to be sure that this was the problem though, so I got my blood tested from veins that the nurse struggled to find.

When the results came back 48 hours later, it was confirmed. My “T” levels were shockingly low. I’m talking about the equivalent of a Ken doll’s level kind of low. The normal range of a blood level’s testosterone is between 270 ng/dL – 930 ng/dL.

Mine was idling at a very meek 87 ng/dL.

I knew that I had to get on TRT ASAP! How, though, was going to be a slightly different story. Living in the Central Highlands of Vietnam made it just a tiny bit more complicated than booking an appointment with a GP and getting my weekly shots. They don’t even stock it in 6 provinces in any direction from where I live. The closest (and I think only) men’s clinic in Vietnam was 500km away.

So, I went online.

It took some extensive searching and a lot of translating, but I eventually found a supplier in Saigon who was willing to send it to me. His one and only brand – Pharma enanthate 250 mg/ml. I ordered it immediately and at last, help was on the way.

Now, I’m no stranger to giving myself a jab in the bum cheek, as I had done it intermittently for decades with vitamin B12 injections (and perhaps 1 or 2 cycles of steroids when I was younger and training hard). So, when it arrived, I made short work of prepping everything properly such as sanitizing with surgical spirits and making sure I would miss the sciatic nerve. Just a little pinch and… done!

Within a matter of days, I was already feeling a hell of a lot better. In fact, I felt like I was 15 years younger and with the hormones of a teenager. “T” levels were up to mid-high range and the difference was monumental.

It was fantastic!

The only thing was that I had bad post-injection pain (known as PIP). The site was a red, swollen lump about the size of a table tennis ball. It hurt to the extent that I couldn’t sit on that cheek for about 3 days.  I brushed it off though because it was nothing compared to how good I felt.

The next week was the same, just on the other side. However, the site of the previous week had ended up as a purple bruise that persisted for about 10 days. Thankfully, alternating between ass cheeks allowed one to heal in just enough time before the next shot was due. The pain and discomfort though, became tougher to manage as weeks turned into months and months turned into years.

I tried all kinds of tricks and remedies. Heating up the oil in the syringe, rubbing the injection site afterward, bigger needle, smaller needle, you name it. I even changed to jabbing myself in the thigh (as I’ve seen dozens of guys do).

Now that was a very dumb idea! I hobbled around everywhere for about a week and could barely climb a flight of stairs.

Eventually, scar tissue began to build up under the skin of the injection sites from both the injections themselves and the trauma of the inflammation and bruising. This had quite obviously become something that wasn’t sustainable anymore and my wife had been begging me to come up with a different solution for months.

This time, it was a lot easier to find.

After about 15 minutes online, I found another (new) store in Vietnam that stocked testosterone cypionate. Gold! I had heard that the difference between cypionate and enanthate was massive in terms of PIP. It was just that I couldn’t get it before. Now I could.

Was the pain finally going to come to an end?

I found out 3 days later with the first jab. With the enanthate the pain levels would vary between 3/10 and 7.5/10. Cypionate? Zero! Nothing! Nada!

I’m like a different man all over again now. I’m not snapping at everyone because I’m sore and grumpy. I don’t have to be careful how I sit or lay in bed either.

It’s a world of difference that I wish I was able to make 24 months ago.

I even pinned (slang for injecting) the cypionate in my thigh just to see if the difference applies everywhere, and it does! Not a single sign of PIP to be felt.

Look, everyone’s body reacts differently to TRT. Some have no problem with enanthate. I’m just not one of those guys. Trust me, I went through 2 years of hobbling hell to be sure about this.

So, if you’re reading this and either you or someone you know is going through unnecessary PIP from using testosterone enanthate, try switching to cypionate and see the difference it makes.

Thank me later.

Disclaimer: I’m not a certified medical practitioner and you should always consult a doctor on matters such as testosterone replacement therapy injections.

Here’s to you living your best life.

P.S. You don’t have to suffer in silence if you’re feeling down and depressed. Reach out and talk to someone. Far too many men are lost every year because they’re afraid to speak about it. It’s nothing to be ashamed of