My Road to TRT and How I Got There at 23

[Jozifp103]

***Super shortened summary at the bottom.

Flash back about 10 years ago. I'm in my early 20's in college. Got a couple years of natural lifting under my belt. Gained a solid 50 lbs in 2 years. Feel like I'm starting to plateau and whenever I try to gain more muscle I just end up putting on fat. SARMS are new to the scene and I've been researching them for some time. Finally decide to try them. I ran Ostarine (MK-2866) at 12.5mg for 8 weeks. Felt fine, felt like I gained a bit maybe but nothing crazy. End cycle. Decided to get blood work just to see if/how much this stuff actually suppresses you. Mind you I never got baseline bloods so who really knows but my TT was in the low 400's. I wasn't happy and I thought they should be higher. So I buy some OTC "test boosters" and "estrogen mediators" to be safe.

Months pass and I jump on another SARMS cycle, this time it was Ostarine 25mg and S4 50mg. During and after the cycle I felt strange. Not depressed per say, just off. I was lazy and apathetic and just couldn't be bothered to do the things I usually liked to do. I wasn't sad, just kind of stopped caring about everything. Had some issued in the bedroom as well which was the worst part. Lacked interest and sometimes the ability to perform. Never got blood work, just waited it out and eventually I started to feel ok again.

More time passes and I am now about to start my first AAS cycle. 500mg Test Cyp per week, HCG 500iu per week, Arimidex .25mg EOD, Toremifene for PCT (was afraid of clomid). Cycle went fine, gained about 25lbs and kept about 15. However my idiot self was so afraid of losing gains during PCT that I decided to run Ostarine during my PCT. Go easy on me...this stuff was still new and there were a lot of people doing this and claiming that it was fine. Anyways during and after PCT were miserable. I lost all my sense of self esteem, was anxious, irritable, depressed, and just felt like a grumpy old man.

I got blood work again and my TT was 199ng/dL. I give it another couple months and test again and it's 299ng/dL. I am now panicking because I am in my 20's with the test levels and libido of an 80 year old with diabetes. At that point I decided I was either going to seek a prescription for testosterone or self medicate. As you can imagine, trying to get TRT prescribed in your 20's is a nightmare. No doctors will take you seriously and the ones that do are too afraid to prescribe TRT.

(This is where my hatred and loss of respect for doctors started) - My first stop was my PCP. I showed him my blood work and explained how I felt and told him straight up I was looking for a script for test. He straight up told me my testosterone levels were perfectly fine and it's not the testosterone that's causing my depression. He then proceeded to tell me that he had prostate cancer years ago and is now taking medicine to reduce his testosterone levels to prevent from getting it again. I told him the myth that testosterone causes prostate issues was debunked several years ago. He simply looked at me, told me he's the doctor and my levels are fine and he's not prescribing me anything. Then he tried to walk out of the room. I stopped him and said I'll be looking for a new PCP but in the meantime I want him to refer me to a specialist. So he agrees and refers me to a urologist.

The closest urologist was an hour away. So after a few weeks of waiting for my apt I make the trek. Apparently the urologist was not filled in on the situation so I had to explain everything to him. He seemed puzzled and told me "that's not what urologists do" and I need to see an endocrinologist. I told him uro's deal with testosterone issues all the time. He dismissed me just like everyone else and told me there's nothing he can do.

I try one more doctor, this time a woman. I hand her my blood work from the last 2 tests, she looks at it and asks my why I got my LH and FSH tested....I looked at her blankly and said, "because those along with testosterone are the indicators of hypogonadism..." She literally responded saying, LH and FSH are only pertaining to women and their fertility, so there's no need for men to have them tested. At this point I was so disappointed and frustrated that I blew a fuse and just shut down. I told her "we're done here", and left.

I mustered up the courage and gave it one last try. This time I came with ammo. I printed pages and pages of recent research and medical journals about normal testosterone levels, dangers of low test, effects of testosterone on prostate, etc etc. I even went through all of it and highlighted important parts. I went back to my original doctor and handed it to him and basically told him he is wrong and his information is outdated. He did not even glance at it. He put it down and told me again my levels are fine and he's not going to help me. I was in a fit of rage. I told him he's straight up wrong and he's too arrogant to even consider it, and if he's not willing to stay current on his knowledge then he should retire. I lost all respect for doctors that day.

Luckily I was a member of some online AAS forums at the time and I asked the member for help. They gave me all kinds of references to online Testosterone clinics. Most of them required you to be 35 or older. I found one that was willing to work with me despite my age. I submitted my blood work, had a video consultation, and the prescription was written that day. These clinics don't take insurance so it's all out of pocket. I paid about $200 for a months worth of Test Cyp (200mg/week), HCG, Arimidex, and syringes. HOWEVER the compounding pharmacy refused to fill it...you guessed it, because of my age. I already paid for the stuff so I myself called the pharmacy and bitched about it. They basically hung up on me. Then I called the clinic and told them and they said I really shouldn't have called the pharmacy blah blah blah. I said either give me a refund or find me some test. Luckily they had another compounding pharmacy that was willing to fill my goddamn script. I was shipped everything overnight. I was thrilled. Within a week I was feeling like myself again.

The rest is history.

***Tl;dr: Messed my HPTA up in my early 20's by running SARMS with no PCT, combined with running SARMS DURING my PCT after an AAS cycle. Never recovered. Doctors were negligent and complete idiots. Got the runaround several times. Found online clinic. Had some initial trouble due to my age. Got it sorted out. Got TRT at 23 years old. Felt better.