Testosterone replacement therapy: Testogel vs Nebido injections

Hi

So 24 hours after my first Nebido injection and my first day in 6 months of not using the gel, felt weird this morning making the kids school lunch and thinking that I had forgotten to do something!!!

I feel slightly sick and a bit light headed today, this is the same feeling that I got when I first started on the gel which lasted 2 weeks then.  When are asked the doctor about 6 months ago he said the options were to stop using the gel or use some prescription tablets to block the sickness out so he gave me Stemetil 5mg Prochlorperazine Maleate which I used on days when I felt worst.

One think I forgot to ask everyone was if the injection will increase the testosterone levels above what the gel can do?

One of the reasons the endo suggested going onto injections was to get the level up above what the gel was getting me to - a maxmium 8 pumps a day of Tostran boosted me from 3.9 to 11.4 over 6 months but no more.  He said he wanted me to get to 15 / 16 and then see how I felt  - I'm 37 so does that sound like a good level for my age?

Dan

Hi Dan,

I got higher T levels using the gel than the injection, but I was using 1.5 sachets a day, so that's 75mg of gel a day, giving  about 9mg (12%) of bioavailable Testosterone. I've yet to find out how much of the injection is usable - there's 1000mg in the injection so its a maximum possible of 14mg (10weeks), but I suspect its half that or less.

In terms of what's a good level, that is unique to us all, but there is some guidance here:

http://www.mens-hormonal-health.com/normal-testosterone-levels-in-men.html

see the 3rd table

age 35 to 39:   average is 20.7nmol/L, and 95% of people are above 11.39.

on those numbers 15/16 sounds better than the 11.4.

Greg

Hi Dan/Greg,

Thanks for the update. Keep us posted.

The latest stats (courtesy of my endocrinologist) are that after three Nebido injections , 80% of men are within the normal testosterone range. So that means it doesn't work at all for one in five (20%). Plus being within the normal range (10 to 30) does not guarantee that you feel well.

Anyway best of luck and let us know how you get on, either way.

Cheers
Jason

Afternoon

One week since the 1st injection and feeling ok, I worked Saturday which I haven't done for ages so felt tired earlier in the week maybe because of that.

Just have to see if this gets worst over the coming weeks, my doctor didn't give me a blood test form so maybe I should do that at some point before the next injection.

Dan

Hi Dan,

It's definitely worth getting a blood test done, just so you have some numbers to back up any symptoms and that'll let you know if its being caused by low T or just seasonal maladies. Keep us updated on how it goes.

I had my fourth injection this morning and limped off to work. I did cheat in the last week of the 10 and use a sachet, but will try and get a blood test done mid cycle to see how my levels are doing.

Greg

Good to hear it's working for you Dan.

I am back on the gels. I'm sacking off the Nebido after two and a half weeks of feeling awful. The testosterone level plummeted from 18 to 8 and I felt it never kicked in at all. After two days back on 1.5 gel sacheta a day I already feel a good bit better,

I wanted it to work but I guess me and the Nebido just didn't gel!!

Cheers
Jason

Hi Jason 

I started feeling bad after 10 days so went back on the Tostran gel but only using half the dose per day.  I'm not sure if this could have been related to working weekends on top of a 5 day week for the previous 2 weekends so have stopped the gel this weekend to see how things are now.

My 2nd Injection is Monday 16th December so going to see how things go until the next injection, I had a brief chat with my endo doctor on Friday, he advised against using gel and to be patient - easier said than done when you can feel the darkness slowly creeping back in!!!

So are you back on the full dose of gel again now?  What was you told by your doctor / GP with this?

Cheers

Dan

Hi Dan

Sorry to hear you're struggling a bit.

Yes I'm back on the gels full time. 1.5 a day and I feel good, or at least as good as I did before trying the Nebido. I'm going to email the endo tomorrow to tell him I'm finished with the Nebido.

I'll just tell him that I tried the Nebido and it didn't work. Maybe I should have given it more time but I had almost 3 weeks of misery with low T symptoms and was not prepared to put myself through that for any longer. Within 48 hours of returning to the gels I felt better.

I've just decided to listen to my body. To be honest it's all a big experiment and I got the impression from the endo that it's all trial and error with regards gels, jabs, implants etc.

Keep us posted how things pan out for you

Cheers
Jason

Morning

I think your point about listening to your body is an important one especially with something like this, we all know how bad it feels when the T gets low!

Totally agree with your point about it being an experiment, the endo doctor hasn't really given me an guidance on how I'm going to feel with the move from gel to injections.  From my GPs point of view I'm the first person he's dealt with on TRT so new to him as well.

I just really want this to work but at the same time don't want to have those horrible low T feelings, I guess at some point I'm going to have to make the call like you.

Dan 

Hello,

I have been reading the various discussions on testosterone levels and the possible treatments if your level is low - my question is how do i go about finding out if my t-level is low? Is it a test the Oncologist will be doing anyway as part of my surveillance blood tests every 3 months or do i have to ask them to do it as part of the blood test? Or do I need to go to my GP?

I have had similar symptoms to others such as mood swings, low sex-drive but put it down to having a prosthetic testicle which was not comfortable and in the end had to be removed ... but 6 months since then i still feel the same so don't think it was related to the prosthetic problems.  Rather than just plodding along with a little bit of depression and the general feeling of being down and stuck in rut i thought it might be helpful if my t-level as checked even if just to eliminate it?

Any advice would be great,

Many Thanks,