Testosterone replacement cost?

[Hopeful1 (imported)]

Just out of curiosity, is there any kind of shortage of injectable testosterone? There is an ongoing (18 months) shortage of 40 mg/ml injectable estradiol valerate. Some trans people are having to switch to the 20mg/ml which is becoming hard to get and leaves injecting four times as much of 10mg/ml or switching over to patches or pills. Some trans people (like me) cannot use patches because of an allergy to the adhesive which leaves pills as their option which are harder on the liver. Reports say the shortage is caused by manufacturers (Par and Perrigo) having to switch to a different supplier for some of the ingredients which requires new FDA approval and apparently the FDA is sitting on their ass not worrying about it. So I was wondering if any kind of shortage was occurring with T also?

[Uncle Flo (imported)]

In the recent past there has been a shortage of injectable Testosterone. It was caused by the advertising blitz pushing testosterone as a universal cure for aging and most other male problems. As you might expect testosterone is now more expensive and harder to get. My medical insurer now requires pre approval and Doctor documentation before it will allow a prescription to be filled. For a short time I could not get my prescription filled through the usual sources and I had to search for it locally. --FLO--

[Wolf-Pup (imported)]

I had to change from Enthanate to Cypionate a couple of years ago because of the shortages. Now I try and keep a spare bottle on hand just in case.

Didn't notice anything different in the testosterones.

[Paolo]

Not to get all political, but the problem with prescription drug cost in the USA is Big Pharma, or rather, PIG Pharma, feeling that the trillions of dollars a minute they rake in just isn't enough; it's NEVER enough, and health overall be damned.

[ambiguous (imported)]

In the UK I recon you can get on a T replacement plan if you show all the signs and have the testosterone level of an 89 year old.You also have to be repaired to be a pain in the arse to the doctors and persist with your case or nothing will happen.

For anyone else I guess its Roids dot com and the snake pit that this can involve (50$ for a vial of saline for instance).

Or go through the private sector that can siphon your plastic on consultation fees and blood tests confirming what you already know.

If like me your T level is borderline then some improvement can be made by lifestyle changes (This sort of worked for me).

I also supplement with DHEA 50 - 100 mG a day.

[ZeuterMe (imported)]

In the recent past there has been a shortage of injectable Testosterone. It was caused by the advertising blitz pushing testosterone as a universal cure for aging and most other male problems. As you might expect testosterone is now more expensive and harder to get. My medical insurer now requires pre approval and Doctor documentation before it will allow a prescription to be filled. For a short time I could not get my prescription filled through the usual sources and I had to search for it locally. --FLO--

Same here. Unless my T is below 250 ng/dl my insurance simply won't touch it. At 331, I'm low by a factor of three, but that extra 30% of the reference range is enough that I can't get help paying for it. It's ¢14 per shot if I go to my urologist's to get it, but then I'm paying coinsurance and copayment to get it done. In spite of that, my insurance pays a truckloa

d more for the office visit than the vials would be.

In the UK I recon you can get on a T replacement plan if you show all the signs and have the testosterone level of an 89 year old.You also have to be repaired to be a pain in the arse to the doctors and persist with your case or nothing will happen.

For anyone else I guess its Roids dot com and the snake pit that this can involve (50$ for a vial of saline for instance).

Or go through the private sector that can siphon your plastic on consultation fees and blood tests confirming what you already know.

If like me your T level is borderline then some improvement can be made by lifestyle changes (This sort of worked

for me).

I also supplement with DHEA 50 - 100 mG a day.I would think so. And I am in fact prepared to be a pain in the ass, but the doctors are already on my side. My insurance isn't returning their calls, though. In the US, going through the private sector is inevitable, and the plastic is already siphoned nearly dry. Ambiguous, can you tell me what kind of lifestyle changes helped you?

[ambiguous (imported)]

Okay back in May I was showing some of the symptoms of low T so decided to have an online blood test done.

The Figures came back at 11.6nmol/l which is at the low end of normal (8nmol/l being low in Eurospeak).

Any consultant would agree with those figures I would benefit from replacement therapy.

I have always led an active lifestyle but hadn't gone out for a run for ages due to hernia operation and other things.

I started getting back into the "Keep fit" side of life and got back to regularly doing 6 mile runs.

Also I Resumed my daily 5omg DHEA capsules (One or two a day).

I decided to submit another blood test in early August and the result came back at 19nmol/l (About normal).

I think the different results were down to a combination of things all coming together that led to the better 2nd test.

I will submit another test in 3 months time as I still have lack of libido and fall asleep for an hour after eating.

Will keep you posted.

[ZeuterMe (imported)]

I'm not sure how to convert your results into the units on my test. Do you know a formula to convert nmol/l to ng/dl?

Never mind - http://www.endmemo.com/medical/unitconv ... terone.php

Yeah, I'm around 11 and change too. The threshold for getting treated would be a hair under 9.

[ambiguous (imported)]

From what I have seen on the web the figure of 8 or 9 (Sorry again for the euro measures) are based arround an average.

What the medical profesion does not seem to fully grasp is there is no "Mr Average".

It would be fair to say in our case of a reading of 11 if you are feeling like crap then TRT may benefit.

I think the lower figure is set as once you start therapy the more time that passes the harder it is to quit.

It can be a one way trip but if your balls have stopped working its the only way forward.