This TRT Thing

[Hairless (imported)]

I have gotten e-mails for this link for health insurance. They cover pre-existing. It sounds too good to be true, but it might be worth looking into. I guess they could be checked out to see if they are on the up and up. If they are OK, it could solve your insurance problems. Maybe the smart business type guys here can check it out. I don't have the qualifications. It would really be great if it place is OK, it could help many guys here.

[kristoff]

I have gotten e-mails for this link for health insurance. They cover pre-existing. It sounds too good to be true, but it might be worth looking into. I guess they could be checked out to see if they are on the up and up. If they are OK, it could solve your insurance problems. Maybe the smart business type guys here can check it out. I don't have the qualifications. It would really be great if it place is OK, it could help many guys here.

Please swap the advertizing in private mail. Thanks

[Hairless (imported)]

Please swap the advertizing in private mail. Thanks

Sorry, I didn't think of it as advertising. Just trying to help share something that might help in the way of insurance. I guess if anyone wants the link, they can PM me.

[Uncle Flo (imported)]

The common pitfall to insurance that promises to cover pre-existing conditions is that they limit coverage to so few days or so few dollars as to be nearly useless. --FLO--

[Beau Geste (imported)]

Plix--

One thing you might look into, is the possibility that somebody in the area is doing research into the endocrine system, and if you were willing to be a research subject, you might get a lot of medical services for free. I'm not suggesting that you become a guinea pig if you're not receptive to participation in research, but a considerable number of people have gotten top quality medical services as research subjects. I don't know if the Salk Institute does studies on the glands, but they have a lot of funding for research. UCLA may be a long drive for you, but they have one of the most extensive biological sciences complexes in the world--it takes up practically the entire southeastern quadrant of the campus. There is probably some type of study on the endocrine system going on there. Then there are UCSD and a number of private hospitals. It's possible there is a website that lists all the various medical research projects for which the researchers are trying to find volunteers. It doesn't cost you anything to ask about whether there is research being done which is germane to your medical concerns.

[plix (imported)]

I saw the link prior to it being removed, and I think it is like most everything I have seen for people who cannot get insurance. It is a "benefits" plan, not an insurance plan. This means that with it I can get 30% off a visit with a doctor who has an agreement with them. However, most of them don't go much beyond that.

Keep in mind that the pre-existing condition is the least of my worries now. My bigger black mark is the fact that I have been denied insurance. For just about every insurance company I know of, that means an automatic rejection.

What is problematic is that these private insurers can deny you for anything they want, no matter how minor. And once you have been denied, even for a very minor problem, you are considered "high risk" and uninsurable. I was denied only for lacking balls, which can easily be treated through a single medication, but I am now a "major risk" healthwise, comparable to someone with diabetes or cancer.

In fact, the only insurance I see that I am eligible for is the state-run "California major risk medical insurance program." I can be accepted for having been denied insurance. It would cost me $240 a month, there is a 12-18 month waiting list to get in, and I'd get $75,000 maximum annual benefits, making it useless for a catastrophic situation.

[Hairless (imported)]

I don't understand being turned down for not having balls. That just leaves less to go wrong. You might want to check with the California insurance commission about that. After all the problems I've had with my insurance company over my back, I think they are run by a bunch of power crazed mad men.

Since you live in the southern part of S. Calif. have you thought of finding a doctor in Tijuana. Here is an article from the LA Times about that: http://www.pnhp.org/news/2005/august/he ... migrat.php

Most of the doctors are well trained and a lot of Americans use them to save money. I've known many people that have gone to Mexico for medical treatment and also for high end treatments and they have been very happy with the results. Might be worth looking in to.

Considering the shot schedules you have tried, it's no wonder it hasn't worked. Depo-T is oil based so it is absorbed by the body slowly over 3-4 weeks. I think you need a higher dose, less often. My doctor started me out with 200mg. every 4 weeks and I have worked up to 300mg. every 3 weeks. If it wasn't for my back problems and being on pain meds. this is the best I have felt in a long time. Please give a more senseable shot regime a chance, several months at least. Even with a doctor, it's trial and error, because everyone is different.

I also agree with the others about the tests. I've had a lot of those tests and they didn't cost near as much as you are talking about and you don't need most of those tests any way. Just because we don't have balls doesn't mean they can rape us.

If you haven't seen this, here is some testosterone info that might be of interest: http://www.hormoneandlongevitycenter.co ... eatments1/

You might also do a Google search for, "hrt therapy for men". This turned up lots of places that might help, many in LA. It doesn't hurt to call some of these places and explain your situation. Maybe you will turn up a sympathetic sole.

Well that's enough to mull over for a while. I've about exhausted my ideas, but something here should work. I really think the Mexico thing might be your best bet as for as cost.

[Eunuchist (imported)]

http://www.hormoneandlongevitycenter.co ... eatments1/

Note: this is a link leading to one of those "longevity" scam sites, promoting views of a single or few practitioners with the sole aim of convincing the visitors to purchase their and their affiliate's "highly effective" "anti-aging products/consultations". In most cases, such sites present a highly distorted, one-sided view largely based on a select few dubious, financially-oriented "yes-men" resources (many of wich may be interpreted in several ways), ignoring all the evidence to the contrary.

As expected, most of what they have to say about low t in this article is either misleading, poorly documented, distorted, or outright the opposite of reality (such as their claims re: heart disease, stroke & prostate cancer). Hardly surprising, perhaps, considering that:

"So-called testosterone replacement treatments are big business in the US where over the last 10 years, there’s been 10-fold increase in doctors prescribing the hormone, driven by direct advertising by drug companies, men’s heath clinics and by best-selling books with titles like Maximising Manhood, The Testosterone Revolution and Male Menopause."

http://www.abc.net.au/health/thepulse/s1261255.htm

Or the so-called bio-identical hormones scam:

www.otago.ac.nz/wsmhs/academic/gp/whrc/ ... iocals.pdf

[DocT (imported)]

Plix,

I hope I can give you so me clarity on your libido, weight-loss and such:

1. Are you taking any other drugs? Most antidepressants can kill libido in a way that T can't fix. The exceptions are Wellbutrin and Remeron. You're 22 so you probably aren't on blood pressure medicine, but most of these (except the ACE inhibitors) can kill libido. Anti-Estrogens are terrible on all aspects of male sexuality. You need to avoid them. Pain killers like Methadone destroy libido, and so can many others like allergy shots (Kenalog and other cortical steroids can also make you fatter than heck).

2. Are you overweight? Testosterone is a fat soluble substance. The more fat you have the more T you need. You can get to a point where you just can't saturate all your tissues. Lose fat by saying no to everything but about 2000 a day and staying a little hungry all the time (I don't mean to sound harsh, but there is simply no other way to do it). Exercise only helps if you don't replace the calories you burn, but most people do. The calories you burn in a workout amount to a few hundred. A big Starbucks, or Jamba Juice has about 1000.

3. All Testosterone is not the same. The stuff you get from most pharmacies is filthy crap (sorry). It will make you retain water and feel terrible. The worst I've experienced is the stuff made by UpJohn. I've had to be on TRT since I was 19 (I'm 50). What I use now comes from a compounding Pharmacy called Kronos in Tampa, FL. Get your doc to get this for you. I'm about 10% bodyfat and after so many years I take 600-800mg a week. I feel fantastic. Like a kid. No side-effects, low PSA, Cholesterol 138, great tests. I have sex three times a day when the opportunity arises. If it is really clean it is hard to overdo T. Mr Olympia competitors take 6,000 - 15,000 mg per week and they live long healthy lives. But they take spectroscopically pure stuff.

4. You cannot determine thyroid activity with blood tests. You need to take your temperature on waking (before lifting your head) for 5 days in a row and recording the result. You can look up the scales on the internet.

There's more but I hope this gets you thinking. Good Luck,

DocT

[plix (imported)]

You may be right about less frequent shots being more effective.

It has been nearly four weeks since my last shot, and around the week 2 mark libido went through the roof. Comparable to pre-surgery levels. It continued that way until just recently, when it has finally started to taper off. But it seems sort of silly to take a shot knowing that libido will not kick in until two weeks later and last only for one week.

Increase in libido after quitting T could mean a less frequent T dosing would help, but it could also mean high E is to blame as I suspected all along. As the T levels decline, conversion to E would also decline, meaning less E and more T. But the general belief seems to be that the less frequent the dosing, the higher the conversion to E because of the spikes in T levels.

I've considered going to Mexico for meds (mainly since I have heard they are much easier to access than they are here), but not yet for healthcare. An interesting idea.

Of course, I musn't forget that the increase in libido has reminded me exactly why I was castrated in the first place, as has happened the other times I tried T and finally had some increase in libido.

I don't currently take any other meds, but I have been on many different ADs (anti-depressants) throughout my life. I decided the last time will be the last time. Never again will I pop an AD for any reason except certain ADs to occasionally help with sleep. They never affected my libido, but all of them, even the low risk ones like Wellbutrin, have caused me ejaculatory dysfunction.

I am not overweight necessarily, but I am overfat in the sense that my bodyfat percentage is much higher than should be for a man my age (of course most men my age have high T levels). I am 5'6-7 and 150 lbs with 24% bodyfat.

I'll admit I am skeptical of compounding pharmacies due to the lack of regulation. It is frustrating because I know that Big Pharma wants me to be skeptical of them, yet I cannot help it. I don't like government-backed business, yet I get skeptical without any government regulation.

600-800 mg/week is a much higher than is medically accepted dose, and one I am not sure I would be comfortable with. I'd be concerned about the stress on the liver with such a dose, and I would imagine that liver damage could occur with that sort of dose. I also would find it very difficult to see how one could take that much and not need some way to control E levels.