Andropause
- Testosterone Therapy

Testosterone Replacement Therapy

On this page - personal accounts of testosterone replacement therapy

It's many men's experience that TRT prevents shrinkage of the penis and maintains strong erections.

My Experience with Testosterone Supplementation (Testosterone Replacement Therapy)

It all started about two years ago when my wife and I were at our holiday place channel surfing one evening. We came across an “infomercial” on the health channel for a physician who specializes in health and vitality. He talked about hormone balancing and changing peoples’ lifestyles so that they live longer, happier and healthier lives.

He also talked about being able to restore peoples’ sex drives by judicious use of “bio-identical hormones”. These are essentially synthetic hormones that have the same chemical structure as natural hormones. About six months after we had seen the infomercial I started bugging my wife to go see him. Her sex drive was zero and mine wasn’t much better. We were having sex about once every three months and wondering, “why bother?” at that.

He measured all of her hormones as well as thyroid and the usual blood parameters. On her next visit he told her “my dear, you have no hormones”. She had reached menopause several years ago and was suffering from constant hot flashes, vaginal dryness, sleeplessness, and total lack of interest in sex. The only reason she even considered sex was to please me.

He put her on a regimen of estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and thyroid. All but the thyroid are applied once or twice a day as transdermal creams. There’s a compounding pharmacy right next to his office. They buy bio-identical hormones in 10-gallon drums (to the tune of about $30,000 a gallon) and mix them with various transdermal vehicles.

So she started to use the medications and he kept checking and fine-tuning her dosages. She soon began to feel better and started wanting to have sex again. I asked her if the doctor saw men too. She said that he did so I made an appointment.

My testosterone levels were very low, although not zero. I also had osteoporosis and was about 30 pounds overweight. My thyroids were completely screwed up too. He initially put me on testosterone, progesterone and thyroid, as well as DHEA (dehydroxyepiandrosterone).

The testosterone compound is 10% testosterone and 10% chrysin. Chrysin is a compound which reduces the body’s conversion of testosterone to estrogen, which in a man can be harmful at too high levels.

Several years ago I chose not to have any pubic hair. I accomplished that through a combination of electrolysis, laser and shaving. I also have a tattoo of my wife, nude on my upper thigh, which I keep shaved. So penis, scrotum, lower abdomen and upper thighs were the obvious alternate places to apply the transdermal creams instead of my arms.

Several months after I started HRT, the hair on my stomach turned black in a big ugly patch. I’ve since had that lasered off. I’m not into body hair at all, on myself or on women. (My wife has also had almost all of her pubic hair lasered off.)

After she had been on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for a few weeks she started to want sex again. I quickly discovered that I did not have the physical stamina and staying power to keep up with her and have an orgasm myself.

I figured I’d better do something about that. It just so happened that about that time they opened a fitness center a mile from our house. So in November of 2006 I joined up. I’ve always hated to exercise so I signed up for private training sessions twice a week, and pre-paid for a year in advance.

I figured that if there was a trainer waiting for me to show up who I’d already paid, I’d sure as hell show up. I was very right about that, but what I didn’t know was that I would get totally addicted to working out, mostly weight lifting. My main problem now is I don’t rest enough between workouts. But that’s like telling an alcoholic not to drink. The HRT was having profound effects on me, both physically and mentally. I felt better, I looked better and I acted better.

But best of all, the HRT induced my muscles to respond to the exercise, because testosterone is, after all, an anabolic steroid. Every time I went to the gym I could see improvement over the previous visit. That made it all worthwhile and kept me going, training appointment or not. Going to the gym is not something I “need” to do or “have to” do.

It’s something I want to do. It’s as natural as eating dinner for me now. I also joined Weight Watchers, learned how to eat healthy, and took off 25 pounds. Dinner is often a huge salad with some skinless, boneless chicken diced over it. I eat bread with so much whole grain it’s like eating a chunk of birdseed.

Peanut butter, honey and whole grain bread are my usual snack before going to the gym. We try to avoid all but the healthiest fats, and eat very little beef. I never thought I’d beg for vegetables for supper, but I do.

Since I joined the gym, I average and hour and a half a day, five days a week. My body fat is now down to around 10% and my osteoporosis is gone. It’s a rare visit that I don’t add at least five pounds to one exercise or one machine. One night I increased eight separate exercises by five to ten pounds.

I’ve maxed out eight machines so far, including the calf extension machine at 450 pounds. I routinely do 40 pushups in a row (that’s up from one at the start). I can almost bench press my body weight. My trainer will set up a machine for me and set the weight pin where it was the last time.

I’m his only client that will frequently put the pin in the next heavier slot. All of this is because of the testosterone supplementation (or more appropriately, normalization). I’ve even become a bit of a phenomenon at the gym. More than a few people have told me that I’m “their idol” or that they want to get to look like me. The other night a guy actually asked me if I was a former porn star.

I told him it had always been my secret desire, but no. Pound for pound, my trainer says I’m his strongest client. And I’m certainly the strongest in my age group. People frequently ask my trainer about me (behind my back); I dramatically exceed his expectations very often.

Please forgive me if I’m tooting my horn here, but this is a narrative of my life experience as I see it since starting on HRT.

I’ve also found, much to my surprise, that I’ve become very attractive to women. I started taking better care of my personal appearance. I found a hair dye that makes my hair kind of steel grey. I dress and groom carefully every day. I discovered a cologne (Anteus, by Channel) that women just love. Women are always commenting, “Um, you smell nice”.

More than one of those women I could seduce if I wanted to. I’m sure that feeling better about myself and having a much more positive attitude also affects how I interact with people, especially women. My massage therapist has a bad case of hero worship; I’m always nude when she gives me my weekly massage.

It’s an all-over massage, and she is usually very aroused by the time she’s finished. Her boyfriend always enjoys the results of that. She weighs about 230 pounds, so there’s no danger of me becoming entangled with her. We’re best friends, but that’s as far as it goes.

Over the months the doctor has measured and tweaked all my dosages. He had told me that increasing the dosage of the testosterone would make no difference on its effects because of a phenomenon called binding site saturation. This didn’t match with what I learned about pharmacodynamics, so a few months ago I suggested that I have serial testosterone levels run over a 24 hours period.

I had one hour, seven hour and twenty-five hour samples drawn. I peaked at about seven hours, and then dropped off to sub-normal by the next morning. We both agreed that I should apply the testosterone in the morning so that I would have peak levels when I went to the gym in the evening.

That produced a measurable improvement in my response to exercise. He was so surprised by the test results that he had the lab run two-hour samples on himself.

The last time I went to see him I had blood drawn a week before. I decided to go to the lab before I applied the testosterone in the morning; so about 25 hours had elapsed since the last dose.

I had very low testosterone levels, and he was worried until I explained to him about the time lapse. If I had applied the testosterone the morning that I went to the lab I would have had very high results.

So we both learned something, and I now apply the cream morning and night to maintain a more consistent blood level. So where can the click of a TV remote take you?

The sky is apparently the limit. Because of that channel change my life expectancy has increased by twenty years. I’m much stronger now, and I’m told I’m very good looking. Most of the time I’m deliriously happy. My wife and I have sex weekly and enjoy it, although I would like it much more often.

Other pages on the andropause

Andropause 1
Andropause 2 / midlife crisis
Andropause 3 / testosterone
Andropause 4 / testosterone
Testosterone therapy
Self help for the andropause

Other pages on this site

The-penis.com - home page
Male arousal and desire
Andropause: low testosterone
Orgasm and ejaculation
Male initiation: rites of passage
All about semen
The testicles and scrotum
Mature masculinity
How to have better sex
Penile and genital piercing
Causes & Cures: Premature Ejaculation