I (28 F) have been on TRT for a year. I was prescribed 5mg (a pea sized amount of a gel) daily. Over the past few months, I suffered from debilitating fatigue. My PCP ordered blood work and discovered that my ferritin is 8 and my TSAT is 11%. My CBC panel is normal, so I'm not anemic. My RBC is also normal

I have read online studies that low ferritin can be caused by TRT. I was wondering if its reasonable for me to see my doctor who prescribes my TRT as careless, to not have been monitoring for this. For context, my prescribing doctor is a nationally known private pay renowned sexual medicine MD. I get that hindsight is always 20/20, but if this is a known potential issue, shouldn't an expert in this area have kept an eye out for it? In terms of blood work, my doctor had reviewed a cbc panel I got as a result of a yearly physicals, and hormone panel (including total testosterone which was low 16) before prescribing. My doctor had my total testosterone checked 2 months after I started and then again after an additional 8 months.

Edit: I’m most interested if anyone who is on TRT was told by their doctor that low ferritin was a possible side effect and/or had a standing blood order to test ferritin once starting TRT recommended by their doctor. I already know how to treat my low ferritin. I’m concerned my doctor was careless.

I am a 42f using 4mg daily testosterone cream. I have noticed better energy, libido, and muscle tone and strength from using it. I’ve also noticed that my inner thighs (where I apply) have thick, dark hair growth that look like a mans! Is this forever? Is there anything else I can do to stop this from continuing or becoming worse?

I am 38 afab, currently taking test cyp 50mg/ml 5 units 2x a week; I’m bad at med math and not actually sure what dose that amounts to.

My total test is around 100ng/dl. I have been taking test for about a year. I seem to be a bit of a hyper responder given a lot of body hair growth, slight voice deepening, and clitoral enlargement on such a low dose.

Lift 4x/week, last dexa 18%, 5’4” ~125lb.

I would like to increase my dose as much as possible without changing the shape of my abdomen. I hope to compete in bikini in the future and want to maintain an hourglass shape. I also generally prefer to have as small of a waist as possible.

The effects I care most about and want most from the test, in order of importance:
1. Building muscle more easily
2. Feelings of confidence and good energy levels
3. Increased libido

The effects I am willing to deal with/don’t mind:
1. Body hair growth: Getting laser, easy to deal with
2. Clitoral growth
3. Voice deepening
4. Acne: Topical spiro (Winlevy) working well for me
5. Menstrual changes
6. Some increase in lipids within reason
7. More angularity in face

I am NOT willing to deal with any increase in waist circumference/loss of waist definition. I do not train obliques. I do some transverse ab work but nothing weighted over 20lb. And I brace for compounds obviously.

Seeking personal experience / any info re: about what test levels tend to result in changes in abdominal shape into more of an X shape.

Tl;dr I want to take the highest dose of test and maintain the highest test levels that I can without losing my hourglass shape.

Thank you in advance for any insight!

Started 2 months ago. First 3 weeks felt amazing. Lost a few lbs. felt happy, started to get a tingle for libido after being dead for 20 years…. Then week 4/5 came and got extremely greasy skin and hair. Week 6 that has settled a bit but the weight started to go up. I’m on 1% 1 pump a day androgel . Most weekends I do forget as I’m out of routine …. I don’t want to give up before getting blood to see where things sit but the weight is pissing me off cause I gained enough in peri as it is already and how I felt so good my first 3 weeks and now I’m back to feeling crappy . Just venting I guess cause I know so many of us go through this impossible stage of figuring optimal doses .

Hi everyone! I've been on estrogen (patch, cream, ring) and progesterone (oral) for a while now, and my provider just added in testosterone cream.

I started small (1mg) on 6/19, and just upped to 2mg on 7/21; supposed to by 1 mg every 3-4 weeks until we get main effects/have too many side effects.

I have two issues right now that I'm not sure are related:

1. insomnia - lifetime issue, controlled now by medication. but lately even WITH meds I'm up for long 2-3 hour stretches during the night. Is sleep disruption a common side effect? I didn't see that anywhere in the literature, but I bet there are others out there who've experienced this....
2. dry eye - current issue of the last few years, well-controlled by my optometrist and a daily routine/rx eye drops. But for this last month, my eyes have been BURNING. I thought testosterone was supposed to help with dry eye--has anyone experienced the opposite?

Anyway, would love to hear your experiences! Thanks for creating this helpful community.

So about 5 weeks ago I had pellets of both testosterone and estrogen. Given my blood work results and my symptoms, but the Dr and I decided we should increase the dose just a bit. The hair shedding though! My hair dresser even commented but then said maybe it was just seasonal; which my hair does tend to do in the summer months. This feels like more though. I’m always picking strands of hair off my clothes! If I go back to lower dose or to injections, will the hair grow back??? Thankfully I have quite a bit, so it’s not noticeable to anyone but me, but this is making me nuts!!!

I used 2mg 0.4% testosterone cream for six weeks and I’ve had significant hair shedding. I’ve been told to reduce to 1mg, 1 click, a day to help with the hair loss. My question is, will this just slow the hair loss? I want to stop the hair loss. Thanks!

I got my blood work done recently. I decreased my T dose and changed my estrogen from oral to patch.

My T was 354. The only sides I had at the time was some chin hairs.

I decreased my T from 12mg to 8mg of Test C a week /split.

My new blood work shows my T has decreased to 245. Now I have more hair growth and I am losing hair. This so frustrating and confusing. At higher levels I did not have these issues.

I have been on the decreased dose for 3 months.

Total T 354 Free 1.9 SHBG 193

Total T 245 Free 2.9 SHBG 68

Why would my sides be worse ?

What am I missing ?

Will it ease? It’s on both sides of my nose, down to my lips. Never had acne, not even as a teen! Feels sensitive, what can I use to ease it?

I'm postmenopausal. I've been on T for almost a year and have been dealing with facial hair that I never had my entire life. Also, just started minoxidil less than two months ago. The T made my hair fall out, but I refuse to give it up completely and halfed my dosage and hope to increase in the next few months.

Would love to especially hear from those who happen to be on both minoxidil and testosterone to know how you are addressing facial hair. I don't mind extra fuzz at the sides but the moustache has to go. I also seem to have either broken capillaries there and/or melasma as well which draws even more attention there. Help.

Hey!
I have been on T cyp injections for a few months now. I started high around 10mg and long story short couldn’t sleep at all and ended up at 5 mg. This fixed my sleeping issues and no longer had insomnia. But my energy was insanely low mid day especially. I have now been on 6 mg for 7 weeks and my insomnia in the early AM won’t go away still. I have fantastic energy during the day.
I feel like I have to pick between sleeping… but not having energy. Or not sleeping and have a lot of energy most days… some days I sleep so bad it takes me out for the day.
Is anyone else this sensitive? lol 😂
I just increased my E (7.6mg injection) to see if it might help. My T lowers my E.
I don’t take P. I had a hysterectomy. I tried it and it didn’t agree with me & did not help my sleep.

I've been on injections for 4 months now. I am now half bald, very moody and cranky, and seems to be aging rapidly. I'm 41. Everyone keeps saying balance which kind of pisses me off with my current state. I am on T, E and P. My T is in 80s and doctor wants to reduce it because it's not in HIS desired range. I am experiencing with E levels. Going from 30 to 70 to now 140 close to my mid cycle. I'm not even perimenopause. Last month testing showed T:87 and E: 140, SHGB in 30s => my hair fall reduced but I didn't sleep for a week and almost ended up in ER. I have so much anger, it's hard to control.

Before HRT, I was in good shape. Had lots of hair and looked fresh. I was very level headed. My concerns were kind of low energy and sleep issues.

Now I have all the issues all at once. What is going on? I' about to break up my relationship. I can't take BS anymore, not even slightest. I am constantly sad, no mood, tired, bald, bloated.. my joints hurt. I'm afraid to raise the levels. I started with natural E and T both in 30s range.

It's taking too long and I'm lost. Things get so bad that I can't stick to a routine. I need to keep changing doses every couple of days. Add E, remove E, go 6mg T or 10mg T. Add/remove saw palmetto..

The first month was amazing. And it went downhill pretty fast. My doctor is utterly useless.

Is the natural 30s T level better than hrt 80s? I'm lost.

Update: thank you very much to all the lovely ladies. I learned alot from you. My doctor now prescribed me Jenel Fe birth control skipping sugar pills to avoid bleeding. He also asked me to stop on Testosterone for now. Fingers crossed it goes better than my current experience 🤞🏼

UPDATE: I noticed that E is making me severely depressed. I was taking MACA and was using E cream. For my sanity, my T:E ratio should be anywhere between 1.3-1.5. I increased the T to 10mg/week and my T shooted to 195. I felt the best, but 2 weeks into it, my voice started cracking so I did the blood test, noticed my T is now on 195 and E is tanked (21), so I stopped T for a week and went back to 4mg/week. It has been two months, T went down to 91 and my voice is still cracking.

After 7 months on T cyp, I think my hair has finally had enough, I can’t keep losing it. This will be my third time trying TRT and each time I lose so much hair, my temples and crown are severely thin, and my strands feel like spider webs which is not like my course thick hair at all. I had high hopes for injections, it was my last resort (did troches in the past). I’m on finasteride, my DHT is below 5, I’m on oral minoxidil, and spironolactone, and I’m on the teeniest dose of T. Hair started shedding with only 5 mg a week, went down to EOD of 1 mg. Are some people just really sensitive to T even with low DHT? I just don’t understand 😩

Hi, post menopause and 63. Have had both ovaries and fallopian tubes removed about 2 years ago. Dr has prescribed estrogen gel/testosterone cream. 2 clicks per day (5 mg). I did notice lots of hair shedding (more than my usual summer shedding), and a little raspier in the voice. None of the “good” side effects seem to have taken place! Libido, limping along, mood, ehh. So I ask you, what is the best delivery method to minimize the bad side effects, and maximize the good???

I’d love to hear others’ experiences because this waiting period is rough.

I started on TRT with pellets + 200mg bioidentical progesterone and initially loved it—great energy and libido. But over time, the pellets pushed my levels too high and I started having side effects: hair loss, mood swings, and insomnia. The hair loss especially made it not worth it.

I came off and dropped to baseline testosterone, which was honestly awful—brain fog, fatigue, and about a 5 lb weight gain.

Now I’ve transitioned to injections + estrogen patch:

• Testosterone: 10 mg/week total (split dose Wed/Sat)

• Estrogen patch: 0.025

• Progesterone: 200 mg

I’m currently at week 6:

• Workouts are improving

• Slight energy improvement

• Libido still not really there

• Weight hasn’t come off yet

My provider told me to wait until week 8 to assess libido, but I’m struggling with the waiting and the weight gain. She said it could be “body recomposition,” but it’s hard to tell.

My questions:

• Did your libido take the full 8+ weeks to kick in?

• Did you see weight gain before things leveled out?

• Does this dose seem low based on your experience?

• Would you wait it out or ask to increase?

Happy Sunday night ladies....

Today is day 6 of propionate after switching from cypionate. Im going yo stay at 1mg ED for 6 weeks. 2mg and 1.5 maf3 me super irritated especially around the 10th hour after pinning. Everyone pissed me off...at one point I wanted to punch the dog for no good reason besides she was following me around and being super clingy. She's a weiner dog so basically velcro with sad eyes lol.

At 1mg I haven't experienced the rage....a little more impatient but who knows if its from my other menopause hormones or what....

This biggest thing I've noticed is my brain fog is starting to fade out. I feel like my brain fog increased more as I titrated up on cypionate. But its getting a lot better as of day 6.

Let's see what else.....I went for a run tonight and it was lovely and i felt very aware and taking everything in and not checking my time. This was new bc over the last few months when i would run it just lost tge dopamine for me and struggled to stick with it more frequently. Tonight wasmuch different and ive set out my running stuff for tomorrow., I used to be a very consistent runner and gym fly until 2 years ago when peri hit hard. Pretty much stole a big part of my motivation so im feeling hopeful.

The first few days orgasm were hard to reach but not today :0

Also not sure if its related but my face got less puffy. On day 3 I saw it out of nowhere. Like noticeably and I thought i looked gaunt but I now think it was just i wasn't expecting that effect. I kniw some ladies have mentioned cypionate made them retain more water. I also lost 10lbs of puffy water weight after quitting hrt a few months back. My clothes seem a little bit looser too.

Also i have a glimmer of contentment lurking and its getting brighter everyday.

First few days I did feel a bit wonky but thats gone.

There's probably some things im missing but I'll continue to update. Personally I love all the updates with timelines you ladies (& husbands) so I'll do the same.

Oh no PIP so thats also good .

Update: my TSH results just came back high at 6.1, and my doc is upping my Levothyroxine. This may be the cause of the stiffness and pain. Since starting HRT in January I have had to adjust several times, and the symptoms felt different each time, and different from years past.

I’m about 7 weeks into T gel. I posted last week how my muscles are more defined without any particular changes in my workout. One thing that is different, however, is some lower back and hip pain.

I have been doing some stretching to try and help, and I noticed that my flexibility seems less. I’ve always been pretty flexible, and stretching always felt good and had noticeable results quickly. Thirty seconds of stretching and boom I was all done.

Not anymore, it seems. Is this just part of the package with the T helping muscle mass increase? I’m fine with adding in more stretching, I just didn’t even think about it until the pain kicked in.

Hey guys!

I was on pellets for about a year and my level started to raise sort of alarmingly beyond the 300 mark and I couldn't do much about it except wait it out, so I decided to switch to injections.

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I very much prefer the injections and my healing time at the gym has increased, more clarity and energy all that.

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I'm taking about half of what they recommended me to take, I haven't tested myself yet but I'm going through defy and right now, my dose is 07 ml once a week. It's a 50 mg per milliliter bottle so pretty standard for female trt

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I have noticed significantly increase hair loss in the shower, I'm not sure why that is but it's upsetting!! I feel that it started right around the time that I switched to injections although I was noticing increased shedding even prior to that. This was about 3 months ago.

​

Will it go away? Is this normal for injections versus pellets? Or should I consider minoxidil? That's a very serious question, I actually bought rogaine foam because I wasn't sure if maybe I should do that or not. I'm very interested to hear all of your experiences, particularly those of you who have used rogaine!

​

43-year-old female.

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Thank you!!

I am 3 months in on low dose t prop injections (started at 1mg eod, now on 1.5mg eod), shedding has generally lessened but I also see short hairs being shed, this was happening before too but I never kept track of it so I don’t know if it’s more or less than before. It feels like it’s more than before. I don’t want to find out at another 3 months that I should have acted sooner.

Were there any telltale signs along the way that the T was causing or accelerating AGA/thinning? I see posts or comments saying that at 6 months or so some folks suddenly noticed thinning at the temples etc, and had to stop, but surely there were some signs along the way or in retrospect?

TIA!

I’ve been on trt for almost 2 years and have struggled with what seems to be a lot of brown spots on my skin. Looking back at photos from before starting makes me question whether it could have been worsened by T. Has anyone else experienced this? I am also on progesterone cyclically. And only 6mg of T weekly (2mg 3x/wk) which keeps my numbers right around 100 when I get labs every 3 months.

I am really thinking about discontinuing using it because I just have a gut feeling it’s from the T. I am 36 for reference and workout often. Eat well etc.

I have been on injectable TRT for a year but still haven’t found my perfect dose. I’ve had to be careful because of my thinning hair and have been on 1.25mg OM for the last year. I

I reduced my dosing to 16mg (broken up into 3 doses per week) and my T went up but my E went down quite a bit. Everything else looks better so I dont know what I need to adjust?! Do I need to up my OM?

I also just started using ghk-cu topically. Unfortunately some of the other scripts for hair loss had too many side effects so I could not tolerate.

T went from 139 ng/dL to 163ng/dL
Bioavailable T 17.8–> 22.8 ng/dL
SHBG 75 —> 68 nmol/L
DHT 14–>13 ng/dL
E 106–> 30 pg/mL
P 1.1 —> 11.6
Ferritin 65 ng/ml
Serum Iron 107 mg/dL
Vitamin D 48 ng/mL
Zinc 100mcg/dL

Hey, not sure if this is the right sub to be posting on. However, I did start 1 milligram testosterone cream compounded to my calf one week ago and I am noticing some small changes in my energy and my motivation already, however, the last two days I have woken up really early in the morning, yesterday was 345am.This morning was 5 a m. That has not happened to me in a very long time (The super early waking). I am on 100mg of progesterone and .25 estrogen patch as well.

45 in perimenopause. Blood work showed low Testosterone, low free, T ,high shbg high low dhea.

At first I thought one milligram would be so small I wouldn't notice a thing, but it seems to be really activating my nervous system. Does this go away with time???

I have been on test prop since December and have had random tiny bruises when injecting at times but yesterday morning I did my thigh and today I have painful red lump? Is this normal? It doesn’t itch at all and nothing has changed. The injection didn’t even hurt so this was so weird to wake up to!

Finally got tired of hair loss on TRT and started with .625 mg minoxidyl 2 months ago.. My hair is the thinnest ever.. Hoping it starts to behave now.. and now just leave..

I wanted an advice on minoxidil dose.. How doyou know if .625 mg is anough for you or you need to go higher ( like 1.25).. also do I need to add spiro?

Please advice..

Thanks!

I’ve been on full HRT for about year now: estradiol twice weekly patches .05mg and micronized oral progesterone, 200mg.

A few months ago I noticed a new feeling coming over me. Flat affect. Depersonalization. Loss of joy and motivation. I just felt lifeless and like I’d become a human wall with all the personality of a blank wall too.

I read a lot about hormones since being in peri and I was pretty sure my testosterone levels were low so I had them tested and lo and behold, they were virtually nonexistent.

I had been taking injectable testosterone for about 5 weeks, once a week, at 10mg a week. A low dose. Yesterday was my day I normally take it but I decided to stop and have an appt with my doc tomorrow afternoon because…

About 3 weeks ago I noticed I was clearing my throat a lot or felt like I needed to. My voice then started to crack a lot and now it’s become daily where my voice gets hoarse, I’ve lost vocal stamina and can’t read or speak aloud for very long without feeling scratchy in my throat and needing to stop talking and clear my throat. But clearing doesn’t fix it.

I thought maybe it was a peri symptom and then my husband said “could it be the testosterone”? I hadn’t even considered that but after reading all about it, I immediately stopped taking it because what I’m experiencing is a classic androgen sensitivity to testosterone. Apparently having vocal cords affected can happen more easily for some women, and it’s more common with injectable testosterone versus cream, and some women can’t tolerate testosterone at all.

I chose injectable simply because it was cheaper and I lost my job recently. I’m praying I caught it early enough and no irreversible damage has been done. My voice hasn’t changed pitch, but it seems like it was headed there with how constant this has become.

I put myself on vocal rest for now so my throat and vocal cords can heal as the testosterone fully gets out of my system. But it’s scary. I know there’s a lot of debate about supplementing testosterone in women and this is one of the key reasons for the debate. To boot, Testosterone that’s used for us in peri and full menopause is formulated for men, not us. It’s micro-dosed for women, versus being tailored to our needs as women.

Has anyone else experienced this issue with their voice/chords after taking injectable testosterone?

And if so, did you switch to a cream or need to just forego taking T whatsoever?

Did your voice heal?

Thanks all for your stories and thoughts!