Throwing a T Party

[digitaldiscipline]

This is not the kind of thing a lot of guys would want to admit or discuss in semi-public, which is all the more reason I’m doing so.

I was, in late 2011, feeling generally like the floor of a taxicab, I got a physical done, and discovered that I had what is colloquially known as “Low T.” In my case, it wasn’t merely low, it was about 50% of the threshold for the bottom of normal (180ng/dl), or, put another way, closer to “healthy teenage girl” than “healthy adult male.”

Consequently, I was put on testosterone replacement therapy (TRT), and, today, I finally got the call from my physician’s office - I can back off on my dosage from 14 per week to 10, because I’ve had supra-normal (>1300ng/dl) readings at two consecutive quarterly checkups.

To what can I credit this?  Several things, all of which are interrelated, but some more directly and emphatically than others.

I eat less shit, and drink less booze. This is annoying and adult-y, but, yeah, feeding the machine and not doing things that directly and indirectly depress T production matter.

I am working on getting better quality sleep. This is for general wellness, but is crucial for hormone production and management - it allows your body to produce the good ones and handle the less-good ones (lookin’ real squarely at you, cortisol).

Both of these contribute to my strength training, which is both dependent upon, and supports, healthy T levels.

And lastly, I’ve been supplementing my prescribed medication with two things - Chaos & Pain’s “Legendary,” and 1stPhorm’s Primal Pack; the former, I’ve been using for a while, which helped bump my T levels from ~500ng/dl to ~800ng/dl, and the latter, which have provided the additional bump that my bloodwork showed today.

I understand and appreciate that a lot of folks view the supplement industry askance, having either been disillusioned or disappointed by it, but I can say with what feels like justified confidence that these products have worked, and worked well, for me.

So, yeah. Guys who talk about their happy bits letting them down in a capacity other than, “baby, i swear, it’s not usually like this” during an amorous encounter (for that, there’s Cialis, which, honestly, if taking it meant I’d suddenly come into possession of two wrought-iron claw-foot bathtubs? fuck yeah, i’d take it; i want one of those fucking bathtubs) is still something that isn’t typically done. I’m here to help dispel the stigma and hopefully spread some knowledge, even though over-35 dudes are pretty thin on the ground here on tumblr. *waves to mckitterick *

I don’t see why it’s anything to be ashamed of; “if you can’t make it yourself, store-bought is fine,” as the saying goes.

Comments

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Congrats! I'm going to look into this for myself, just in case. And also sleep better. Y'know, when the work subsides a bit (snork).

[ivy]

I am all for being matter-of-fact about physical issues -- it really does help destigmatize 'em for other folks, particularly when they see someone cool talking about it like it's totally normal. Go you!

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

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Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ (https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=303).

[etcet.livejournal.com]

apparently, when D shared the OP from tumblr via the bookface, the guy who runs the 'talk like a man' page was intrigued enough to ask for an interview so, uh, that's a thing that's going to be happening sometime in the next several days.

i am, er, unrepentantly unvarnished in my opinions of masculinity and related themes.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

WITNESS ME *lol*

[etcet.livejournal.com]

we hired a new guy this week. we made an offer, since accepted, to another new guy, who will start soon, so that will bump the team to three-plus-one to five-plus-one, with the expectation that i will be stepping back from the phones and into a more supervisory role, to keep everyone up to speed and have the breathing room to look ahead and do some pattern-matching to cut down on emergency triage bullshit.

this is literally the first addition to our phone-facing headcount in ten and a half years (since *I* was hired), and is very long overdue.

also, i got a scrip for a muscle relaxant to try and quell some breakthrough pain that's been dicking with my sleep; the first night wasn't really an accurate test, since i overheated and whatnot, but it will be interesting to see how that plays out as well.