Re: Low Testosterone?
I would suspect testosterone levels are leaving men earlier for a few reasons.
1. I doubt our fathers were tested to know what their levels were.
2. We're a fat nation. Fat = Estrogen.
Don't be too hard on steroids; we're all taking them (Testosterone is a steroid). There are no scientific studies that link their use to being unhealthy either. We're among one of the only countries in the world that have made them illegal over the counter (and this was in defiance to the FDA, DEA, and AMA)...gotta love congress, but I digress.
You're totally right about changing pins after drawing up, but I'd stay away from the 18g for drawing as it can take chunks out of the stopper (yikes!).
For a glute shot, make an "L" with your thumb and index finger, put your thumb on the top of your hip and rotate your hand so your index is on your glute. That's where you stick it. Another reason for sore muscles is because you're probably not keeping the syringe still, but rather, shaking it. The end of the needle is now dragging across your muscle (yikes!)
I've never had any anxiety at all from Testosterone and have never read anything stating that as a "side effect." All testosterone does is enhance protein synthesis in the muscles...
JG
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Strykervet</div><div class="ubbcode-body">"It appears there is an almost "feminization" of males going on in this country, and others as well."
I read a study a long time ago before this was an issue, and they said that T levels have been going down in men steadily over the last 20th century with noticeable changes in each generation. Something has to cause it?
Anyway, the body doesn't STOP producing testosterone at 30, it actually reaches a peak that I'm sure everyone of you over a certain age is aware of and can look back on and remember. It is different for everyone I suppose. But I THINK it starts going down after age 18 or so, and fairly rapidly. Think about what you thought about when you were 18. Then go look at a bodybuilding steroid site and see how those guys talk and what they talk about. They can't go two posts in a thread without making some kind of gutter sex joke based on a previous comment --that had nothing to do with sex.
I have heard that when you start taking the injectionst that your body will stop producing natural testosterone (but it wasn't in the first place, right?) and that you will be on it for life. Now if you are on drugs and stop taking them will it start again? I don't know. If you take them as steroids will go back to normal afterwards? I don't know. But I do know steroids are risky drugs to take, hard on the body, and some do permanently shut down production of certain chemicals. Prednisone can do this for instance.
BTW, not a doctor, I just read a lot about things that concern me.
As for injecting, he's right about the needles. I get 18ga. needles for drawing it from the vial, then I change those with 22ga. 1.5" needles. You wanna do this because the needle is so sharp it will get dull drawing out the oil. The larger needles actually make it less painful as it goes in faster, the 22ga. I think anyway. I agree that 25ga. is probably the smallest you want to use, the stuff is thick. Needles don't bother me and they don't hurt. The actual shot hurts worse over the next few days. It gets hot and quite sore, which is why I'm thinking doing half the shot every week may feel better too.
The last shot I had hurt about week. Pretty bad, like a baseball nailed me in the glute. With my back the way it is and the sciatic nerve in the condition it is in, accidentally injecting near it can cause me significant pain due to the area swelling that occurs, so in my case I think finding a suitable place in the quads is going to be more advantageous. For me anyway. And despite what people will tell you, the sciatic nerve CAN be nailed with 1.5" needle. It is a fat nerve that goes all the way to the bottom of your feet. Know how sensitive they are? I had a Toradol shot back there and the nurse put me in bed for two weeks. I needed a lot more than Toradol after that too.
A good review of anatomy will give you an idea of where to go, how thick the muscle is, what is underneath, etc. It isn't rocket science, but it isn't trial and error either. And rotating spots is good, the crap is cottonseed oil and it doesn't diffuse all that fast into the muscle, hence the pain.
Now folks inject it all over, but what I've been told is that the push to use the upper right quadrant of the glute is for a couple reasons. One is that if you do it in the right spot, you have less chance of hitting a nerve or vein (or worse, an artery!) and the glute is good for this, and in addition, the glute is also "a good place for the pain to go". Meaning it should interfere little with mobility, but it can make sitting comfortably kind of difficult. Finally, they tell me that the glute is the best place for the T shot because it is absorbed and used best by the body when injected there. How true this is I do not know.
Lots of good info on here for folks that may need this. The whole thing about getting tested if you are on pain killers is kind of new I think, I mean who would have guessed?
But one thing not mentioned, and deserves it, is T and shooting. T can cause anxiety and you can feel the "energy" in your nerves. I am of the school of thought that any change in how you feel can affect your shooting from one day to the next, so be prepared to fine tune your shooting if you start the stuff, and the day or so after the shot you feel more energetic than you do two weeks later. But overall it will make you feel better as a man if you're low on it.
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