Just to be clear, I was diagnosed with low-T 3 years ago prior to entering the wonderful world of benzos. My T levels were "low normal" at that time. Also at that time, I was a fat, sedentary, no-exercise tub of lard. My cholesterol was over 200, I was pre-diabetic by all other measures, and I had fatty liver disease. Then I got my act together, changed my diet, started exercising (a lot). I went from 197 lbs (I'm only 5'6") to 160 and all those numbers normalized. I didn't realize at that time that my lifestyle might have affected my T levels (and my dr never suggested that). After my run-in with benzos, I wanted to be rid of all unnecessary drugs including T and give myself a chance to see whether my new healthy lifestyle would also address my T issues. I don't need the T levels of a 20 year-old, but I don't want the T-levels of a 90 year-old either.
I didn't experience any bad side-effects from my T injections before or after I quit benzos.
Anyway, I stopped taking my injections (200mg T cypionate EOW) on August 11. At 1 month and even 2 months out I wasn't feeling too badly in general although I could definitely tell the difference. My workouts weren't as easy and I gained some belly fat. But I didn't expect my T levels to just bounce back right away so I wasn't too worried about these minor setbacks. I had bloodwork done a few weeks ago and my total T was 300. That's well below normal, but it at least looks like my body is producing some T.
I've been struggling with insomnia since I stopped the benzos (7-8 months ago). 2 weeks ago, during a particularly bad bout of insomnia (with some heart palpitations and other stuff), I got pretty depressed. And I wondered whether that could be due to my stopping T or whether I was just in a particularly bad wave. So I gave in and took an injection 2 weeks ago. I felt a bit better, but I really can't tell whether it's the T or I'm just over a bout of depression.
It has occurred to me that now may not be the best time to try this particular experiment. Dealing with benzo withdrawal is challenging enough. However, I really want to not be dependent on any drugs if I can help it. And I didn't realize 3 years ago when I started T that it might be a life sentence. If for some reason, I'm no longer able to produce sufficient T myself, then so be it, I guess I have no choice. But I'd like to be able to find out without having to live through some long bout of depression to do so.
Use of HCG and PCT in general appears to be controversial as evidenced by the comments from [...] and [...]. And my dr who said, "Oh, you can just stop the T injections any time you want without doing anything special" may be well-meaning, but clueless.
Thanks for letting me rant about this. I realize it's a bit off-topic.
-b
