Lots of people report issues with Testo gel, it doesn’t absorb enough or causes strong aromatisation in some. Perhaps consider injections to see if your joint pain ligament pain improves.
I’d be lying if I said I knew why TRT is causing you these issues, it’s strange because with hormones in the range there is very little if any difference between the function of someone’s natural endocrine system and an endocrine system that gets its testosterone exogenously.
Were you able to find ways to deal with mental symptoms? What bothers me most is the inability to process the things I have around, or the totality of the images I see. For example, I could not distinguish two similar cars. Before my last crash, I was not at this pitiful level.
In terms of improvement with mental and neurological symptoms, I’ve found the more time goes on, the more improved these symptoms are. That is not to say I have no mental or neurological symptoms now (I have plenty) but things like derealisation and brain fog are generally less severe than the first 6-12 months of PFS and are less constant. Still intermittently get hit heavy with those though.
I’ve had similar things like you describe with the car. One of the weirdest (and it happened frequently for a long time) was when I looked at people from just a moderate distance they would appear to me to look like young people right up until they were a few meters away and they would suddenly be revealed to be old age pensioners. It took a long time before I could walk around a supermarket without head pressure, confusion. I nearly passed out walking around a supermarket one time.
I have practically no stress response now. Even minor stress produces a feeling like a balloon inflating within my skull. Stress can also induce or worsen derealisation or brain fog for me.
Gels increase estrogens significantly more, I remember when I tried gels I was itching all over the pace like bright red spots all over my arms… Dr John (RIP) at the time told me gels convert to estrogens more than the shots.
@RR3 @Junkieasteride To my knowledge, if testosterone aromatizes, it becomes estrogen. Generally it is the lack of estrogen that leads to joint problems. I really can’t understand.
@Rb26dett have you had your estrogens tested? I’m not familiar with the mechanisms that cause joint pains, from what I’ve read low estrogens make your bones less dense.
I had my estrogen tested before TRT and was ok.
so if your estrogens were tested prior to TRT and they were okay and you didn’t have joint issues, so I can’t be low estrogens that caused joint issues.
Were you on an AI?
Never used an AI in my life.
I don’t think it’s lack of estrogens causing your joint issues. It would have to be something else. I think.
I was thinking possibly something occurring along a Neuromuscular pathway such as cytokines issue. I’ve read a few medical articles about 5-HTP and the body constantly being in a state of releasing damaging cytokines into the muscles and joints. Either way, this is a complex issue.
As you know we have had similar experiences. Mine has improved as well, but I literally had the same supermarket experience as you. It’s crazy how similar some people’s sides can be.
I stopped 5htp almost 2 years ago. I don’t think it start now
Well what’s interesting is I too started getting joint pains in my hands and wrist one year after stopping propecia (used it for eight years) and 5-HTP (total of 200MGs /50 MGs each day for four days only). I haven’t taken anything else since then other than multivitamins. This is a new symptom that started about two months ago. It’s very painful when people shake my hand to say hello.
Most likely, it’s a problem related to something else. It is impossible to say that a substance does damage years after the last use. If we continue to support such absurdities it is obvious that science and doctors will continue to take us for crazy hypochondriacs. I will do the exams and I will try to investigate on all fronts to understand where the problem starts. I see people on this forum that if they slip and get hurt, they accuse the finasteride they took 3 years earlier. Many symptoms are really related to the disorder, many others belong to other disorders. I even read about people who said they had multiple sclerosis due to finasteride. At this time we should have had it all. The right thing to do, in my opinion, is to investigate and try to understand what is happening. I do not doubt that many symptoms of this damn syndrome are real, especially the sexual and neurological ones, but you can’t blame everything on finasteride / AD / accutane.
I have now lost my autonomy. My joints and muscles hurt more and more, the brain fog is extreme, I can’t remember where the keyboard letters are. My family thinks I’m just depressed and insults me, telling me I’m lazy. I try to point out to them that my joints are jerky and that my veins are small and thin, but they call me crazy. Today I will be forced to undergo a psychiatric examination, surely they will oblige me to take other drugs or, worse still, I will be hospitalized. If this happens, my struggle will end here.
I am very convinced that my problem is very much related to that of @gents93. Somehow, I don’t know how, tribulus or NAC muted my ER. What I don’t understand is why the joint symptoms started after using low-dose testosterone gel.
I have been reading through your posts and my thoughts have been with you. My symptoms are not as severe but are nonetheless fully disabling. I feel just as hopeless more often than not. A good day for me would be a day in which I don’t contemplate about suicide.
I have the same dark ruminations brought about from a different user. I share similar circumstances with lashes_to_lashes that led to his suicide, but I don’t think I am as bad as he was and you probably aren’t as bad as douglasmich. I don’t know how I can help you, but only to remind you that we aren’t suffering alone and that we must do everything we can to close the negative vicious circle and find ways to survive.
I am so sorry to hear about your family’s response to the unimaginable pain you already endure but it doesnt mean that they won’t turn around eventually. Maybe the psychiatrist would be more open minded if you showed him this: PFS resource pack: letter and study abstracts for your doctor Or have you already tried that with doctors already? My doctor also laughs in my face when I try to tell him about my PFS.
@Dubya_B Didn’t you have joint pain from PAS and recover?
Yeah. Sore back and knees. Felt like a knife cutting into my knees at one point.
It improved much after about 14-15 years.
I made the psychiatric visit and I insisted that my mother attend the visit. The psychiatrist said that my depression is reactive, i.e. it depended on my condition (PFS / PSSD), therefore it would be wrong to adopt drug therapy. He suggested that I do an MRI scan. Try to find out if I have something at the level of the hypothalamus or pituitary gland.