Brandon: Welcome gentlemen to another episode of All Things Testosterone. If you’re joining us for the first time we chat about anecdotal stories, hints, tips, and research studies for men considering TRT. Feel free to check out testosteronepodcast.com for more information about our free TRT support community, research, blog, and YouTube channel. You can also text TRT to 66866 to get the newsletter.
Brandon: Today I’m joined by two familiar voices. Ian?
Ian: Hello Brandon.
Brandon: And Erik.
Erik: Hey.
Brandon: We’re going to chat about the 10 … I won’t call them the 10 most common struggles. I will call them 10 struggles, that I came up with quickly, surrounding TRT.
Erik: I like that. You could probably look through the top 10 posts that are in the TRT community and get a pretty good list.
Ian: The FAQ if you will.
Brandon: Yeah but Facebook doesn’t make it easy for content creators, that’s what I am now, I’m a content creator, to get that data. They won’t tell me where my guys live. They won’t tell me what their most common posts are. They’ll just tell me that [Steven 00:01:19] [Geiss I 00:01:19] dominates everything. He posts like 400 times a month.
Ian: Does he get the little coffee cup? Is that-
Brandon: He gets whatever the highest honor is, I’m sure.
Ian: Yeah.
Erik: I have something next to mine. It’s not the coffee cup anymore. It’s like-
Ian: Is it visual storyteller?
Erik: No.
Brandon: Maybe. You’ve posted some pictures.
Erik: It’s not the visual storyteller. It’s like the rising star maybe?
Brandon: Maybe.
Erik: I think it’s because I’ve done really well in my first month of being in the community.
Brandon: Yeah. It’s not Steven Geiss though.
Erik: Just understand Steven Geiss, I’m coming for you.
Brandon: Seriously, that guy, I don’t … Did you see the post that I made last month about the top 10 contributors?
Ian: Yes.
Brandon: Because his was like … He was number one at seven million. Then number two was like 100. I mean it was … He’s-
Ian: [crosstalk 00:02:04] … give away a steak dinner or something like that?
Brandon: I gave away Dodgers tickets. Yeah. This month, actually today, live, maybe with you two sitting right here in front of me, I’m going to use a random name generator to determine who’s going to win our next. You’re actually-
Erik: [crosstalk 00:02:19] Like I said, I’m coming for you Steven Geiss.
Brandon: Oh yeah because the podcast-
Brandon: Rating the podcast on-
Brandon: Writing a review.
Brandon: … Apple Podcast.
Ian: Where are we at in Korea right now, in terms of ratings?
Brandon: Zero. We’re actually big in Malta, and Malaysia, and Australia, and United Kingdom most recently but-
Erik: I’ll have another shrimp on the barbie.
Brandon: Today we’re talking about common struggles and mistakes. I think the number one is probably finding a doctor. Guys join the group just to ask this one question. We all know that you find a doctor, they’re going to tell you that you’re normal. If you go to your doctor they’re going to tell you that you’re within the normal range and that they can’t help you or they’re going to treat you with a terrible protocol. Injecting every two weeks, not doing labs appropriately, that kind of thing. They’ll use topicals, and pellets, and whatnot.
Ian: And digital rectal exams.
Brandon: Digital rectal … yeah.
Brandon: If you find a good doctor it’s going to cost you $300 or $400 a month.
Erik: Well I mean that was … When you and I first talked about this, after I got my labs back, that was basically the conversation. Like, “Well go talk to your doctor.” It’s like I have no idea what kind of background she has. I have no idea what that experience is going to be like. I know that you’re already treating with a doctor that has experience with this. I don’t want to go through having an uphill battle if I know that I can just go see somebody that’s already familiar with treating guys.
Brandon: Yeah. That’s the number one thing that I want to do, is keep … You all don’t have to make the same mistakes that I made. Use the advice, go see Dr. [Epple 00:03:49], he’s great.
Brandon: A lot of these on this list you all probably won’t have experience because of that. But I think you all will be able to speak to them because you see what the guys are asking. Number two I’ve got just bad protocol in general. I think … Well what do you all think is the most … Just bad protocol, what is the most common issue that you all see?
Ian: I think it’s too high of a dose in too … The time, the frequency is not enough for two … The every two weeks, 200 milligram, that’s a scary thought because that’s just going to make things worse.
Brandon: [crosstalk 00:04:31] Yeah, and that’s what I wrote down is injections frequency.
Ian: [crosstalk 00:04:34] … or like your own personal experience with the too small of a dose once a week.
Brandon: Yeah. I think that’s rare now.
Ian: Yeah.
Brandon: I don’t hear anybody complain that … Well not anybody. I don’t hear many people complain that they’re just not getting enough. It’s always 10 days, 14 days, even 21 days. I think that’s probably the biggest problem.
Erik: Speaking to the frequency, having one dose that’s two weeks, or three weeks, or 10 days, I think it was you or somebody else that said you actually end up in a worse position because you basically just lose everything.
Brandon: Yeah, I say that a lot. It’s just enough to shut down your natural production and not enough to compensate to bring you back up above what you were.
Erik: I feel like that’s … We’ve talked about this before. There’s no real benefit to a doctor being super fluent in these things because the money’s just not there. It’s frustrating because you end up with a lot of people that actually could do more harm than good because they’re just taking a shot in the dark.
Brandon: Yeah. Yeah.
Brandon: Number three on my list was getting dialed in. Ian I think you can speak to this one. Changing things … Well some of the bullet points are changing things too frequently, waiting too long to do labs, or not checking the correct labs. I hear about doctors continuing to check LH after you’re on TRT. I mean it’s a waste of money. The fact that they don’t know that is concerning because it’s going to be zero either way. But you speaking, you getting dialed in, I know that’s something you struggled with whenever you started last year.
Ian: Yeah.
Brandon: What were some of the issues that you were having?
Ian: Some of the issues … The side effects that I was having, obviously acne on the back and the chest. Some of the aggressive rage-y issues. Don’t exactly remember but I remember thinking … Like looking back at it now that I wasn’t proactive enough with my doctor. It was that I was going through this, wasn’t being forward enough with him to say, “I think we should do this. I think we should do that.” I had this blind trust in his direction. It turns out we were just treating … It seems like we were just treating side effects and not really adjusting the dose or adjusting the frequency of the dose. He kept me on the same protocol.
Brandon: Wanted to throw more-
Ian: [crosstalk 00:07:04] Wanted to throw other medicines at it, which it was frustrating me and ultimately led me to feel like I just hit the eject button.
Brandon: Yeah. I think that’s the overarching moral of my story, is that he truly is probably the best, or at least top five best doctors, that I know for TRT. Even he doesn’t get it right. You know?
Ian: Yeah.
Brandon: [crosstalk 00:07:28] Because I am not … Yeah I agree. I don’t want to throw four more weekly medications, for the rest of my life, on top of something just to … I mean whenever you can change your protocol, back off, inject more frequently, whatever you need to do.
Ian: Well you’ve been on TRT for, what? Four years?
Brandon: Five or six. Yeah.
Ian: Five or six years. I’ve been on it for five or six weeks. You and I are on basically the same, right?
Brandon: Yeah.
Ian: I mean and that’s where he started me.
Brandon: Oh no. I mean I actually take less than you. You’re doing 200, right? A week?
Ian: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Brandon: Yeah. I’m closer to 160, 170, somewhere in there. I don’t necessarily love that starting everyone at 200. I think that became a thing four years ago. Where it was like guys wanted to really see … They just want the benefit. They want 200 plus. Actually this doctor, that we all three treat with, has prescribed me up to 300 a week. That was-
Brandon: Wow.
Erik: [crosstalk 00:08:26] You said 200 is … Anything above that is considered non-therapeutic-
Brandon: That’s when you-
Erik: … or that’s the threshold?
Brandon: Yeah. I mean he prescribed me 300, so you can go above, but it really … You get judgment. If you come into the group and you say, “I’m on 250 a week,” they’re going to say, “Well that’s a cycle.” But I mean it’s not. But yeah, that’s the weak threshold. But I don’t really love the fact that a lot of doctors tend to be doing that.
Brandon: When I started it was, “We’re going to start you at 75 or 50 a week.” Then it changed to this, “We’re going to go balls out and we’re going to give you 200.” I think there’s a happy medium. Start them on 125 or something and go from there.
Brandon: But I mean I fully expect you to have some side effects and to have to adjust your dosage. But we’ll get to that in another episode.
Erik: So far I don’t feel …
Brandon: Good.
Erik: I feel good.
Brandon: Good.
Brandon:We can talk about that more though.
Brandon: Number four on my list is aromatase inhibitor. This is something where I don’t know if me and Steven disagree necessarily but he is all about prolactin over estradiol. I haven’t quite subscribed to that bandwagon yet. There’s not enough information out there for me. He’s passionate that AIs are … He seems to be passionate that they’re just never needed. I would say that use them if your doctor has screwed you up. Don’t use them consistently. Use them to get yourself normal quickly. Then adjust and see what you need to tweak to stay there. But you all see that that’s a common topic in the group. What are guys saying about AIs?
Erik: Exactly what you said. Some are like, “You don’t need that.” Some are like, “Yeah, I’m on that.” The most recent thing that I can recall is somebody was saying that their doctor put them on. I forget what the dosage was but say it was like one milligram a week, or something like that, and he was like, “I’m taking half of that in a week.” Right? I think there’s enough dialog in the community where people are saying, “Whatever dosage it is it’s probably a lot more than maybe what you need.”
Brandon: Yeah. I don’t know if it’s because the education level is growing but it feels like this time last year, and before, I was getting a lot of messages. Private messages from guys that said that their doctor was prescribing three plus milligrams a week.
Erik: Wow.
Brandon: I haven’t seen it in a long time but I mean that really blew my mind. Whenever I was using it regularly I would take .25 milligrams twice a week. That, after about four to six weeks, would crash me. To take three milligram … I mean it is potent. You all know that. It’s a dangerous drug. It will easily make you feel worse than you did before you started TRT, especially taking three milligrams.
Ian: I would say last year when I was on it, at my eight week visit is when our doctor put me on an AI. It’s something I wish I had educated myself more on at the time because I definitely had that effect. I think you and I talked through that. He’s put me on half a milligram a week. But after a few weeks you start to feel that crash. I wish I had been more educated on maybe switching to subq. You see some of these things these guys recommend like every three and a half days or doing subq. They can glide along nicely without having to have an AI. Yeah it’s something I regret. Also not pursuing further knowledge of. Instead of just, again, blindly listening to the doctor. “Oh the doctor knows what’s best.”
Brandon: I think that a lot of doctors do know but I think the problem is that he’s only going to see you a few times a year. He knows that-
Ian: Yeah, maybe three or four. Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah. He can cast a net and help more people by just saying, “Here’s the AI,” versus saying, “You really need to be seeing me every week if we’re going to get this dialed in.” That’s where the group comes into play. You can talk through it more regularly than your appointments. Because it’s not something that you can … I mean Eric over here maybe. I mean sometimes it is something that you can … It’s just simple, it’s easy to get dialed in, but for the most part it takes much more than just a quarterly office visit.
Brandon: What about the ones … I love seeing … No, I hate seeing when cypionate is compounded with anastrozole. Like you’re going to need this right out of the gate. That’s something that a lot of the mail order clinics will do. Their compounding pharmacies-
Ian: Wow. Okay, I’m not familiar with that. Yeah.
Brandon: … they will … You’ll get your cyp and it’s mixed already. It’s got the AI included. It’s like you have no idea if you need it, how much you need. What’s the point? You’re taking two opposing substances at the same time when you could just take less of one.
Ian: Because they affect two different hormones, right?
Brandon: Yeah but it’s just back off with-
Ian: [crosstalk 00:13:26] … CG or is it-
Brandon:Either one
Brandon: Yeah. Either way.
Brandon: Okay.
Brandon: It’s just like, “Here’s your vial of test and it’s already got the AI in it.” The group is wise enough, for the most part, when they see that they’re like, “Oh you need another doctor.” It’s true. That is a huge mistake.
Ian: That’s honestly … Like if you could-
Brandon: That’s scary.
Ian: If you could somehow, on Facebook, poll all of the responses that people have to all the different posts. “You need a different doctor,” or something therein is probably the most common response.
Brandon: Yeah. Either that or they’re being a complete jerk. It’s like total douche bag, or you need another doctor, or yeah.
Brandon: Also with AI, we kind of touched on it, but prescribing it too early. No one should ever be prescribed anastrozole before their labs indicate that they need it and they’re symptomatic. Period.
Ian: What are common symptoms that people have to get them to the point that says, “I probably need something”?
Brandon: I think the one that is the rarest, but most people have in the forefront of their mind, is gynecomastia. Start developing breast tissue. I mean I can’t even … Maybe four times in the five or six years we’ve had the group, that I’ve seen somebody that’s actually developed it. Other than that it’s a lot of the low E symptoms mimic the high E symptoms, but you could start having erectile issues. Well for Steven’s benefit I will say this, we don’t know for sure yet if they are low E, high E or high prolactin. Prolactin will elevate with estradiol. A lot of it most guys will blame on estradiol but it could be prolactin. That’s Steven’s argument, is that it’s not estrogen that’s the problem it’s prolactin.
Erik: How do you dial in prolactin?
Brandon: It goes up with estrogen and then it would go down with something like Cabergoline. It’s an additional medication that you can take that’ll drop it down. But realistically I think, like with everything else, the best way to handle it is just to change your protocol. If it becomes and issue inject more frequently, smaller doses, subq.
Ian: Try to mimic the natural-
Brandon: Yeah. Not trying to do [crosstalk 00:15:36] once a week. Yeah. But a lot of the symptoms are just feeling bad. I mean you can get headaches, and fatigue, and a lot of the symptoms you had before TRT. The same stuff but when you start feeling that something’s out of line.
Ian: Sure.
Brandon: HCG. I’ve said this a couple of times. I’ve had a really firm stance on HCG. It seemed like I want every guy on it. That’s not really the case. I’m not currently taking HCG. It’s something that I cycle on and off of because it does make dialing in more difficult. However, what I am passionate about is education. I want guys to know that you don’t have to stop testosterone to conceive a child. You can remain fertile on HCG. That you are losing out on other key hormones like DHEA, and pregnenolone, and that kind of thing without HCG. Research doesn’t really show that you have to have those things but I just want people to know that without HCG you lose stuff, with HCG you don’t lose stuff. I guess at this point that’s just my vanilla stance. I don’t have a super passion for it. But too many guys just aren’t aware of it.
Erik: I told my wife that if I didn’t take it that the potatoes might get a little smaller. She was out on that.
Brandon: Yeah. That actually bothers me more than anything. When somebody says, “Do I need HCG?” They’re like, “Well I’m married, I don’t care about my testicles. I don’t need to have kids.” It’s so much more than that. As long as people know it doesn’t stop with tiny testicles than I’m fine with whatever. Take it or don’t. I don’t care.
Brandon: I’m looking at you on this one Ian. Discontinuing treatment because of side effects. It’s rare … That’s becoming, I guess, the moral of this episode. Is that it’s rare to not be able to handle side effects with just protocol, and dosing, and that kind of thing. But yeah. You definitely stopped.
Ian: Cold turkey.
Brandon: Cold turkey.
Ian: Because it was acne like I was 17 again.
Brandon: Was that all over your body or was it-
Ian: It was primarily chest, back, no facial really. Some neck and shoulders. Then I’m talking these painful-
Brandon: Cystic stuff?
Ian: Yes. Yeah. It was … It might have been one or two a day that popped up.
Brandon: Wow.
Ian: I tried everything that you see in the group. A special soap. Dawn dish soap. For me it didn’t work.
Brandon: Mark. Mark told you about Dawn dish soap I’m sure.
Ian: It doesn’t work.
Brandon: No it doesn’t work at all.
Erik: It’s a wives’ tale.
Brandon: Every time people start talking about Dawn dish soap it makes me sick. Remembering having that stupid bottle of soap in my shower and it doing nothing. It dries your skin, that’s it.
Ian: Yeah. It does that. Special soaps and things like that. You really have to stay diligent about it. It’s almost … At this point in the year we live in Texas. Most of us are taking two showers a day anyway to have a good night’s sleep. You’d have to maintain two good scrubs a day with special soap.
Brandon: Dawn dish soap.
Ian: [crosstalk 00:18:50] … peroxide or cell acetic acid and things like that.
Brandon: Those are the two things that have worked. Everything about TRT, for me, seems to be cyclic. I can take … Dawn dish soap never worked. But the benzoyl peroxide I got … I’m using stuff right now, I think it’s 15% benzoyl peroxide. It works. Well it works usually. It’s not working now so it’s almost like I get immune to it and then I have to back off. Maybe switch to dish soap for awhile or something. But it works for a few months and then it doesn’t work for a few months.
Ian: Well and the other thing too is I’m definitely willing to trade off some acne here and there for … A milder form of acne for all the positive benefits that came with it, in which there certainly was. However it, again, I approached my doctor and said, “This is what” … We through Bactrim at it. Did a course of that for 30 days. That didn’t work. Then the next thing was he wanted to prescribe, I think it was doxycycline or something like that. Another antibiotic. That’s when I hit the eject button. I was like, “I’m tired of” … My position was I wanted to address the dose. He didn’t want to do that. He just wanted to start me on another course of antibiotics. I just … I think I’d had enough at that point. I quit cold turkey. Honestly the acne continued for another month, and month and a half.
Brandon: Yeah. It takes a while for things to-
Brandon: Pretty-
Ian: I mean I struggle to believe that something that is-
Brandon: Pretty crazy.
Erik: … hormonal driven is going to be cured by something like an antibiotic.
Brandon: Oh it’ll knock it out.
Erik: Really?
Brandon: Yes. For me doxy … I still … I have it on hand. I have acne right now so obviously I’m not taking it but whenever I would use it, I mean two or three days, six capsules and I would stop because it dries my … No acne, no moisture, everything’s dry, it really worked.
Ian: I would add is I went through a pretty rough stage of life with acne as a teenager. I ended up on Accutane, which is the nuke for-
Brandon: Terrible!
Ian: It’s terrible for you and probably destroys your liver. They put those warnings on there that pregnant women … Those are-
Brandon: [crosstalk 00:21:13] pregnant women can’t be in the same room with someone who ever did Accutane.
Brandon: That’s the one.
Ian: They take it pretty seriously. It tells you what it might be doing to your insides. Maybe it was that traumatic feeling of like, “Here we go again. All I’m doing is going down this road where we’re going to end up taking Accutane. My head, my lips, and my … Everything’s going to be dried out all the time.” I just didn’t want that.
Brandon: Mm-hmm (affirmative). I don’t know much about Accutane-
Ian: Kind of fear.
Brandon: … except that a lot of people say it’s probably one of the most dangerous medications you can ever take.
Ian: It’s dangerous. It certainly does the trick but man it’s the side effects too. It’s not good. Again I can’t imagine what it’s doing to the liver.
Brandon: Yeah. Number seven on the list, and I don’t know that this one’s super common, but guys will say go get your E2 checked. What they don’t specify is that you need … They’ll just go get the standard estradiol testing but you need the sensitive estradiol testing. The standard’s going to come back and it’s going to do you no good. When you start testing E2 make sure you’re getting the sensitive, which Epple will do for you. But that’s all.
Ian: Thanks Epple.
Brandon: Number eight, GoodRx. You mentioned it once or twice in the group, I mention it as often as I can. Guys don’t know about GoodRx. I just want them to.
Erik: I swear I see GoodRx commercials all the time on TV.
Brandon: Right. I don’t … Kevin Epple’s the one that introduced me to it four or five years ago.
Brandon: Yeah, they throw it at you at his office.
Brandon: [crosstalk 00:22:50] Yeah.
Brandon: … do this.
Erik: You’re checking out, “Hey do you know about GoodRx?” They’ve got coupons, all sorts of stuff.
Brandon: Yeah. He’s like, “Download this app right now with me in the room.” I’m like, “Okay.” He doesn’t benefit from it. He doesn’t get a kick … I mean well I guess they could be paying him but-
Erik: To me that’s a sign of a good doctor though. Because they care about your wellbeing and they’re trying to help you get care for the best value possible.
Brandon: Yeah. Too many guys will just … I guess I don’t use GoodRx for HCG.
Erik: The compounding pharmacy that … You probably get it from the same place I do, they don’t accept anything.
Brandon: Okay. But they’re … Is it the one in Frisco?
Erik: Frisco.
Brandon: Yeah. Drug Crafters?
Erik: Yeah. They don’t accept it.
Brandon: It’s $65, $70 bucks for 10,000 IUs. Where you’ll-
Brandon: They’ll mail it to you.
Brandon: I just saw … Yeah. I just saw some guys talking this morning about $200, $250 for the same amount. I’m like, “Just make some phone calls. Don’t trust your stupid doctor.”
Ian: Yeah there’s-
Brandon: [crosstalk 00:23:44] … GoodRx.
Ian: Yeah there’s a lot of people that say, “Oh I want my … I wish my insurance would cover this or my insurance would pay for it.” What they don’t realize is that insurance can limit … At least mine would limit the amount you could get at one time. You’d end up instead with a 10 mili bottle you’d get-
Brandon: Five or four.
Ian: You might get three or four at a time. Or they limit the amount and the month you can get, a certain time frame, or you can only get this much in 90 days, or 30 days, or whatever it might be. GoodRx you just skirt around that. You have, what? 10 weeks, roughly-
Brandon: For $45 bucks.
Ian: … for $45, $40, yeah something …
Brandon: Every time I go to CVS-
Erik: I think it’s $39 bucks right now.
Brandon: Yeah. Every time I go I have to say … I’m dropping off the scrip I’m like, “I don’t want to use my insurance. I’m going to use GoodRx. Please fill it as it’s written. I don’t want four one milliliter vials.” I get back and they hand me the bag. I open it up and it’s four one milliliter vials or a five. I’m like, “I’m going to kill someone.” You have to go park, go inside and say, “This is not what my doctor wrote.”
Ian: It makes your TRT life so much easier.
Brandon: Yeah. I should have calculated how many times I’ve had to do that over the years. Every 10 weeks for five or six years.
Ian: [crosstalk 00:24:52] Kevin’s office sent over my prescription, this is when I first got prescribed. Sent it to Walgreens and I go … No, it was a handwritten so I had to go drop it off.
Brandon: That’s the best way to do it, is handwritten.
Ian: Yeah. I drop it off. Then before I even left I said, “I want one 10 milliliter bottle of the 200. I don’t want the individual one … I don’t want the individual bottles. I want the 10, that’s what the prescription says. I’m not using my insurance, I’m using GoodRx.” “All right, no problem.” I get a message an hour later from Walgreens, “Your insurance … There’s been a delay on your prescription because of insurance. Please call us.” I call in, I’m like, “I’m not using insurance. What was miscommunication?”
Brandon: Yeah, I’ll get those texts too every now and then. But then I’ll get one three hours later that says … I’m not proactive I don’t … Or reactive. I don’t call them, I just sit and wait. Then they’ll, “Oh your whatever, it’s ready.” They usually work it out themselves somehow. I don’t know if that’s a default.
Ian: They have notes in the computer.
Brandon: It’s probably just a generic default, “We’re delayed, let’s blame it on insurance,” button that they click. It sends a text.
Ian: We need more time.
Brandon: Yeah. Number nine, and if there was one thing that I could ask people to stop asking me privately it’s where to inject. I don’t give a [beep 00:26:08] where you inject. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. You could inject in your delt, you can inject in your bicep, in your pec, you can inject it in your penis. I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. People get so hung up on these little nuances of TRT that don’t make a difference. Inject it in your quad, you might bleed a little bit more. Inject it into your glut if you’ve got the dexterity in your shoulders. I can’t. I can’t reach my butt to do an injection, but if you can go for it.
Erik: You and I have talked about this. The thing for me is the ability to grip it and press with my thumb. For me that’s why I do it in my quad because I can sit right on the edge of my tub. I’ve got my thigh exposed and I can do the outside of it midway up. Very little pain, it goes right in and it’s super easy. I will say the one thing that I’ve heard people talk about, and I’ve tried it the last couple times and it’s actually helped is, I draw. Then I take the syringe and I put it under hot water in the sink. It does warm the oil up enough to where it actually goes in a lot smoother and you don’t have to push as much.
Brandon: Yeah. Are you 27 gauge?
Erik: Yeah. Yeah.
Brandon: I just switched to 30 and I am not a fan at all.
Erik: You probably have to push super hard.
Brandon: I’m conditioned to push-
Erik: Have you bent needles a little bit?
Brandon: Is your syringe-
Brandon: [crosstalk 00:27:27] Yeah. They bend because I’m shaking trying to push so hard. I’m not saying that it can’t be done. A lot of guys look at 27 gauge that way but I am … 27 is perfect for me. I’m conditioned for five years to push with the perfect amount of pressure but 30 gauge is rough.
Erik: I swear I saw somebody the other day say that they were using a 22 gauge inch and a half.
Brandon: I mean it happens.
Ian: Oh my.
Brandon: It’s a hole punch. That’s ridiculous.
Brandon: The number 10 common struggle/mistake is listening to bros. Because there are so many nuances that do matter, not injection site, guys give advice. Then the advice seeker will just switch things. They’ll cut their dose in half. They listen to too many people. You really have to listen to your body. Once you get accustomed to it, if you can get passed a six month mark and you’re just accustom. You know how you’re going to respond to things, and how you’re feeling, you can do it yourself. But …
Brandon: … saying all this I really hate that number 10. Not listening to bros is a weak thing but I think I’m going to leave it in this episode anyway.
Erik: But I mean I think there’s validity to that. There’s a difference between science and bro science. There’s a difference between, “Will this work for me?” It’s anecdotal versus this is just a generally accepted, a lot of people are doing this, here’s some-
Brandon: The collective knowledge of sorts. Yeah.
Ian: Yeah.
Brandon: I guess if I could pinpoint it further it would be if someone’s telling you to do something drastic, probably don’t do it. If they’re telling you to pick up an extra injection day, go for it. If they’re telling you to drop by a fraction of your dose, go for it, but don’t cut your dose in half because some guy with muscles said so.
Ian: Or start stacking all these other supplements with your protocol.
Brandon: Yeah. Anyway, I appreciate you guys’ input.
Erik: You all.
Brandon: No, we’re not in Texas.
Erik: Totally in Texas.
Brandon: That’s all I got. Thank you.
Announcer: Thank you for listening to the TRT Community podcast. You can find us online at Facebook.com/groups/TRTCommunity.
