Out of curiosity, have you had any adverse effects?
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Good question. Would like to know more about it, too
Not that Iāve noticed. In my early 20ās I was into hitting the gym and saw guys there they were obviously on massive amounts of illegally sourced test. They had issues ranging from face/back acne right up to gynecomastia (breast enlargement in men requiring surgery). Then big crashes of hormone levels and wild moods once they went off the drugs.
Mine is really nothing like that, itās just micro-dosing. In my recent tests my levels hovered right in the āregularā range for a late 30s male. If I did start going too high, the doc would have reduced the dosage.
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This might come back to haunt me but I dabbled with steroids 10-15 years ago whilst hitting the weights and a long time before riding a bike.
Iād be happy to answer any questions anyone might have. Itās difficult getting honest answers on the subject from someone that is actually willing to be open about their use.
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Did the muscle mass just pile on with the drugs? What happened when you stopped taking them? Thanks for being open to some questions. 
Never understood, why a perfectly healthy person would rather rely on questionable pills or injections, instead of relying on millions of years of evolution in order to get fitter. 
It didnāt pile on, no.
I ran a few steroid cycles and never took a higher dosage than what many would consider a bare minimum. There are levels to it.
As such I did see gains, yes but nothing that I could look back on and say it was worth it.
When my cycles ended I always lost a lot of the size I had built but somehow maintained most (but not all) of the actual strength. It took a while for my natural testosterone to kick in (I canāt remember the textbook answer but I wanna say around a month) during which time lifting was difficult but not impossible.
Hope this helpsš
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So steroids didnt just make you a monster on your own, you still had to work to grow?
Are you kidding? Of course you still need to work your ass off.
The fact is the vast majority of recreational weight lifters/body builders/posers are already training their ass off before they add steroids.
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When ppl say when youāre taking testosterone do not race cause itās doping what is the time period of not racing ? Forever? Iām just curious, I do not plan on doing that nor do I argue with the doping part. Sorry if it was written somewhere already
Donāt know about cycling but in the British Natural Bodybuilding Federation the number used to be 7 years.
Howās that for a random number 
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Wow, the level of misinformation in this thread is insane!
While there is clearly a HUGE issue with people getting TRT that have no business getting itā¦for those that do, itās a NEED! To suggest those people are simply aging and should live with it is like saying āi can handle a few beers, so I donāt believe alcoholism is realā
What are you guys telling women whose lives are rubbish until they get HRT? Suck it up lassie?
The USA system of not issuing TUE to race is daft - at least in the UK a non-competitive athlete can race on TRT and simply has to apply for a TUE if tested (which is almost never going to happen) - unless you think the 50 year old coming in 20,000 place in the London Marathon is going to get tested because its a UK athletics sanctioned event.
And as for itās actual benefits - taken at true TRT levels the advantage it offers an endurance sport is almost entirely via increased motivation to trainā¦although itās also harder to drop weight, soā¦swings and roundabouts. Iād put decent quality sleep, diet, training programme VASTLY ahead of TRT in pure performance benefits.
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I wonder what kind of good training and diet it is, that could help me? Because Iām diagnosed with low-T, and canāt handle relatively low volume of training without going into overtraining state.
Normally it goes like this:
- After about a week of little anaerobic load Iām fully rested and start training
- My routine is 2 training session 2 hours long in weekdays (FTP/VO2 max intervals for 40-50mins, the rest is just spinning in zone 2), followed by a few sets of pull ups and push ups, and bench press for one more hour - and one long ride at the weekend, 6-10 hours long, zone 2
- After the first week I already canāt recover in time so I often have to skip the first session or substitute with easy spin. If I force it, then till the end of that 2nd week I go into overtrained state - my sleep is ruined, I fill extremely shitty and week, my head hurts all the time (this is reflected pain from neck muscles which wonāt subside without medication) - and I have to rest for a complete week again before I have a chance to train again.
I eat more than enough, take a lot of vitamin and mineral supplements, aminoacids, you name it - doesnāt help at all. Everyone around me, even people 10 years older than me, do much better. They easily maintain harder training routines without any such consequences.
I could lower training intensity and volumes - but they are already close to nothing, assuming my goal is to progress. T substitution therapy seems to be my only option.
Thats not low volume.
If you train less then youāll be fine. Pick 2 out of the three.
Are you saying your long ride is 6-10 hours or that you total 6-10hpw?
Sounds pretty intense either way. To think you need to take synthetic testosterone as your only option is quite the stretch. Try getting a coach and following a training plan first.
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The long ride itself is 6-10 hours. That means in total, including all the stops. It can be 100kms ride over 5 hours, with 50-60mins of stops in it. A 10-12 hours is something like 150-200kms and happens quite rarely. Usually itās 100km, at 120-130bpm what is in zone 2 for me.
So in total itās like 10-12 training hours per week usually, what is I believe not very much even by amateur sportsman standards. People I know train much more than that without any issues. They have like 4-5 training sessions per week, run or swim, or go to gym on top of it - and feel good.
Another symptom in favor of low T levels is the fact that I broke my sternum while doing push ups on bars last year. I descended lower than you should and it just cracked. My doctor said he never saw sternum broken beside some traumatic accidents. So I suspect my bones are quite frail already (what is another consequences of low T). There is also noticeable drop in libido over the last 10 years, to boot. Too much symptoms to ignore.
I think you are severely over trained and thatās why you feel crummy all the time. 5 hr to complete 100km is not fast, so I suspect you have a low ftp. Itās one thing to ride lots because you love it, and you probably do. But, you are doing a huge amount of training relative to your fitness. Itās unsurprising that youāre not recovered during the week after a huge ride and then you do two intense rides mid week. Thatās why I suggest getting on a systematic training plan that builds in recovery, etc. I think if you take syn-T, you will overtrain in a similar way, but just be able to push high watts while doing so. The highest level pros who dope(d) still need rest and recovery in a proper training plan. T is not an invincibility drug
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Iām not on it. But T is the closest thing we have to superpower. I bet in the future it will be the standard for older adults, as the risks involved become better understood.
My current FTP is about 250w My usual avg.speed in zone 2 is 25kph (assuming little to no hills, about 500m of ascent over 100kms), so 5 hours means ride for 2 hours with some stops, have a dinner at some cafe, ride another 2 hours back to home.
I also ride brevets occasionally, I completed 300, 400 and 600kms distances this year, with average speed at about 20-23kph. So 100km is just a long walk for me, unless I turn it into a 3rd training session (sometimes I just canāt control the urge to speed upā¦)
My training sessions is usually 3x10 per FTP power, or 4x4min per 117% of FTP, or 2x12x30s of 140% FTP (depending on how I feel; if I feel I didnāt recover I either skip, or reduce power, or substitute it for casual ride for 1-2 hours in zone 2) - thatās 40-50 mins of it; plus warm up, plus cool down which is another 30 mins. The rest is just easy spinning in zone 2. Nothing especially hard
So in total I have 3 training days, and 4 days of complete rest. Thatās an ample rest, compare to a lot of other amateur athletes I know. Iām actually not sure what to throw out of it tbh, itās bare minimum already imo.
Have you had a blood test to measure your testosterone, or are you self diagnosing only based on your symptoms?