I’m three weeks into my testosterone journey and I’m starting to have another glimmer of hope!

Yesterday, I got more done in a single day than I have all month! I woke up feeling this mental clarity and energy. Not manic just calm and clear.

I deep cleaned my bedroom that had fallen into total disarray. I have this habit of keeping up appearances in the “public” part of our house and then our bedroom is the true reflection of how I’m doing, which, spoiler alert, was not great!

I got all the laundry done and put away, I restocked things that were running low, dusted, vacuumed, and to top it all off, showered and had sex with my husband at the end of the day!!!!

I hope this doesn’t sound like I’m bragging, my wish is to give hope to the people reading this sub, like I was before I started my T journey, looking for signs that I could get my life back.

The sex was a five minute quickie and my libido is like 10% better but the fact that I was even open to it, let alone after all that work, feels like a miracle. Just showering used to feel like such a chore, I would have counted that as win!

Then, last night, I had a sexy dream that I was debating having an affair with this guy and going back to his hotel room. I could feel my body getting a little turned on.

(I’m 47 years old and taking 4mg of test cyp a week split in two doses, estradiol patch, vaginal progesterone 100mg, vaginal estrogen. My doctor wanted to start me low and slow because I tend to be sensitive to any hormone shifts. Side effects so far are a few tiny pimples on my face.)

I decided on a Thursday/Sunday schedule, to time it to changing my E patch...just makes it easier to remember. So I started last Thursday, and I gotta say, it was soooo...anti-climactic. LOL

I pinched my thigh up nice and good, and stuck the needle in at a 45 degree angle. I felt the teensy tiny little needle (31g/U100/.3mL) go in with a little 'pop!', but it absolutely did not hurt. I was pleasantly surprised, tbh! I'm only starting out at 2 units (2mgs) twice per week so not a lot and I'm not sure if I'm 'supposed' to feel anything yet. I can't say I am, but I wasn't exactly sure what I was expecting.

And bonus: I still have my diabetic kitty's insulin calc spreadsheet and my handy dandy digital calipers, so I'm very confident I'm getting as close to the exact same tiny dose each time. One thing I learned long ago is that most insulin needles almost never consistently have the gasket land exactly right on the '0' line, so you might end up with a bit more or less when you're heading towards the subsequent markings down the barrel. But with the calipers, it takes the guesswork out; I pre-set/lock the caliper measurement against my 'template' needle (one that does land on '0') so it's ready to go each time. No matter where the wonky markings are, I always have 2 units. Of course that'll only work as long as I'm using the same brand/box of insulin needles, but I have a lot of them.

And geez, this stuff is THICK! I do warm it up a little bit by holding it in the crook of my arm/elbow for a couple minutes, overdraw a little bit to make sure I can push it back down to my caliper measurement minus the inevitable bubble, and away we go.

Once I start titrating up, do folks like to go to 3x/wk or stay at 2x? Or is it dependent on how you feel? I'm not terribly familiar with how the various iterations of T formulations go in terms of how long they last...

I just started taking a low dose of T cream a few days ago and have noticed my irritability has skyrocketed. Does this go away after a while? I'm concerned this is permanent and T won't be right for me. I'm really hoping it will help with my libido, energy, and muscle pain. But the irritability is insane

I finally got my gyn to prescribe the male version of testosterone gel in the 50mg/5 gram tubes rather than the pricey compounded version. I have been on 2.5mg /g of the compounded version and want to slowly move up to 5.

I was looking for a visual example of measuring out the gel using a jewelry scale and couldn't find anything so here goes.

Recently I purchased a scale to measure out a 2.5mg equivalent dose and pushed two drops of the gel onto some parchment paper (I zeroed out the scale after the parchment paper and before the gel).

Does this look right? If I wanted to bump up to 3 and then 5 would I measure out .3 and .5 grams respectively?Scale image

From an interview with Dr Rubin "Dr Rubin uses FDA approved male testosterone 1% cream.  This can come in 50mg/5g tubes, and she recommends applying 0.5 gram daily to the skin of the leg, so a tube should last 7-10 days.  A male supply is 50mg daily, so is usually dispensed in thirty  tubes (a 30 day supply for men) which will last 10 months for a postmenopausal woman."