Testosterone Replacement Therapy May Be for You

2023-06-02T21:00:47-04:00

My name is Dustin McClure and I’m originally from Oklahoma but now reside in Virginia. I am married with four children and two stepchildren. I served 15 years in the U.S. Army as both an enlisted and officer service-member with numerous job duties such as Military Police, Military Police Investigator, Infantry, Psychological Operations, and a Special Operations Instructor. In the service, I was very fit maxing out the physical fitness test on the extended scale (old APFT), ran five miles in under 30 minutes, completed the 12-mile ruck march in under a 1 hour and 30 minutes, and broke the Guinness World Record for the “Fastest 5 Kilometers with a 40-pound pack” in a time of 20 minutes and 6 seconds.

Post service, I was not the same Dustin I had been while in the Army. My symptoms included fatigue, lack of concentration, lack of motivation & drive, exacerbation of mental health illnesses and lack of sex drive. The three main symptoms were fatigue, no sex drive, and lack of reliable erections. These symptoms wrecked my relationships, and my sexual confidence was in the gutters. I struggled silently for years before finally discussing my symptoms with my veteran cousin and my brother, and both suggested it might be low testosterone and to check out their local clinic. I was too ashamed and embarrassed at first to discuss this topic with anyone as I felt emasculated, including my ex-wife! This all culminated with my suicide attempt in 2016 but my ex-wife called EMS in time and I was saved physically but mentally, I still struggled until I went to my doc. He drew some labs and boom…low testosterone. Brothers, you are not alone and there is absolutely no reason for embarrassment or shame as low testosterone is a part of our lives as much as tats, booze, and PTSD.

I went to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center urologist and started the process of requesting help for low testosterone. The VA was very helpful educationally and offered a lot of data confirming that low testosterone can cause all the symptoms above but also depression, triggered PTSD incidents, and over all a decline in your mental health. These symptoms wrecked my life and enhanced my PTSD which severely negatively affected my TBI, Autism, ADHD, and my memory. While the VA did not ultimately approve my TRT (Testosterone Replacement Therapy) treatment, they did provide Cialis to help with soft to no erections and zero sex drive and mental health treatment until I could figure out how to alleviate my struggles.

Other than the VA, my TRT journey has been very smooth and often I am informing potential TRT candidates to be patient. This is in-fact a journey and as such takes time, communication with your doctor, and patience. Remember, your body didn’t turn to shit overnight, no sir, in fact it took a long ass time, so conversely it will take roughly 6-8 weeks just to see the beginning effects of your treatment. I have now been on treatment for three years and balanced out with very minimal/micro adjustments to my script. To date, all my low testosterone symptoms listed above have dissipated. I have more energy to play with my two six-year-olds, staying fit, my sexual prowess has returned with sex daily, and my mental status is the best it's ever been! I have no complaints whatsoever and highly recommend to all men feeling any of these symptoms that you take the time to research TRT as a whole and decide where you should get services.

Recommendations moving forward, if you're seeking help and get VA care, it’s a no brainer to contact your primary care physician at the VA and ask about your options.

If you want to enroll in VA Healthcare, click here: https://rly.pt/VHAEnroll1

If you don’t have VA care or want another option, I had a good experience with a private provider called Hone.
If you are interested in Hone Health and TRT, click here: https://rly.pt/HoneHealth

Best of Luck…RLTW!

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Response by SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL made Jun 3 at 2023 9:32 AM

2023-06-03T09:32:42-04:00

thanks for sharing

Response by Capt Jeff S. made Jun 3 at 2023 5:57 PM

2023-06-03T17:57:09-04:00

Am glad things worked out for you.

Response by Lt Col Scott Shuttleworth made Jun 5 at 2023 9:41 AM

2023-06-05T09:41:40-04:00

I will tellyou this. I had all the same symptoms and it sucked. I went to my on base regular tricare doctor several years back and they did the tests and it was low but "within standards." Pissed me off so I just lived with until last summer. I went and had it tested again and it was non existent almost. I
told them (didn't ask) to refer/send me to a urologist and when he walked in he introduced himself and said so, when do you want to start your injections? He told me that it should have never gotten that low. He also told me that testosterone is kind of like gas in a car tank. The needle doesn't drop to fast on the fuel guage till you get to about a quarter of a tank then it jut falls off. So last fall I started 1ml of testosterone every two weeks. I feel 100% different now. I give it to myself (my nurse daughter showed me how) and I get refills on base at the pharmacy. To easy. Don't wait. Go get it checked and I promise you will feel much better.

Response by SGT Ruben Lozada made Jun 6 at 2023 1:51 PM

2023-06-06T13:51:41-04:00

Good afternoon CPT Dustin McClure. Excellent post. Thank You for sharing this Sir.

Response by SSgt Richard Kensinger made Jun 10 at 2023 2:10 PM

2023-06-10T14:10:13-04:00

I'm relieved that my T remains a an all time low.
Rich

Response by LTC Ben Walters (Ret) made Jul 28 at 2023 11:01 AM

2023-07-28T11:01:09-04:00

Funny, I just sent my VA PCM a request via myhealth-e-vet to see if she would add the low-t test to my upcoming bloodwork. And then I ran into your post shortly thereafter. The horse was before the cart in this case, but your comments and discussion that followed just re-inforced my desire to at least get it checked out. My symptoms are the same as everyones in the comments. Thanks for sharing.

Response by Althea Lin made Jul 30 at 2023 11:15 PM

2023-07-30T23:15:43-04:00

Looks like your 15 years in the army went pretty well.