Pellets, Anyone?

lboston

lboston

Well-known member
Gents-

My urologist decided he wanted to give pellets a go for my HRT treatment. I was on 100mg test c a week, but that only had me to around 520 ng/dl.

Has anyone had any experience with these? Wants me to get labs done first of August.

I've seen mixed reviews online about them--some swear by them, others swear at them!
 
Ive been on the pellets for about a year, came off 100 mg Cyp. a week due to high RBC and Hemoglobin levels. I go see the Doc on 6/14/12 too see how my levels are now. I started out on 15 mg pellets twice a day, had bloods done T level was 520, E2 was 65 and felt like I was not really taking anything, so he increased my dose to 25 mg pellets twice a day. I still have dont seem to have the drive and motivation of the Cyp., and I,m pretty sure my E2 levels are even higher, tender nips all the time and no real sex drive. I may ask the Doc. to go back to Cyp. and donate blood to try and keep my blood levels more in range. So far I,m not real impressed with the whole Bioidentical Hormone route.....
 
So you are doing oral pellets then? The pellets I just had done today are the injectable pellets that are placed in your hip and supposedly good for 4-6 months.
 
Confused. What scale are you and your doc using, 520 seems fine, normal range 250-1100, what are you shooting for? how do you feel on 100mg cyp a week? Why didnt you just up the dosage a little, maybe 150mg wk or something? How long have you been on cyp? I wouldnt use pellets, thats old tech making a comeback, imo, did you even try androgel? Sorry for all the questions, just seems kinda odd, and maybe by answering them, someone can help you.



1. Early Side Effects. The first "generation" of pellets were rife with ugly side effects and scared many doctors and patients away from their use. For example, an earlier study of Organon pellets revealed that 8.5% of patients had extrusions, meaning that one of the pellets actually worked its way up to the skin surface. [1] Another study showed even higher extrusion rates in the 11-12% range. [2] This same study also documented bleeding and infection rates of 9% and 4%, respectively. Ouch!
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2. Minor Surgery. As mentioned above, pellets are not simply an injection but rather a minor surgery. A local anasthetic is applied, a small incision made and then a special "hollowed out needle" is used to insert the pellets. Minor bleeding and bruising are relatively common.

3. Expense. My understanding is that currently most insurance carriers do not cover pellets for standard hypogonadal (clinically low testosterone) treatment and these pellets, though the size of a grain of rice, are not cheap: about $25-40 apiece with 6-10 pellets being the most common dosage. Reimbursement for the office visit may or may not be possible as well.

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No problem, I'm glad to answer and have the feedback.

The scale used was a labcorp scale that had approx 350 as the low end and approx 1200 at the high end. I did the shots for around 6 week, but did not feel like a "steady" improvement.

I did not use any gels as I have a young daughter and a pregnant wife and did not want to risk the transference.

My insurance covers the cost of the pellets at 100% with only a 20 dollar co-pay. If this doesn't work I'll see about going back to the injections.
 
I must add--I'm still not 100 percent sold on the doc. He doesn't check e2, only total estrogen--which was more than 40 points above the highest end of the scale. However, he said it was "fine".

He at least checks total AND free T; the urologist I saw before him wouldn't check free test.

If you know anyone around the Louisville, KY area I'm in the market!
 
The pellets I,m taking are made at a compounding pharmacy and are placed under the tongue. Keep us posted if U go with the pellets....
 
RipdnTxs said:
The pellets I,m taking are made at a compounding pharmacy and are placed under the tongue. Keep us posted if U go with the pellets....
Click to expand...

I am doing the injectable pellets--not the oral ones. Started with them yesterday.
 
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