HRT pellets

[Teutonic]

My eye doc indicated he s talking to a doc about some type of test pellets . I quess he meant time release solids...anything anyone ??? He indicated there are fwer sides and little to no need for Aromatase inhibitor (AI) s which i find hard to believe..but..he s a doc and ripped...
T

 

[cashout]

My eye doc indicated he s talking to a doc about some type of test pellets . I quess he meant time release solids...anything anyone ??? He indicated there are fwer sides and little to no need for Aromatase inhibitor (AI) s which i find hard to believe..but..he s a doc and ripped...
T

Only found one abstract and the study is on adolescent boys from 1997.

I'll look to see if there is anything more recent I can find.

Treatment of hypogonadal adolescent boys with long acting subcutaneous testosterone pellets -- Zacharin and Warne 76 (6): 495 -- Archives of Disease in Childhood

 

[cashout]

Not a peer-reviewed article but a summary read on....

Implantable testosterone pellets show advantages in men with low testosterone - - ModernMedicine

Still looking for the actual .pdf of the study as published in the proceedings.

 

[cashout]

This is the article title we want...

A Multi-Institutional Observational Study on Testosterone Levels After Testosterone Pellet (Testopel TM) Insertion by A. McCullough et. al.

I'm not on campus right now so I can't access it. I'll check it tomorrow and follow up.

 

[CHIP WADOWSKI]

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!

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.

 

[jerhendr2203]

Very expensive, and insurance will only cover it if you are in dire need. My doc recommends it to women only, because of the low amount of testosterone that it releases.....on a plus side (there aren***8217;t many) is that you don***8217;t have to pin yourself for up to six months in some cases. Big negatives, it requires a small 1 inch incision, the pellet can and does work itself out quite regularly, requiring more cost to have a new pellet reinserted, and you never know what you're truly getting. With shots you know that you are getting 200mg every 5-7 days, with the pellet, you really don***8217;t know when the pellet has fully dissolved, and the only way to tell is when you go back to have your second, or third round of labs.

 

[ecdysone]

There's a bunch of UTubes showing the process ["testosterone pellet implant", etc]. Although it is painless, obviously you want a very skilled doc to implant the pellets thereby reducing many of the issues pointed out by Chip.

 

[TR2838]

I would love it if I didn't have to do the weekly injections, but, it's just not realistic to think that I would get my hormones dialed in properly w/ pellets

 

[ecdysone]

I would love it if I didn't have to do the weekly injections, but, it's just not realistic to think that I would get my hormones dialed in properly w/ pellets

Funny you should say that, since it's probably just a matter of the "therapy" catching-up with the biochemistry. No reason you couldn't titrate the number of pellets vs. your test level. IM dosing is the purest and most direct, but it's only matter of time (and experience) that other delivery routes won't win out.

 

[funkymonk]

FYI, my doc said that it's common in his experiences for insurances to cover them in full, since they're marked as a "surgical procedure" rather than a "prescription."

Still, I said F NO and just got the tried and true Cyp. The last thing I wanted is some committment to a dosage/delivery method for months on end w/o the possibility of altering it as need be on the fly.