#dan talks

I was very happy with testosterone gel when I started. I was on 1% gel, starting at one pump and moving to 2 pumps. Each pump was 12.5 mg of testosterone I believe.

Gel was really easy to begin with. You have to keep it and the area you apply it on your body away from animals and children and others who might not want extra testosterone on them, but this was not a problem with me. The gel is daily. This helps if you need to do something daily to get it into your routine.

The gel also takes very little time to put on, it is the same consistency of hand sanitizer. It's honestly really foolproof to use, it's very easy and consistent. I noticed some changes within the first couple of weeks! (I have a timeline posted on this blog)

The gel also gives you a very consistent dose of hormones each day, which was definitely good for my mental health.

The cons of gel for me started around summer when It was warmer and putting on gel and then wearing long sleeves over it just was not fun. Going hand in hand with this i also got a boyfriend and did not want to get gel on him accidentally.

The daily nature of the gel also wasn't helpful if I was going to stay the night somewhere because I would need to bring a bottle of gel if I wanted to put it on first thing in the morning, or I could do it when I got home but risk forgetting to do it. Daily gel became a slight hassle with my new routines.

Gel was also so so so very expensive. I'm in Canada and have no insurance. The gel was around 200 dollars monthly.

My levels were also not where I wanted them to be on the gel. This may have been solved if I went on a higher dose, but the higher dose would cost more money that I do not have. This may not apply to you if you have insurance. Male testosterone levels are between 10-35 nmol/l. I was at 3 nmol/l after over a year on testosterone.

For the shots, I've been on intramuscular shots since September. I take .25ml every week. There is 50mg of testosterone in each injection.

My levels have already went up into the male range although I haven't experienced many further changes yet. I'm at 23 nmol/L.

I only have to worry about doing my shot one day a week, and I could have chosen to have those farther apart but I feel like my mental health would suffer if I did them too far apart.

I don't have to worry about gel rubbing off onto anyone or anything like that.

I pay nothing for my testosterone as my local insurance covers it.

The WORST part about doing the injections is... actually doing the injections. It hurts sometimes, and the times it doesn't I'm anxious about it hurting. It's stabbing a needle into your own body, it's difficult.

This makes the shots unpredictable. Unlike the gel, the shots can hurt sometimes and not other times. If predictability is important to you, maybe don't go for shots.

I do understand that the more you do it the better you will get at choosing the correct spot to inject, but for me it's been really hard not knowing if I'm going to be in a lot of pain or if it will not hurt at all. I'm not even a person who is afraid of needles or pain, it's just hard to do it to your self. That being said, it has never been so bad that I've missed an injection before.