Guido, you're a trip. I was going to take you to task for something you wrote about androgel and grand-dads in another thread, but after reading what you wrote above I can't do it....
I would ask you to consider that not everyone reading "the steroid threads" is in their 20's and 30's. As a young guy of 26 you are still filled with piss and vinegar... wait until you get to be my age (60).
I began reading about andropause last year ... some of the symptoms in the articles sounded very much like what I had been experiencing for a couple of years: brain fog, low energy. "dry" orgasms (just plain weird and not right!) and a general loss of interest in women, sex, working out. I also began having mood swings. My lady friend (we had started out fast and furious in bed but now, 10 years later, we were just best friends) suggested that I had become bi-polar. I knew that was highly unlikely given my age, but the more I saw articles about andropause - male menopause - in the media the more certain I became that andropause was my problem.
3 months ago I convinced my doctor to send me to Quest for a blood test. This in itself took some doing. I'm a real estate salesman who can't sell in this market. I'm on Medicaid. My,doctor has about 15 minutes that he can spend with a patient per visit. I xeroxed the one single best article I could find on "andropause", I circled the symptoms I had in red, I wrote a short letter explaining what I was after, and dropped it off at his office 2 days before my appointment. When I got to the appointment he started laughing and said that he wished all of his patients were as prepared as I was... He OKayed the blood test. No surprise, it came back that my testosterone levels had fallen below the normal range for my age. I started TRT via Androgel 3 months ago and now I have the energy and the psychological drive and desire to go back to the gym and work my body. The brain fog is gone. Best of all, I am a sexual being again... the dry orgasms are a thing of the past.
The androgel did more than give me energy... it has actually changed my personality and perception of the world a bit. 6 months ago I was a tired, dried up old man. Today I feel like I got my life back.
So Guido, you may well be correct in telling younger guys that androgel won't do much - if anything - for them at the gym. But for some old farts like myself, it could be the key to getting their asses back to the gym!
26 years old huh? Jesus, if only I could go back to that age!