I'm a middle aged man and have been taking testosterone for approximately 5 years at therapeutic doses. I have not, however, been prescribed since I started taking it. I am currently finishing "treatment", PHP with housing for a relapse on alcohol while in monitoring, and they found that my testosterone levels were lower than normal. This raised suspicion because I'm a rather muscular guy. What happened was I stopped taking testosterone before I came here and my endogenous production had stopped. Now they are recommending that I see an endocrinologist when I restart monitoring.
Now that's all good and fine, but my question is this. Can IPN randomly test my testosterone levels to see if my levels are therapeutic? That seems to be the entire point of seeing an endocrinologist since they will monitor those levels and complete the necessary reports as required. I feel like this is overboard with respect to IPN's scope of monitoring.
The treatment center has mentioned making this recommendation to IPN on discharge. I wonder if IPN will go so far as to do this. Has anyone ever heard of someone's testosterone levels being monitored by IPN?
Here's the kicker. If I were prescribed, it would be called "testosterone replacement therapy (TRT)”, but without a prescription, I'm positive that it's considered as "anabolic steroid abuse".
I can't help but think of all sorts of ethical dilemmas when considering other scenarios involving hormone replacement therapy or hormone monitoring by IPN (if there's such thing). For instance, what if a female was taking testosterone to transition to male? Would IPN intervene? I'm sure they wouldn't dare cross that line in today's political climate.
So to be clear, it's OK for a woman to be allowed to take testosterone to transition to male in order to enjoy the benefits of developing more masculine qualities. I highly doubt she would not be required to have those values monitored by IPN, but for a man to enjoy the benefits of increased testosterone levels, that would require monitoring? And what? If my testosterone levels happened to be supratherapeutic then I'm no longer deemed to be safe to practice?
I know this is a unique situation, but I wanted to introduce it for discussion. Because something is wrong here, terribly wrong, in my opinion.