Kind of...but not really.

I've decided to give my body up for science and I will be a part of a Clinical Study. When I first signed up for this, I was unemployed and desperate for the money. It took a while for the paperwork to go through and now, even though I don't need the money (as badly) any more, I am still going to go through with this.

[There are some confidentiality boundaries regarding this study so I am going to be careful with what I talk about but at the same time I want to make sure I share this with as many people as possible.]

Basically, for the next four months, I will be getting my testosterone from an alternative source. The project is to see the effects of a newtestosterone gel on the male body. However, to make this a true test, the body's natural testosterone production needs to be shut down...that's what happened yesterday.

For my first visit, I had a very thorough physical which culminated with the first two steps of the project. The first was a small pellet that was injected into my abdomen. This pellet will be absorbed by my body and then will ultimately lead to my testosterone production to halt. While this was happening, I couldn't help but start to question what the hell I was doing. Some of the results include lack of sex drive (eek!), fatigue, weight gain, and hot flashes. My testosterone will be replaced by a daily gel that I apply every morning. I won't go into the details of it but no worries...it's not gross or anything.

Of course, the one caveat is that there lies the possibility that the gel is a placebo, which means, no testosterone replacement. Ouch. While that would be the worst case scenario, I can't help but to be curious as to what that would be like.

So today was the first day sans real testosterone and with the gel. They told me that it would take a few days to really take effect so I will make sure to let all of you know what that feels like.