TRT Helped Me Thrive in a High-Stress Job
I learned the relationship between stress and hormone health goes both ways.
After a decade in the military (and a few years out of it), I made a bold leap into a high-level aircraft manager role at a military base. It was a dream opportunity, but it came with crushing pressure. My peers had decades more experience. Still, I was ready for the challenge and knew I could excel—and for about a year, I did.
Then, the weight of being in the “hot seat,” as coworkers called my role, started to get to me. I was on call 24 hours a day, juggling two phones and praying neither would ring. I couldn’t sleep; every night, I’d lay awake, waiting to get a call.
I stopped going to the gym because, after a grueling 13-hour workday, I had no energy to train. As my anxiety rose, my appetite plummeted. I lost 40 pounds in my first year on the job—most of it muscle.
I gritted through debilitating stress for four years. I stopped initiating sex with my wife because I couldn’t get my mind away from work. I snapped at my kids over small things. I turned to snacks and fast food to cope with my stress. I gained back all the weight I lost, but this time, it wasn’t muscle.
My struggles came to a head before a family reunion when I couldn’t find clothes that fit. I opened up to my father about how I felt. He saw what I hadn’t admitted to myself—I wasn’t just neglecting my health; I was falling apart. We had a long talk, and he encouraged me to prioritize my health before it was too late.
VETERAN HEALTH
I took his advice. I increased my protein intake, started going to the gym regularly, and forced myself to go to bed early. But no matter how disciplined I was, my body refused to change. I couldn’t gain muscle or lose fat, and my mental health was still in the dumps. I suspected stress was a factor, but I started researching other potential causes for my symptoms. That’s when I came across an ad for Hone that talked about low testosterone. I wondered if my hormones might be to blame.
A few weeks after sending in my at-home hormone assessment, I received my results. My total testosterone was just 249 ng/dL at 34 years old; low for a guy my age. No wonder I felt terrible.
Editor’s note: Normal testosterone levels fall between 300 and 1,200 ng/dL, depending on symptoms, age, and other health factors.
My Hone doctor explained that stress and hormone levels can have a bidirectional relationship. They can feed off each other in a vicious cycle: stress can drive testosterone levels down, while low testosterone can amplify stress. It was reassuring to learn I wasn’t alone; many veterans deal with the same issue. But understanding the problem wasn’t enough—I needed a solution to break the cycle.
My doctor prescribed twice-weekly testosterone injections to bring my levels into a healthy range. Within a few weeks, I noticed a marked difference in my mood. I wanted to do activities with my family again. My wife was shocked the first time I asked her if she wanted to go to our local farmer’s market and take the kids to the park. Our sex life quickly reignited, too.
Three months later, my hormone assessment showed that my testosterone levels were in the 800s, and I could feel the difference. I felt calm, cool, and collected even when I had to deal with a high-pressure situation at work. I slept through the night without jolting awake at the slightest sound. Most surprisingly, I started to love my job.
If you had told me a few months earlier that I’d feel this way again, I would have laughed in your face. I just needed to balance my hormones.
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About the author
Chuck is a Hone customer.
