Your Dr’s opinions?

[LlamaWorm]

I told my surgeon but haven't had an appt with my PCP. I'll tell him i'm on a compounded GLP but that's where it'll stop.

 

[fatjacked]

I actually first took peps from a functional medicine doc who doesn't take insurance, sort of like a higher-end med spa type service. But I have concluded that I won't be going back due to cost, and his records aren't part of the ones on file with my PCP.

My PCP is a chump who is never available and his office is run by a different group of frazzled MA's every time I go there, so I will be looking to switch. I will tell my new doc that I am on Zepbound, but will not mention any of the other peptides, or any of my other historical extracurricular activities. I don't even tell my doctors that I used to smoke when I was a teenager, because I've been lying about it so long that I assume coming clean now would have the potential to create some stupid coverage problems or cost issues if I ever have to purchase my own coverage.

 

[JesusTriste]

I take MT2 for eye inflammation. The doctors said to take it further, because they can give me steroids instead and those are way more harmful. But in my country the doctors don't give a shit about their patients.

 

[spanky2026]

In the US, as others have noted, doctors play by the insurance and drug company rules and influence, I don't care how many times they all tell you they're above all that. In this country if a doctor says you need X medication, the insurance company can and DOES say nope, we don't think you need that. It's insane, there is literally no reason for that middle to even exist, but that's what $$$ buys you when the rules are made.

My next doc will get the info that I'm on Tirz ONLY if it's relevant to something specific, but I'm actively searching for the rare doc (had one for years until he retired) that does NOT think every patient has to report annually or semiannually because the rule books say so. I traditionally go the doc when blood is coming out of some place it isn't supposed to, a bone is poking at an odd angle, or something that used to work isn't anymore. I don't need a doc poking around in me anymore than that.

 

[Stace_wow]

I struggled for almost 2 years to get perimenopause hormone replacement FROM MY GYNECOLOGIST. Jesus f-ing Christ there is not the slightest chance I'm asking a doctor what they think about peptides.

Straight up. I had a gyno appointment, and I brought up Peri to my doctor, and he asked....are your periods still regular? Since I am an on time Queen, he said there was no way with a regular period I was in Peri. 46 yo btw....

 

[alphaskunk65]

Out of curiosity, for those that regularly have dr’s visits and checkups, do you discuss your pep intake with them? Or do your keep that info to yourself? If you do discuss what have been some of their responses? Just debating whether to discuss with Dr. Thanks for your input. 👍🏻

Yes I told her I was pinning Test Enanthate and Reta. She said absolutely not on the Arimadex. That particular estrogen blocker affects bone density I guess. At 60yrs of age I think my bone density is shitting the bed on its own. I think I'll find a pep for that as well. Shes a nurse practitioner very easy going open minded. I will never use a regular doctor again unless he or she is specialist.

 

[TwinSuns]

While I don't have a doctor, I am in New Mexico and we have a MD shortage, so I only have a Nurse Practitioner, I wont discuss it. As far as they know all I am on is Tripeptide. I am not comfortable enough to tell her anything when it is even a fight to be seen (waits like 6-9 months).

 

[Vriende]

The last time I had my annual physical, I used the patient portal to update my Rx's.

Under the med section it offered the choice of check boxes for brand name Zepbound or generic tirzepatide with standard doses.
I checked a box for Zepbound at a standard dose.

Never have had any questions, but last time the nurse referred to it as tirzepatide, just checking I am still on it.

All in their ordinary day's work, no issues or concerns. Never any reason to bring up grey.

 

[Twowheelr2]

I told my doctor I was on tirzepatide. He asked where I got it. Told him I had script from a telehealth outfit. — true— still have it and get monthly supply. I think his big concern was me getting medicine from the black market. He seemed ok with telehealth. It is included on my medical record as mounjaro.

 

[endlrls]

My doctor takes medicaid and medicare money, which means he works for the government so I treat him the same way I would treat a police officer.

My doctor takes money from my insurance company, not me, so he works for the insurance company. He will chart/report my misdeeds and it could jeopardize my coverage down the road, so I also treat him the same way I would treat a snitch.

What does this look like in practice? I go for my annual physical. I bring my private blood labs that I got that year so he can upload them, but only when there is nothing incriminating on it. (My 9.5 ng/mL GH blood test never made it to his chart, for example.) I've had the same doc for several years now and he no longer asks me why I do this. I do not report my marijuana use, I don't tell him about my hobbies. These guys are now trained to ask patients if they have firearms at home. (WTF is that?? Of course I have no firearm at home, I brought it with me 🙄)

I only speak to him when asked a question, and I only tell the truth if I think it will suit me. Otherwise I tell him what he wants to hear. Rarely, I have had medical conditions which actually required a doctor, for example an infection that required antibiotics, I also broke my foot years ago and went for xrays. In these instances, the smartest move is to seek help for things which actually require help.

Doctors are a tool, not a teammate. They get used for awful things all the time (APA peeps working gitmo, circumcision, you get the idea). I wish it wasn't this way, but I play to win, and this is the system I was presented with.

Remember, under the law, there is only ONE person who is required to keep your secrets, and that's your lawyer. Never lie to your lawyer, they are your only friend. Attorney - client privilege is so strong that it makes doctor - patient confidentiality look like toilet paper.

And one last thing I would like to add: if you are unsure about your health, it might be best to rely on your doctor anyway, just know the risks. The only reason I'm like this is because I am confident in my ability to manage my own health. If that calculus ever changes I will probably be more forthcoming with them.

This is more spot on then I would like to admit... Thank you!

 

[endlrls]

as a type 2 diabetic, I will probably not volunteer my use of grey triz unless he specifically asked what I have been doing. When I was diagnosed, he prescribed me Ozempic when I asked if I would be a good fit. after a few months he would never up my dosage after I told him that I couldn't even tell I was taking it. During that time, my employer switched insurance that would not cover without jumping through tons of hoops.
I told my doctor I would pay whatever, but Just up my dosage and he refused. even said I didn't need it and should try to loose weight the hard way. ( this coming from a dr who himself is type 2 and weighs a minimum of 350lbs).
I switched to Telehealth who I got triz from. It worked wonders but they recently cut me off when they found out I was on insulin ( they must be able to see what I have been prescribed).
I had already started stocking up on grey when it looked like big pharmacy and FDA was starting to make it more difficult to obtain GLP1s without draining your bank account.

Have a physical scheduled for next week, so we will see what happens.

Holy shit... Talk about "gatekeeping" you with medication that you need....

I just had a run with a DOT FED MED doctor for my card renewal. Long story short, I got my 2 year card by my "White Coat" was bad.. turns out I have UARS for sleep and a hyper reactive nervous system.... any who... The doctor himself is trying to give me the "it's just age" lecture in regards to Blood Pressure meanwhile his shirt is so tight I thought the bottom button was going to fly off and hit me from the Santa Claus belly he had. I'm literally 190 lb @ 5'10"... I do 15-17k a day in steps and run 3 times a week.... my brain: "uhm.. I need my card so I'll be quiet"

We talked and he had like a moment of clarity and I got my card. Doctors should work with you but like stated by many, they have too much liability at hand.. especially when they sign off on legal documentation.

The insurance thing is what really puts a choke-hold on people and access.. and many don't want to "go grey" even though its much cheaper (worried about a 3rd arm is my guess 🐀 🐀 ). My sister is STILL paying $499 a month for 60 mg (not a typo) to the big bad Lily.. more power to her.. but eventually I figure her HSA is going to run dry...

 

[Socram1578]

Holy shit... Talk about "gatekeeping" you with medication that you need....

I just had a run with a DOT FED MED doctor for my card renewal. Long story short, I got my 2 year card by my "White Coat" was bad.. turns out I have UARS for sleep and a hyper reactive nervous system.... any who... The doctor himself is trying to give me the "it's just age" lecture in regards to Blood Pressure meanwhile his shirt is so tight I thought the bottom button was going to fly off and hit me from the Santa Claus belly he had. I'm literally 190 lb @ 5'10"... I do 15-17k a day in steps and run 3 times a week.... my brain: "uhm.. I need my card so I'll be quiet"

We talked and he had like a moment of clarity and I got my card. Doctors should work with you but like stated by many, they have too much liability at hand.. especially when they sign off on legal documentation.

The insurance thing is what really puts a choke-hold on people and access.. and many don't want to "go grey" even though its much cheaper (worried about a 3rd arm is my guess 🐀 🐀 ). My sister is STILL paying $499 a month for 60 mg (not a typo) to the big bad Lily.. more power to her.. but eventually I figure her HSA is going to run dry...

Hadn’t thought about my fed med card, the more I think about it I’ll definitely keep all my 🐹 research under wraps.

 

[endlrls]

Hadn’t thought about my fed med card, the more I think about it I’ll definitely keep all my 🐹 research under wraps.

It wont' flag you, I've had randoms and my regular and it was all good.. I just don't tell them.

The UARS rabbit hole is also treading water for me in a way. I had a sleep study (GP recommended it, WatchPatONE) and my AHI was 3.5... but my RDI was 12.6.. so not diagnosable but I am having surgery in a couple of weeks (Septoplasty, Nasal Valve, Turbinate Reduction).

But how do I phrase this.. "I may or may not have found an ARB to give my Lab Rat to help with their UARS till their surgery..." 🐀🐀 😆 😆

 

[copepmuscle]

I don't believe your doctors notes are included to your insurance provider. The only thing your insurance provider sees is billing codes other than narrow appeal scenarios. So I don't think telling your doctor will result in punitive measures.

My doctor prescribed me Semaglutide. Started with updating blood work and trying to establish an insulin basis. Fortunately my A1C was great, unfortunately would mean not using insurance for Ozempic. Discussed the cost of Wegovy and compounding pharmacy options.

Later I went to a Gameday mens health clinic to investigate peptides further. They really push testosterone despite their own test showing I was normal they wanted to double it. When I repeatedly said no the prices came down. When I shifted to peptides they offered membership numbers and bla bla. I went to a couple of other similar clinics found them educational to a point.

I discussed this with my doctor his response was "I can prescribe testosterone for you and will be cheaper but the numbers you show me it will probably mean me prescribing you Finasteride". I brought up peptides besides the GLP1 I was on...

He went to discuss an overview of the multiple promising peptides but not available (reta). He scheduled another blood test...

While I've never discussed specifically "I bought this shit from the internet" he clearly knows to an extent and like I said ordered blood test.

Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, very polite, discusses care thoroughly, pounds on the laptop like it owes him money.

 

[MFGamesta]

I told my PCP I started tirz from RO when I did start. I told him I may try GH peptides to retain muscle. He added IGF-1 to my panel and set me up with a colonoscopy.

Side note, one of my best friends is a Dr and he is really my pep Dr. He reviews my blood work and we work out together. He is in our peptide club so I feel spoiled I can bounce anything off of him.

 

[rkbleddyn]

I actually first took peps from a functional medicine doc who doesn't take insurance, sort of like a higher-end med spa type service. But I have concluded that I won't be going back due to cost, and his records aren't part of the ones on file with my PCP.

My PCP is a chump who is never available and his office is run by a different group of frazzled MA's every time I go there, so I will be looking to switch. I will tell my new doc that I am on Zepbound, but will not mention any of the other peptides, or any of my other historical extracurricular activities. I don't even tell my doctors that I used to smoke when I was a teenager, because I've been lying about it so long that I assume coming clean now would have the potential to create some stupid coverage problems or cost issues if I ever have to purchase my own coverage.

They're not cheap, but they are not really expensive like some of the functional medicine centers are in our area, which no way could I even afford. Membership for my wife and I is $170 a month. add another $200 and $250 on top of that for compounded Semag and Tirz. But we get an amazing discount on labs, a lot less than you will pay with insurance, and we don't really take any other meds except my low dose BP med and the peptides which I buy grey market.

 

[lessthanhalf]

I am lucky enough to have had the same local doctor for 25 years or so, and am in Australia where private insurance is not an issue unless you are rich enough to afford it.

After losing about 70 kilos, but more or less permanently hungry, he prescribed ozempic for a year or so and suggested changing to tirzepatide after having side effects from ozempic that never went away, and told me it should not work out much more expensive, which I did not believe at first but when I worked out the dose differences, it did not look too much worse. As it was I had hardly any side effects from it but needed much larger doses than I had calculated going from 0.22mg/2days of ozempic to 4.25mg/2days of tirz, which just made the costs impossible at $690 aud/month.

Then I found this forum and the cheap Chinese versions of them. I had no issues telling him about them, he was more interested in where I was getting them from and how I could trust that they were what they said they were, which I think are the right questions and where things could go wrong. I had to tell him about the low dose of HGH I was taking as well to explain why I wanted to get IGF-1 tested, again he was only concerned about source reliability regarding issues of mislabelling or contamination. And was glad I had that tested as IGF-1 was miles above normal or where I expected from 1.5iu/day.

My endocrinologist for TRT did not seem to care much or the gastroenterologists about Chinese GLP's. Have not seen the cardiologist since swapping to the grey versions. Maybe Australian doctors are a bit more chill about the whole issue, though if I had to guess I would think their use in the US especially with all the compounding options would be quite a bit more common than here where compounding is much more strictly controlled and GLP's were only available that way for a very short time.

 

[LabRatts]

Out of curiosity, for those that regularly have dr’s visits and checkups, do you discuss your pep intake with them? Or do your keep that info to yourself? If you do discuss what have been some of their responses? Just debating whether to discuss with Dr. Thanks for your input. 👍🏻

My Dr asks me what I'm currently usingwhen I visit and we do labs to measure what is occurring. Based on our history thus far and my labs he often asks advice (non clinical, anecdotal information) on his own usage due to the results we've seen with my full disclosure researching. He's not operating under my direction mind you, but open minded enough to see the results and take notes on dosage/protocols. His ptactice offers compounding but he knows full well I am accessing via grey market.
I'm blessed to have found a clinician in an office that accepts insurance for insurable type things who cares about labs/results/well-being versus pushing pharmaceuticals. Wouldn't switch for the world.

 

[skaylife]

I had a bad enough experience recently with my doc that I'm firing him. Told him about Tirz and he simply refused to even discuss it. At all. Didn't want to know about how much I'd lost, any side effects, diet or exercise, when I bought it up he just changed the subject. Repeatedly. I'm guessing he's concerned about liability since I told him I was getting it compounded (at the time, I've since gone grey), but still ....you're my primary care doc and you don't want to talk about this transformation of your patient, right in front of your eyes??

I've read enough to know his response was...abnormal at best. Lots of reports of very supportive, open docs. I'll start looking for one of those.

It is all about commerce, buddy. A friend of mine is representative of a pharmaceutical company and told me that the doctors were being paid to give prescriptions for glp medications. I get prescriptions from my doctor for Mounjaro. Still buy them each month to be in order with my insurance. But have been using Tirz during last 10 weeks. Sell them to a friend for the same price, who can not get prescriptions for it. Doctors don't give GLP prescriptions here, if they don't think that you can stay affording it for a long time. Cruel reality!

Did not talk about Tirz with her, because I knew that she would have objections, because of her financial concerns. But I told that I have been using Ipa+Cjc1295 No Dac stack during last 10 weeks, because musscle weight loss was began after losing 20kg. She listened carefully. Asked my dosage and was convinced. She only told me to be carefull and not to titrate to higher dosages because of my age. I told her that I was getting hungry because of the stack and wanted to use Mounjaro longer to keep it in balance. I weigh 76.5kg at the moment. Though she gave prescriptions for 5mg for next 3 months. Just call me if you think you need to use it longer, she said.