About OPTN

OPTN started as a folder of notes. I had a lab result that came back "normal" and a body that disagreed with that result, and the gap between those two facts cost me about a year. Most of that year was spent on Reddit threads and PubMed and podcast tangents that I will never get back.

Eventually I found a provider who actually read the panel I asked for, dialed in a protocol, and explained the trade-offs of every decision in plain English. I started writing things down so I would not have to learn them twice. The notes became a newsletter. The newsletter became this site.

What this is

Evidence-based, opinionated, transparent, and free. I write about TRT, peptides, bloodwork, sleep, training, and the men's health industry as it actually exists. I name clinics by name and cite real numbers. I use first-person where I have actual experience and I keep the speculation labeled.

What this is not

Not a doctor, not medical advice, not a clinic. Not a supplement store, not an affiliate funnel, not a guru. The goal of every article is a reader who can have a sharper conversation with their actual provider, not a reader who needs to come back to OPTN for the answer.

Where this lives

Portland, Maine. Maine has a quirky regulatory advantage for men's health (testosterone is exempt from the state's controlled substance monitoring program under LD 1277), which makes some of this work more accessible here than in most other states. Local context will show up in the writing where it fits.

What's next

This is step one. I am building something bigger in this space, and the newsletter is where you'll hear about it first. For now, the newsletter and the content library are the entire product. If you have a question, reply to any email — I read everything.