With all due respect to anyone calling themselves "experts" or knowledgeable in the field, steroids are the Wild West of the medical world, and even the doctors don't have all the answers.
There is no such thing as bringing T levels up to "normal" for a relatively healthy middle-aged man. Men in this age bracket have falling levels of testosterone and HgH because that's what the natural aging process entails. When a doctor prescribes enough T to get an older gentleman up to "normal" levels, it usually means he's targeting the type of T production of a much younger man. That ain't normal.
Also, as one poster erroneously pointed out, testosterone therapy doesn't automatically shrink one's testicles to the size of peanuts. You must take prodigious amounts of T for that to happen.
The secret lies in "micro-dosing". Take just enough to minimize the side effects and you will still feel a marked difference. This involves individual experimentation, because no one person will respond the same way to the same amounts of whatever it is they're taking.
If the OP is asking about testosterone replacement therapy and he plans on self-medicating, he'll probably get it wrong. He needs to see an endocrinologist to see where his levels are and go from there.
The reason why hormone replacement therapy has taken off in the US is vanity and fear of growing old gracefully. It's a growing filed where plenty of quacks are setting up shop and irresponsibly writing prescription after prescription of steroids they have no business prescribing.
I'm all for feeling better at any age, but don't go irresponsibly marinating yourself in T or whatever else. You have no idea what the side-effects will be for you. On a more practical level, for testosterone the patches are definitely better than the cream, and the injections are better than both. With the patches, you can use them whenever you're feeling sluggish and you can keep the area localized without fear of rubbing the stuff on anyone else. And the amount won't bombard your system with too much T all at once like injections do.
But I don't think they sell the patches in the DR. I know they are sold in certain Latin American countries, but they are much more expensive than the injectable form. And the thing about injections, you have to know what gauge needle you need and how to administer the injection itself unless you plan on running to the doctor every time you take a shot.