Your levels would still be too high, you have got to reduce your dosage if you are going to do a daily protocol because levels will barely fluctuate like they do now and this will result in higher levels.
I would do something like 18mg daily which might not sound like much compared to 20mg daily, but believe me it is when you compare 126mg to 140mg weekly. You might even need less.
It doesn’t hurt to try. I also don’t want to lower free T too much as I was symptomatic with a free T of around 15 so I believe I need to be at 25+ to be optimal. I could try to see if 18mg daily can get me there.
Also have you seen cases that E2 stabilises by itself if given a couple of more weeks?
@aliel
Only reduce your dosage if you want to feel less good. Literally none of your levels are high. Why he would tell you that and to reduce dosage is beyond me. I think it makes him feel better about his own dosage (which happens to be the craziest on the forum at 5-7mg/day). Your E2 is less than mine was pre-TRT and your T is 100 points higher. You would probably feel better with a dosage increase if anything as 700 total T isn’t amazing. I would shoot for 1000 if I were you but for the love of God don’t decrease it this early. SHBG doesn’t dictate injection frequency. Injection frequency is just another thing you can change (besides dosage) to see if it helps you feel any better.
Well here’s an update:
The results are back for free T, SHBG and DHT exactly as @systemlord predicted. I also calculated free T as well and I’m including the screenshot.
According to a friend of mine, who happens to be the only doctor in my country who knows greatly about TRT although he is a pulmonologist, a calculated free T of 22.8 is low for what I’m trying to achieve. He is suggesting a dosage increase like @dextermorgan is suggesting.
He believes I should do 22.5mg daily for a total of 157.5 or 45mg EOD equaling 157.5 a week as well.
By doing so he thinks SHBG should get a bit higher at around 20-22 instead of 18, total T of around 1000-1100, calculated free T of around 27-30 and he hopes E2 doesn’t move up more than 10-15 points by giving me a better T/E2 ratio.
Since I have no E2 sides effects and no sexual sides either I think it is worth trying this protocol and if it doesn’t work well or I start getting sides I could try switching again.
He also thinks a higher dosage should help me in the body composition department as well.
Here’s where I’m sitting at the moment and I’m hoping to bring some positive changes by summer. Keep in mind that I’ve been working out for 7 years and all of these years have been with a T of 295-337 so this is new territory.
Anyways thanks to both @systemlord and @dextermorgan as both of your advices are really appreciated.
That’s impressive considering the low T for all those years…
I have a similar physique to you with a few percentage points higher BF…I’m 6’2"…
I think this hurts me in my search to find a doc to give me TRT. Even though my total T is only 390 they look at me and come to the conclusion that my problem is not T related because of the muscle…I’m a hairy mongrel as well which does not help.
I told my urologist that I was concerned because I was doing heavy compound lifting 3 times a week and my T was still that of an 80 year old…You know what he said? He said “Look…Additional T would probably make you feel better but so would cocaine and I can’t prescribe you that”…
Unreal. I’m not a violent guy but I really wanted to pimp slap his ass.
You’re like the 4th person this week to post a doc saying this phrase. I do wonder where they all learned such bs
Absolute misinformation. He needs to go higher not lower to feel great.
It seems you are blurring opinion with fact. There are some guys who have libido issues with E2 in the 40’s.
Here we go again…more misinformation. “some guys” is no excuse to dole this out to each and every new poster. IMO his dose needs to be upped to 200mg / week and re assess in 6 weeks.
You are trying to make your opinion look more favorable by calling out my opinion as misinformation. dextormorgan did the same thing by claiming I’m basing my opinion on my own experience, then brought up my crazy low dosage in an attempt to discredit me as a reason to go with his advice, then references himself to @aliel when recommending his advice.
It’s silly.
He stated his libido was good some days, okish other days. I’m taking the position he needs to change his T/E2 ratios, he needs to get his E2 lower and testosterone higher, that’s why I originally recommended daily injections and to “slightly” reduce his dosage.
His testosterone will more than likely be higher going from a M/W/F protocol to a daily protocol even after “slightly” lowering his dosage because the decline between injections will be minimal compared to a 3x week protocol.
I’ve seen this occur on multiple occasions, myself included. These are my opinions, you have yours, but that doesn’t mean my opinion is misinformation and your opinion is the word of God.
I’d try daily if the choice is between that and EOD and do the dosage increase. You can see my body composition changes and you’re starting out in a better place than I did. Much better.
I wanted to pull a Costanza / Jerk Store and go back and tell him that my body does not naturally produce cocaine…but it does T and I am low…
But i’m just not that bright.
The only thing that has help me during all those years is consistency as I’ve had everything against me from hormone imbalances to shitty genetics lol.
I’ve had the same problem with my local urologists and endocrinologists as where I live doctors don’t even know what TRT is. They automatically think I’m looking for steroids. Mind you I’m 5’6" and 158 lbs.
I always love the cocaine references the doctors love to mention so much lol.
I’m not a violent guy either but I do believe a pimp slap is very appropriate in these kind of situations 
Although I’m not contrary on using higher dosages I believe 200mg per week is too much of an increase coming from 142.5mg per week. I’d rather do 15-20mg increments every 6 weeks backed by labs until I reach the point where I feel optimal. My body has been used to low T during all these years and I wouldn’t want to shock it right away without finding a way to properly use exogenous testosterone.
I fully agree on reaching a better T/E2 ratio however I will only slightly increase my dosage (22.5mg daily) and reassess in 6 weeks. If I don’t like where the labs are going I can always dial it back to the same dosage I was using or even less as you suggested. But at this point I would really like to feel what is like running around on high testosterone.
At the end of the day your approach is a bit more conservative and definitely safe and I do value your input a lot. I believe you are definitely contributing a lot and I would never call your opinion as misinformation.
I understand you are using your low dosages as an example and not as a reference point and that’s how they should be interpreted. Everybody’s dose is personal and without experimenting (within limits) there is no way to find out what dose you need.
I’m doing daily and I started my new protocol today.
To be honest I’ve seen your transformation in other threads and it’s really impressive. It should be used as a reference point on where you need to be in 2-3 years after starting TRT.
I personally would love to have that amount of mass that you have but every time I’ve bulked up in the past I kept gaining fat only and when I cut I loose a lot of muscle so my BF% doesn’t really change that much even after loosing around 15 lbs.
Hopefully it will change now that I’m TRT as it is only fair that I start making some gains being as consistent as I have been. Shit I think I deserve it lol.
By the way this is where I started and where I got after working out for 3 years. No improvements whatsoever after this point even thought the consistency has stayed the same:
@aliel
You look great man! The gym is a big part of milking out all the positives from TRT. You see a lot of guys that aren’t feeling great on TRT also don’t workout. If I go a week without going I start feeling less good. You’re at a much better starting point physically than I was so just imagine how much better your end result will be than mine.
Finally time for an update after the lockdown. I was finally able to run some blood work after going on daily injections and raising my dose in February. I’m on around 200mg per week split into daily injections.
I haven’t received all the results yet however the main ones are in.
Before I go into numbers let me say that I don’t feel a huge difference from raising my dose. However I am feeling pretty good and I have no noticeable side effects. I believe I need to lower my dose a bit to take care of some problems I see with the blood work.
Some things worth mentioning:
The results:
What do you guys think? Is the RBC increase without the HCT and HGB a little strange?
This is mine after a long time on 185-200mg. I can’t believe your HCT is that low. It must have been anemic range before TRT (like mine was). I think your levels look fine and if you feel good then stay there and see if you start feeling even better.
Do you have pre-TRT labs? Would like to see what you CBC looked like.
I wouldn’t change anything. Re-check in maybe four months, no longer than six. Some guys do not see much change in hct. Others do not see it increase at first, only to move upward later. For now, I’d enjoy the benefits you’re getting out of TRT.
I have a friend here who runs anabolics for several years. Now on 400mg test and 300mg trenbolone his HCT is 45, I saw his blood work. He said he had elevation only the first year
Your blood picture looks strange and I can say nothing about it.
However I can give my perspective about IGF-1, because mine is the same value and I was worried. For my age(31) the real upper limit is 314, so I think below 300 we are totally fine. A few doctors here also told me not to worry about it, also @highpull has given similar perspective
And after all people pay crazy money to have this IGF-1 and we get it for free with all its benefits for fat loss and joint structure and repair
44% HCT here after close to a year. Weird, it actually went down slightly for me but probably within the error of the test. I’m about to get more labs to see if it’s changed now.
