I would appreciate to get some feedback on my current labs and my issue/roadblock.
My labs just came in a few minutes ago. See below. I’ve been on TRT since the beginning of August and the first 2 and half months were excellent. A lot of my issues improved by roughly 70%. ED improved, Libido improved, brain fog greatly improved, energy was finally returning. However at month 3 things started to dip. Most of those symptoms started to come back. I did switch from subq EOD to IM twice a week. I did that because I got tired of the welts and would prefer less frequent injections. I was doing 100mg a week split into EOD doses and switched to 50mg twice a week (Mon-Thur). Prescription was 200mg/ML. Well I found out that was not good. My shbg is on the low side. 16 as of today and I seem to be metabolizing testosterone faster than usual. Once I realized my SHBG was low I switched back to EOD injections - gluteal IM at 140mgs a week. My levels are still coming in low after about 6 weeks. I guess I need to probably go straight to 200 mg a week? Might even need more by the looks of it? What do you all think?
Total T - 543 ng/dl
Free T - 105.3 pg/ml
E2 - 38 pg/ml
SHBG - 16
Hematocrit - 45.4
It seems you found something that works and abandoned SQ for IM which doesn’t work as well. The way in which SQ releases in the system may have been idea for you, because it changed the way T is release into your system…
You should get into the habit of providing normal ranges for your labs, since they can differ between lab companies.
I used discounted labs - quest trt basic monitoring panel. They use LC-MS for testosterone and its the ultrasensitive E2. I can add the ranges. Ill update here shortly. I just find it crazy that I’ve been on 140mgs for 6 weeks and my total t is still only 540. Im barely above where my symptoms began.
Tired, brain fog is back. Libido down. When i was feeling my best bloods were showing total t at 636 And e2 was around 25. They didnt test free t during that window so I dont know where it was. I started trt when my level was 300 total and free was 75. I felt like garabge at that time. Im just slightly above that now.
You know when I was vitamin D deficient, if I wasn’t supplementing enough, I would feel great for 1-2 weeks and then my symptoms would return. After doubling my dosage, things got better and stayed that way.
It can’t be any different with hormones. You said it yourself, you’re almost right back at baseline.
Its 100% prescription. Depo testosterone from pfizer. Picked up at the pharmacy. Im finally getting better by increasing dose. So ill give it more time but from what im being told its due to my low shbg. Im metabolizing the test too fast needing the frequent injections and higher dose.
There you have it. Your free test is decent given your total. You don’t need to increase dosing frequency, you just need to increase the dose. Not to make it about the numbers, but get your testosterone to 1000 and I bet you’ll be feeling better.
Don’t base dosing frequency off of SHBG. You may feel better with more frequent dosing, but low SHBG does not mandate it.
