Hi gents.
I’m currently on a 100mg a week dosage of test-c and my numbers are still crap but most importantly my symptoms are still very much present.
Test levels are sitting at 22 nmol/L for Total Test and 0.621 nmol/L for free test. I also tend to aromatise quiet heavily as my oestrogen is currently at 180 pmol/L (50 pg/ml).
My doctor refuses to up my dosage because he thinks that these level are optimal and he also does not want to start me on AI neither.
Needless to say, I’m not gonna leave it at that, therefore I’m planning to double up my dose to 200mg/week to see if it makes a difference (don’t want to go higher than that) and then dial it back slowly if I have to.
My question is regarding to the usage of aromatise inhibitor: how do you think I should use Arimidex at this dosage? I’ve been told .5mg every 3.5 days to start with and then monitor symptoms.
I thank you for your help/input.
A) Dont use an AI
B) How long have you been on this protocol
C) What are your symptoms
D) Show us your bloodwork
E) Welcome
B) 4 months
C) lack of drive in general, depersonalisation, low libido, brain fog, lack of morning wood etc
D) please let me know what would you like to further see and I’ll copy it in straight away
Whatever you have put it up. The more info the better.
Did you NEVER feel any relief? What was your TT and FT before starting? You are definitely on the low end of normal. How old are you?
My Total T was 15.3 nmol/L right before the treatment (and it was 27.5 nmol/L in 2015 naturally before I got hypogonadism), free T 0.320 nmol/L. SHBG was around 20 and still is. E2 was 90 pmol/L.
I felt awesome between the second and third week and then it sort of faded away. Perhaps because I still had my own T production at that time before the treatment shut me down, not too sure.
I’m 32 years old.
Will dig up the lab results once I got home, cheer mate.
That’s why I asked. If you felt awesome then it means you are underdosed now. Id steer clear of the AI and up your dose by 50% and take it from there.
Thanks.
I’m just slightly concerned about my E2 level as it is already high and I don’t think it’ll remain unchanged after having doubled the those, I mean so far a 25% increase of my total T levels caused a 100% spike in my E2 levels.
I cut 1mg into 4’s. I then take a fourth 3x a week for .75 total. I also take dim sporadically. Keep in mind that I also take hcg so I don’t worry about tanking my E. I was at 99 prior to arima and i’ve been hovering around 49 since. Before you take other people’s advice, ask them how much other shit they take, you don’t want to kill your E, you just want to keep it in check.
There are no known issues with high E2. It is protective. Get your T dialed in and you will see your E2 level out.
Thanks mate. What dose are you on if don’t mind me asking?
Cheers. I guess I’ll give it a go and see what happens. I appreciate your help.
Good luck and keep us posted. Remember that changing too many things at once will lead to problems later as you wont know what is responsible for any symptoms. If you are going to do both I’d increase T by 50% and assess at 6 weeks. Then if needed make additional changes.
190mg split 3x a week.
I have zero issues on my protocol. There are several variables that differ person to person. Otherwise, everyone would be on the exact same protocol.
What are your FT ranges?
Break up your shots more frequently, this will increase levels and lower estrogen.
This is why you are having problems, low SHBG and once weekly injections. No wonder there are problems. Your doctor have put you on a hormonal roller coaster, your estrogen is not high, your problem is levels are swinging between injections and this is why your symptoms are still present.
You need injections daily or EOD. I have low SHBG as well, I inject daily and feel my best, EOD takes away from feeling good and increases estrogen. My body ignores testosterone when levels decline between injections beyond EOD injections, even with a trough of 697 ng/dL injecting twice weekly.
There are some guys who just don’t respond well to TRT unless testosterone is very steady and minimal fluctuations in hormones between injections, some guys need these big swings in levels between injections in order for their body to respond to TRT.
When I injected 50mg twice weekly for 6 months, nothing happened in the muscle department, only 3 weeks into my EOD protocol, muscles are getting bigger and harder, veins are starting to pop out in my arms and wrists.
I use 29 gauge insulin syringes to make life less painful.
Thanks for the reply.
I forgot to mention that I have been on daily Sub-Q injections (14mg/day). Apologies, it was probably easy to misunderstand. We did EOD for the first 6 weeks and then we switched for ED precisely because of the oestrogen issue. God knows what my levels would be on weekly im injections…
You don’t have an estrogen issue, your estrogen by our standards is 24 pg/mL, ranges <35 pg/mL. You have got some other hormone causing your issues, I don’t understand why you and your doctor are fixating on estrogen, it’s not even high, if anything it’s towards the lower limit (20-35 is ideal).
I thought I had an estrogen issue for the longest time, I had iron, potassium, vitamin C & D deficiency. I always blame it on estrogen.
How about them thyroid labs, cortisol, vitamin and mineral panel?
Estradiol of 24 is more low than high in my world. Esp for someone on TRT.
But it’s 50 pg/ml, not 24.
Everything else checks out, good thyroid function, all within range.
I’m little confused, earlier you starters estrogen was 90 pmol/L which is 24 pg/mL. If you got testing and it actually was 50 pg/mL, that may be a problem. In men with natural testosterone, when estrogen hits the 40’s it starts downregulating the HPTA, I’m not surprised you are having trouble.
Nope, this is no good, not when we see men on T-Nation all the time claiming their doctors are saying their thyroid labs are normal and within range. Often you are dealing with doctors who are inept.
Post those thyroid labs, if fT3 and rT3 are missing, your doctor is clueless. You can have fT3 in range and still have symptoms especially if rT3 is elevated deactivating a portion of fT3. I see often doctors in the EU or Canada poorly trained on thyroid matters only testing TSH and fT4 which aren’t even the active hormones.
My bad, so my pre TRT estrogen was 24 indeed, which is now 50.
Aplogies, long day at work, super exhausted.
Did TSH (0.8), fT3 (6.4), fT4 (21.1), i’ll do a full panel for the rt3 as well, I do not currently have the information.