Would love some advice on this too. Have a doctors appointment in late January to renew my prescription. Fucker will spaz out if he knew my levels were at 1300 TT. Was thinking of dropping my dose a month prior or just stop injecting for a week or two prior to visit. Any thoughts?
That may do be wise.
Not be wise or be wise? If wise, which would you recommend … lowering dose for the month or stop injecting for a week or two prior?
Big ol’ update 12/19 - Blood work results are back, and I’ve gained some clarity in some areas, and am more confused in others lol. Would love to hear some feedback and opinions. Test was once again at trough immediately before next shot (3.5 days in just before pinning, consistent w/ last round).
Cliff notes from what I’ve derived so far:
-I’m low on Iodine, which likely impacting TSH/Thyroid function and need to supp (suggestions?)
-I’m high on prolactin
-Vit D and B12 are both lowish but in range (I currently supp both, maybe more?)
-My total test is WAY lower than it was weeks before, which confirms that my natural test was still combining w/ synthetic at that point.
-My estrodiol is significantly higher than previous test
And without further adieu:
Serum Testosterone - 627 ng/dL (264-916 range)
Free Testosterone - 17.8 pg/mL (8.7-25.1 range)
Estradiol - 33.3 pg/mL (7.6-42.6 range)
Progesterone - 0.2 (range 0.0-0.5)
SHBG - 28.6 nmol/L (16.5-55.9 range)
TSH - 2.19 (.450-4.50)
T4 Free (Direct) 1.29 (.82-1.77)
Triio (T3), Free - 3.8 (range 2.0-4.4)
Thyroxine (T4) - 7.9 (4.5-12.0)
DHEA - 196 (31-701)
Selenium - 171 (91-198)
Iodine - 32.1 (40-92.0) - !!!
Prolactin - 21.1 (range 4.0-15.2) - !!!
Vit D, 25-Hydroxy - 38.8 (30-100)
Vit B12 - 472 (232-1245)
Magnesium - 2.3 (1.6-2.3)
Cortisol - 10.1 (range 6.2-19.4)
WBC - 6.9 (range 3.4-10.8)
RBC - 5.5 (range 4.14-5.80)
Hemoglobin - 16.5 (range 13.0-17.7)
Hematocrit - 50.2 (range 37.5-51.0) - Time to donate some blood?
Glucose - 86 (range 65-99)
Everything else on Comp panel in range - let me know if you guys would like to see any other specific details. Thanks so much in advance.
Oh, and to further complicate (or un-complicate) some of this, I went ahead and upped my dose to 120mg weekly split 60mg E3.5D immediately after this blood test. Since then, I would say that my mental health has improved substantially, night/morning erections are pretty consistently nonstop, and I feel 50% better than I did a few weeks back when I originally posted… But something still feels just a bit “off”. Hopefully some work on my deficiencies might be helpful. 
The labs were on what protocol?
I think 50 x2.
Labs look good. Do you supplement dhea? And why or why not?
If you jerked off or had sex before blood test prolactin can be elevated. I heard even if you hold an infant.
How long on 120 now? If you just started within last week what you could be feeling is temporary as your hormones restabilze
Oxytocin not prolacin
These labs were on 50mg E3.5D. Since then I have switched to 60mg E3.5D for my last few pins and feel a bit better and have noticed some improvements in my overall state of well-being.
I’m not super hung up on the prolactin a this point but will continue to monitor. Planning to stick with 60x2 for 6-8 weeks, increasing/supp’ing iodine, and donating some blood when I have a chance.
Curious if anyone has any other opinions based on these results tho. Hope everyone has a nice weekend!
If the improvements of the higher dose go away after a couple weeks, why don’t you give staggered dosing a shot? That would be two weeks at 50mg e3.5d followed by two weeks at 60mg e3.5d and then returning to 50mg e3.5d and so on.
This was proposed by expert endo @physioLojik who uses it for his patients and anecdotally corroborated by a few others here. Main benefit seems to be libido. I plan on trying this at some point within the next couple months myself.
Mini update: I’ve had a lot going on the past few months (dad passed away), so I haven’t made any additional dosing changes because I couldn’t distinguish between TRT related issues and life. I’m currently still at 60mg E3.5D.
I’m due for bloods in approx 6 weeks and want to adjust protocol now to be ready.
I am still experiencing similar symptoms. My erection quality is worse 24 hours after injection and no night time boners. By 3rd night (before my next shot), erection quality is substantially better and I typically have a full night erection lol.
This week I went for 4.5 days between shots (where I am currently as I type this) due to being sick and just not feeling like pinning. Despite being sick, today my erection quality and sense of well being is remarkably better than it has been at any point during the past few months (really since the first 6 weeks). Soooo I’m considering trying E3D or E2D SubQ. My doctor suggested a dosage increase based on those last bloods, but even after close to 8 weeks at this protocol (60mg E3.5D), I still feel like shit half the time. Thoughts?!
I mean that almost sounds like a decrease would help. Maybe go down in overall weekly amount some and inject more often and see what happens?
Well if were being consistent for at least 6-8 weeks on the 60mg every 3.5 days and felt better than ever injecting a day and a half late, this tells me your dosage was too high and injecting a day and half later allowed your levels to decrease and/or it could also mean your body prefers injections less frequently and maybe you found your perfect injection frequency by complete accident.
When I switched to twice a week I ended up on a dosage that was too high. I felt really good for the most part, and then after 6 weeks or so, I started to get all kind of bad physical side effects along with many “low T” symptoms.
I’ve had to reduce my dose twice since then and everything is slowly getting better. The answer may be “more T” for many people, but definitely not everyone.
I only know enough about T from my own experience - I claim no expertise beyond that - but I am seeing a lot of “one size fits all” from people that otherwise have good input and information. It’s a mistake.
Similar boat, low T and Free T, been on TRT for about 16 months, finally listened to Danny Bossa and increased my dose to 60mg EOD, 3 weeks in and I feel a lot better mentally and in all joints, and I feel aiming to get my Free T closer to 300 is the correct approach. I know there’s never a shortage of advice on here but I can tell you after 16 months of messing around this new protocol has me feeling a lot better than anything else I tried, also quit every supplement until I am dialed in.
What was frequency before this?
I was on 60mg 2x a week or every 3.5 days. I went from 120mg a week to 180-240mg per week. Each week is 3x then 4x then 3x repeating
Reset button. Today I took my first subq shot from a 25g 5/8” 1ml syringe. Planning 42mg e2d. Will evaluate how I feel in two weeks and keep everyone posted. Bloods in 6 weeks if I feel good, sooner if I feel like shit lol.
Subq was awesome. I’m sad I didn’t try it sooner and hope that I respond well. I didn’t even feel the shot. Amazing. I could def do this every day if all else fails.
5 shots in. So far, I LOVE SubQ vs. IM pinning. Insanely easy. EOD is a piece of cake.
Obviously I’m giving this 6 weeks to balance out… I hear a lot of people say that change in protocol feels shitty and eventually gets better… Personally I would say this is the best I’ve felt thus far since starting TRT. The increase in dose and frequency has resulted in stronger erections, higher libido, better overall sense of wellbeing, particularly the last few days. If I could bottle up the way I feel right now, I’d be set for life. Hopefully that continues… Having said that, I’m going to get bloodwork 6 weeks in to this protocol, will update and adjust accordingly.
As an aside… I am reading some of the best blood pressure results that I’ve ever recorded the last few days. 115/65-70 is currently my average… And I’ve struggled with blood pressure issues for many years, so I was very apprehensive about TRT. I found this result confusing, but I’m not going to argue lol. Hope everyone is having a great week.
When my t was crashed along with low e2 my bp was high. Trt also made my pressure come down
3 week update on new protocol:
Still feeling great. Blood pressure in check. Morning boners are out of hand. Sense of well-being is the best it’s been in a long time. Zero anxiety in 3 weeks (which was previously an almost daily problem).
3 more weeks til bloodwork. Excited to see what it says. Finally really feeling the life changing benefits that I’ve read about… Just hope it continues. 
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