Firstly, I want to thank everyone who has contributed on this forum. I am new here, but it has already helped me tremendously. KSman is a legend, along with some other heavy hitters. That being said, I have put in some time reading stickies and also searching for relevant threads. Of course, it is possible I have missed some info in some of those posts.
I started with TRT during March of 2017, after two results of total t being just under 300 (I don’t recall what my free t results were at the time). I jumped in with much enthusiasm and only a bit of knowledge, unfortunately, and proceeded with no plan/chemical to maintain my fertility (my wife and I thought we were done with the babies). Now I know, even if 100% done with babies, I will not allow my balls to simply dissolve and blow away in the wind.
Lord only knows why, but a few months ago my wife and I decided it would be ‘fun’ to have another baby or two. I immediately started diving deeper into this world to find the best path toward fertility after 27 months of testosterone without hcg or serm. Went in for a sperm analysis at this point, results were below detectable levels, predictably.
I chose clomid because a couple of friends had been able to get it quickly and without issue. Starting mid-June I have been dosing clomid at 25mg EOD. At this point I also reduced slightly my test enanthate dose from 63mg to 53mg three times per week (IM) - that is, from 190ish to 160ish total per week, split over 3 doses. At the beginning of August (45 days of clomid), I took another sperm test. There was almost nothing there - and as I understand it, this is normal with scientific consensus saying sperm production takes around 70-75 days.
After reading KSman’s HPTA Restart thread (8 weeks into clomid), I immediately ordered TT, FT, LH/FSH, Estradiol blood tests. Samples were taken roughly 4 hours before injection. Results came today and are as follows:
TT - 1005 Range: 264-916
FT - 26.2 Range: 8.7-25.1
Estradiol - 59.2 Range: 8-35
LH - <0.2 Range: 1.7-8.6
FSH - 0.3 Range: 1.5-12.4
My testes have definitely been feeling different as of 1-2 weeks into dosing clomid, hanging more loosely. Consequently, I was a bit surprised by these results. I am planning on having another semen analysis around the beginning of September (75 day mark for clomid).
Questions/thoughts/facts:
- What would you do if you were in my position?
- How do I interpret these LH/FSH results?
- I have experienced some negative effects of clomid; lower energy, lower motivation, pessimism.
- Would it make any sense for me to lower my clomid dose to 12.5mg EOD?
- My number one goal related to my hormones right now is to get my wife pregnant, so I don’t mind feeling bad for a bit, but I don’t think it works that way. I also do not want to make whatever damage I did to my system over the last 2+ years worse.
Thanks to anyone who reads this.