The short time I felt optimal, 120/62, heart rate 68.
This was experienced on once and twice weekly dosing which I later found out wasn’t even close to optimal. When I started injecting EOD I started having problems right away am became vitamin C deficient right about when I started gaining muscle.
@systemlord and what was the highest you saw your BP get up to?
On TRT within the first 6-8 months, 120/62 heart rate 68 BPM. Pre-TRT 168/100, resting heart rate 125 BPM.
BP today was 122/74. Maybe yesterday was just because I was at peak levels, I did basically do almost 300mg for the first week. From here on out it’s 150mg split twice weekly.
1 week in I’ve noticed morning wood has been stronger and more common - although I am taking 5mg tadalafil daily. Libido may possibly be a bit higher but nowhere near where it was when I was 20yrs old. I seem to have more concentration and assertiveness and confidence, but those may very well be a placebo.
@systemlord I’m just looking over my bloods again from a month ago, I’m seeing my hemoglobin is 141 with range 140-180. Do you think I could benefit from supplementing iron?
Iron is not something you supplement unless you are iron deficient and a lack of iron in your diet isn’t to blame.
I became iron deficient do to a lack of vitamin C in my diet, you can’t absorb iron if you don’t have enough vitamin C because it regulates iron absorption. When I started supplementing iron do to a iron deficiency, 6 weeks later I started having problems.
All I needed was vitamin C and not iron. Vitamin C helps you turn food into energy.
@systemlord did you just increase vitamin C in your diet or did you supplement it?
I am so damn sensitive to vitamin C, I started on 250mg and started having severe problems after weeks, I can’t even handle 4 ounces of orange juice (45mg) daily without mildly elevated ALT levels. Normally you would need mega doses of vitamin C to get this affect, but like everything else, I’m extremely sensitive to everything.
I had stop stop vitamin C yesterday, I feel so much better after stopping, but now I’m starting to feel the effects of low testosterone and will be restart TRT. I only need 49mg weekly for TT levels over 400 ng/dL, injecting daily though.
I have low SHBG so 400 works well, beyond 450 is excess.
@systemlord
What is your SHGB?
Week 2 down. Not many noticeable differences from pre TRT aside from increased assertiveness and less anxiety. Still feeling anti-social and depressed which is definitely not my norm from before my low T injury.
No increase in libido although I have noticed more morning woods, but the morning wood is strange it’s like I don’t wake up with wood but after waking and tossing/turning a bit I’ll have wood. It’s not a full blown hard erection though but better than before for sure.
Really hoping to see an increase in libido in the coming weeks. It would also be great for the depressed moods to start to dissipate, although my moods are still better than pre TRT.
Still on my dose of 150mg split twice weekly. Still tempted to increase dose but I’ll keep it here for now. I also may add proviron to see if that helps libido. For now I’m just gonna stay at this protocol for another few weeks.
Libido can be the last thing that you see sometimes taking months. Sleep quality is needed for a strong libido.
I wouldn’t change your dose for 8 weeks. Many of the positive effects take a while especially when you just start TRT.
@dextermorgan so tempted to just up the dose. I know I’m being impatient but so far I like the changes in my confidence and am just curious if it’ll get even better at 200mg split twice. I almost feel it’s inevitable that I’ll try 200 out before I do 3 month bloods. Is it actually true that when you change dose that it resets everything?
Sort of. It’s going to effect some more than others. For me any change takes longer to reach a point where I feel good than what many state here (8 weeks vs around 4).
My aggression is definitely back. I’ve always been a guy who’s hard to get angry but I’ll stand up for myself when necessary. Having a few drinks tonight with a guy who’s hard to consider a friend after the way he disrespected me, I really wanted to fight the guy honestly. Haven’t felt that amount of anger in a long time. Obviously I can control myself even under the influence of 5-7 beer but just noting the difference in willingness to be aggressive and overall anger. It’s for sure a noticable difference. This is something I always had prior to my injury resulting in low T. I held my own and remained calm overall but the guy was asking for it. The aggression was there.
Libido seems to be returning. A noticable difference within the last few days.
Energy still could be a lot better but considering my low-normal B12 levels, I’m hoping taking that will help. Also investigating a possible iron deficiency. Hemoglobin was previously right at the bottom of the range. Having ferratin checked and depending I’ll probably request a full iron panel.
B12 really helps with the energy. If you’re iron deficient and take iron you’ll notice more of a difference than TRT made.
@dextermorgan even if my ferratin comes back “normal” would it make sense to take some iron just to raise levels for a bit? I’ve got some of the low iron symtoms like weakness, possibly some sensitivity to cold, shorter breaths. And like I said my hemoglobin at 141 with range. 140-180. Is iron really that dangerous?
I personally wouldn’t do it without getting a full iron panel first.
Weird. Libido was definitely strong yesterday and the few days before… took b12 yesterday and libido/strong erections had seemed to drop off by night. Took b12 again today and its still relatively low. Gonna keep it going with the B12 and my same protocol but I’m a bit weirded out by this.
On the bright side at least I know that I can have libido again. For a long while before starting TRT I was worried I’d never have libido again. The last few days aside from the tail end of yesterday and today so far I’ve had a decent libido. Many sexual thoughts, decent arousal(still not better than my teens) and good erections. So it’s just a matter of dialing that in.
I have requested a full iron panel and will be taking blood for that today. So on Tuesday next week I’ll have my full iron, vitamin C, vit D, and updated B12.