I’m reading that I may need 45 days to totally clear it out.
That sounds about right, it took me exactly 4.5 weeks to return to baseline. No hard crash to speak of, not as bad as I thought it would be.
Ok so I’ll do a calendar count from my last shot. Should I maintain HCG?
Yes, otherwise the exogenous T still left in your system may hinder testicle recovery. Stop the hCG at 4 weeks from you last T injection.
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I would imagine that the HCG dosage would be increased for PCT?
Yeah, you could to compensate for the declining T.
I’m at 1,000 a week now. Was thinking of doubling.
Don’t increase your HCG; 1000 IU a week is enough and as was stated above, you do not want to mess with all these hormones at the same time while you’re currently waiting to get back to your ‘normal’ state.
So if I see this correctly, you started your TRT regimen from your first post around 6 weeks ago, and quit arimidex after 2 days? If this is not correct, please put the start and (all) the changes thereafter clearly in a list such as Excel, then post it here.
Why is your SHBG (Sex Hormone-Binding Globulin) not listed in your blood test report? It would be interesting to know what your SHBG level is, because your testosterone compared to your free testosterone, taking into account your albumin level, does not add up. This could be caused by different methods of testing though. Anyway, be sure to add that to the blood test list when you are ‘clean’.
Also, for long/permanent TRT or AAS cycles, for longer term estrogen inhibition, use aromasin when estrogen inhibition is needed. Arimidex is extremely potent (letrozole is even worse btw). Also, aromasin does not produce a rebound effect when you stop taking it. That is because Arimidex (and Letrozole) are competitive aromatase inhibitors, while Aromasin is an irreversible inhibitor: it ‘kills’ the aromatase enzymes. When you stop taking it, your body will just produce aromatase enzymes like normal, while Arimidex and Letrozole eventually stop inhibiting the already existing aromatase enzymes, causing your aromatization to increase because your body makes more aromatase enzymes and the previously inactive aromatase enzyms become active again on top of it.
Last but not least, don’t just start with either of those three AI’s without knowing whether you actually need it.
(For short term inhibition, use Nolvadex. It does not mess with your aromatase enzyms, it selectively antagonizes estrogen, which is especially useful for estrogen activity in breast tissue (but not limited to breast tissue alone).)
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Your understanding of my protocol is correct and I have no idea why SHBG is not tested. On Wednesday I will address it with the urologist to have it added to the lab. I hope that this is rectified medically but if not, Aromasin is the way to go moving forward.
The vast majority of doctors have no clue how to manage male hormones.
I hope the Urologist is a good doctor and comes up with something that may shed some more light on these problems you’re having. Not every doctor is incompetent (I am a doctor, psychiatrist), so let’s hope for the best.
What I forgot to mention was that I have an explanation for the reason why you can perform on Cialis as if there is no problem: Sildenafil (Viagra/Kamagra) and Tadalafil (Cialis), or better said PDE5 (phosphodiesterase type 5) inhibitors, do not only increase erectile penile blood flow through cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cCMP) in smooth muscle cells. This effect, possibly psychologically, increases your libido to a certain extent as well.
Confirmed on that for sure
Urologist agreed that about 5 weeks to flush out the Cyp is the right move before bloodwork.
Was not as concerned as others about the high LH and FSH. Said as age increase, sperm production drops. May be a response to that.
Asked him about pituitary, also was not as concerned. Could see it was a concern for me though, so ordered up an MRI.
Not concerned about my free T relative to my overall T.
Will add prolactin and SHBG to labs.
Moved my HCG to 1,000 IU x 2 / week. Mild testicle shrinkage from TRT and also drop the LH & FSH.
You are saying this about libido and sex a week after dropping the T?
Speaking just for myself yes, the urologist was not surprised either. Wasn’t like I was on a massive dose. I pumped 200 mg for a couple weeks to rebound Adex and I had just pulled back to 140mg.
But can you clarify something. So your libido and erections got better after dropping T for a bit? Or after taking heftier doses and then dropping it down to 140?