[quote]conservativedog wrote:
[quote]sbfitness wrote:
I give IM into glute. He’s open to sub q but was worried injecting into belly fat would cause conversion to estrogen. He’s researching it.
What’s the downside to taking this amount?
From what you’re saying NO amount of test will work if E is too high?
Current levels are 1056 Test and 25.2 Free range is 7-21
My bodyfat is high for me. I’ve put on about 40 unexplained lbs since starting TRT in the last year. Started with compounded cream and switched to injections 6 weeks ago.
I will read the stickies.
Thanks[/quote]
Hopefully you will begin to amass an idea of what you are in the middle of from reading and rereading the stickies.
400mg/week is 100mg below what most steroid/bodybuilders use for first cycles.
A “cycle” is injecting for eight-twelve weeks, then they coming back down to TRT levels or some do a post cycle therapy to prevent their body from shutting down. A dead stop from T injections can have very bad repercussions. Never just quit without backing off dose and having something such as hcg to reboot the testes.
Bodybuilders/strength lifters generally up their dose on succeeding cycles some times as high as three grams of testosterone and stacked with other anabolic steroids. This is just a rudimentary explanation to let you know how high a dose you are taking for your hormone replacement therapy.
You asked:
“From what you’re saying NO amount of test will work if E is too high?”
That is correct. What can cause high E/estradiol? Your body in it’s continual pursuit to balance itself sees the excess testosterone and converts it to estrogen. This is called aromatase or estrogen synthetase.
You can have very high testosterone but with estrogen out of control it competes for the body’s receptors.
Estradiol/E2 binds to androgen receptors and renders them useless.
When testosterone binds to an androgen receptor, it activates the receptor and you get the effect you’re looking for. When estradiol binds to that receptor, it blocks testosterone from binding, yet it does not active the receptor, so nothing happens.
So you most likely are wasting your time using that high of a dose, unless you also take an anti-aromatase. Arimideax/anastrozole is the most commonly used AI with bodybuilders and sometimes in TRT.
Your only other option is to lower your injections to 200mg/week and also divide them into two 100mg injections, three-four days apart (twice a week 200mg).
Dividing the dose helps prevent a spike. T injected into muscle takes about 48 hours for peak absorption and the larger the dose, the larger the spike. So less injected and spread out over the week allows for your body to get a balanced hormone release which comes with the benefit of less estradiol conversion.
The stickies and especially TRT forum leader KSman are your best place to get this information. I’m just giving it to you in basic laymans terms.
Some guys here would very much be jealous of your doctor prescribing that 400mg/week. If I were you I would inject the lower dose, not mention it to your doc and just save the extra T. Who knows it may come in handy with Obamacare’s many unknowns.
Continue reading as much as you can. Most likely it will take some time before you understand this completely and then a little longer to find your T sweet spot or balance. Remember both high and low estradiol levels make you feel shitty and affect libido and energy. But men need some estrogen.
If you stay on TRT it will be most likely for life. Your testes will shut down, so if you come off, you are going to feel a lot worse and there will be excess estrogen screwing everything up.
One last thing… subcutaneous injections. In the past five-ten years more and more are going with injections into the belly fat with small insulin syringes. These shots are basically painless and there is less scar tissue. You need to rotate your injections using glutes, quads, delts etc… WalMart pharmacy sells these over the counter for about 7cents a piece and they hold one cc or one ml (same thing)
Sub q injections are easy and the T is absorbed a little more slowly in fat then intramuscular injections, making even less of a hormone spike. Look at the below video. Just watch how to inject in the belly fat. I use a 28G or 27G half inch needle, and rotate around the navel (out two-three inches away from navel.)
[/quote]
Thanks a ton for the detailed response. I appreciate it. I’ve been reading the stickies over and over along with other’s posts. I think the 6 or 7 years I was on 400mg of test per week and quitting cold turkey is what got me where I am today. When I stopped I got super depressed and started gaining fat. I would literally want to cry when I was in public. I thought I had pesticide poisoning or something. (they were spraying a lot in my home) That started my journey of trying to figure out what was wrong. My biggest complaints since stopping have always been low energy, depression and major problems battling fat gain regardless of training and diet. All this time it was most likely elevated E2 and low T. NOT one doc ever mentioned that could be the problem. My guess is that I had low testosterone before I started getting the shots way back then. Coming off cold turkey caused it to tank even lower. Not sure if it’s genetic, but both of my brothers have extremely low testosterone also. They’ve never done test or anything else.
I’m going back in on Oct 18th to get blood levels checked again.
If I get my E2 under control what’s the downside to keeping my test at 400mg per week divided up?