Dosing Amount Increase? TRT 85 Day Bloodwoork Results

Good morning T-Nation,

Started TRT for hopes of fatigue—energy increase, libido / erection quality increase, increased motivation, the usual symptom talk.

Started TRT with natural TT of 410 ng/dl and FT of 13 pg/Ml; labcorp.

This natural lab work was on 8 hours of sleep consistent, 5-6 days strength training, caloric maintenance, trying to be mindful of things that decrease T like doing no alcohol. 5’7 male 165lbs.

Defy started me at 200mg/ml CYP: 120mg a week pin 3x a week & HCG 1000iu a week dosed EOD 250iu.

I was doing EOD dosing CYP ventroglute and HCG subq, although was using 0.5in insulin for VG and my BF% is around 18-20 so this was likely subq injections not even shallow IM/IM.

85 Day Lab results are posted on 120mg EOD & HCG 1000iu below.

TT- 548
FT - 16
SHBG- 17 (dropped quite a bit from natural 30)

*note on this blood test. I ran out of HCG one week prior. So this is about ~9 days with no HCG. Last cyp dose prior to test was ~48 hours, EOD: blood test on injection day before injection.

I later tested the rest of the required bloodwork about 1.5 weeks later, DHEA, Prolactin, etc…

My provider and I discussed I likely haven’t felt symptom improvement as my test levels have not risen that much compared to natural baseline and I am likely a hyper excreter who burns through cyp fast.

He now placed me on 180mg of cyp a week with same 1000iu HCG dosing. He said likely this will easily raise total test to ~1100 ng/dl or so maybe even higher 12-1300 and bring free T to high end range and go from there.

I lastly discussed with him using just cyp and dropping HCG completely right now while dialing in just cyp for minimum variables and seeing what is occurring from what symptom wise for a few months at least. Fertility is very important for me but not anytime now until my 30’s or so, a long time away.

We bumped cyp dose up to 200mg a week with NO hcg, OR, 180mg a week with 1000iu hcg.

I decided on only the 200mg/wk cyp dosed M, W, F and now doing SUBQ stomach as I was likely doing subq before anyway. Maybe also previous labs no symptom improvement from SubQ but provider said unlikely and only about 5% of his patients experience difference between IM/SubQ feeling and that all lab work is roughly the same both ways.

Question: is the increase of dose too much going from 120mg cyp to 200mg weekly? I dropped hcg so I know HCG can add a little bit on top of TT and FT, so that’s why we upped to 200mg without it.

The past few weeks have been good for increase of erections and quality, nothing for energy and tiredness. I do have Obstructive sleep apnea treated with BiPap and very dialed in and monitor my nightly stats. I also probably have undiagnosed ADHD I have an evaluation for soon, hoping adderal would give me a boost to energy where TRT hasn’t.

I heard constant talk about minimum effective dose. Is an 80mg jump not the smartest idea or just rock with it and see where labs bring me?

** on the lab work, previous results are from pre-Trt.





That’s a big dosage increase, but given you’re burning through your test quickly or aren’t particularly insensitive to Test, nothing wrong with running slightly above normal if you feel good, respond well and most importantly no symptoms.

This is the only area of concern with your dosage, You have to keep this under control at all costs, because sleep apnea can increased blood coagulability.

Amphetamines can cause fatigue, sleepiness and also insomnia. I was diagnosed with ADHD as a child, and TRT has cured it by calming the mind.

SHBG usually declines on TRT, because androgens suppress SHBG. My SHBG has more than doubled on TRT due to treating metabolic syndrome/Type 2 Diabetes which lowers the SHBG.

I wouldn’t worry about SHBG, because it’s not low due to a medical condition, but rather the TRT treatment.

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