I started trt two months ago at a dose of 90ml. This is through a private, paid TRT clinic. It feels okay. Zero side effects and some slight improvements. I would definitely like to up my dose. After reading many reports online, I’d like to try 150.
My question is: what do you guys recommend I do on my next blood work? I pin twice weekly and I could either pin 24 hours before my blood test (usual routine), or wait an extra day until after I test. Would I have a better chance of getting a higher dose with a lower test result or would it look suspicious?
Any other advice on how to go about requesting a higher dose is greatly appreciated as well. Thanks in advance
You should be pinning after your bloodwork. You never pin prior. You want to go in at trough.
Monday-pin
Thursday-bloodwork AM/pin in the evening.
You could also skip the monday pin and let you levels drop more but your only two months in. Your body is not even used to what you are taking yet.
TRT is not about having high number(unless that’s what you want) it’s about symptom relief.
If you just want a script for more test get bloods done on your own a few weeks prior to doc bloods per the schedule above and see where you are. Then decide if you wann ago in for doc bloods in the same way or skip the dose prior to bloods to have a lower trough.
Is that 90mg per week or per injection? If per week that is a low dose compared to most, if per injection that’s 180mg a week which is a fine dose. I am assuming you’re injecting subQ if doing twice weekly. People tend to metabolize the testosterone better when injected IM but IM you tend to do once weekly or it’s a pain in the butt (literally) and if Test Cypionate weekly is fine for most guys in terms of peak and trough. I agree blood testing should be done at trough unless you’re doing a solitary total T check 24-48 hours after injection (which we do sometimes at our clinic for guys to confirm where they are at peak). A panel should be done at trough though
Thank you very much. This is a total of 90 per week, injected into the glute muscle twice weekly. I don’t mind the injections and it feels better than when I started on one weekly shot.
I am in Canada and it seems we tend to start low here. I understand and I agree with the reasoning. But if think if I am tolerating it we’ll at the two and a half months, it would be wise to up the dose. The doctor may want to work up a bit slower, but I’d like to get that ball rolling at least.
Interesting. My clinic has hundreds of guys that we treat and the vast majority are in the 150-200mg a week range with 1 IM injection weekly (all test Cypionate) I would say 2 shots IM per week is excessively cautious approach especially on such a low dose.
That’s very good to know. I was the one that requested twice a week after reading online. I suppose if I get tired of doing the shots, I will go back to once weekly.
Truth is, there is very little Canadian specific information out there. I know another friend of mine is a 280lbs man with a test number just under 300 and he was only prescribed 80ml weekly.
I am going to request 150 and see what the doctor says. Who knows, there may be no resistance to the idea.
I would agree with that protocol. I would also ask, what is the desired goal of taking more Test? More isn’t always better, and often times adding in HCG can make the same dose feel better for guys. Labs should always be check total T, free T, E2, and shbg. You can do things to attack those numbers, achieve better hormone balance, and feel better overall.
Fair question. I was pretty low for my age to begin with. 33 male tested at 240. I have always lifted weights hard and eaten mostly pretty well.
In the last couple years, my energy and sex drive really dropped off. I was hoping to see an Increase in both. Sex drive has increased zero and energy maybe, but barely perceptibly. Hoping a higher dose would yield better results.
I have noticed a difference in recovery and muscle building / fat storage. Truth is I would like to see if a higher dose helps more with this as well.
Good thoughts overall, but typically with testosterone, I find it best to measure a direct free, as well as total. Free T is going to help determine how you feel daily, but the Total ensures an adequate supply to pull from. You want a Free T of 20-30, but at 30 your Test receptors are going to become saturated and T isn’t going to have any further benefits. So a higher weekly dose may not be the answer.
If your free is under 20, I’d suggest 10-20 mg Boron daily, and 400-800 mg Stinging Nettle daily. Start low and titrate up as needed. Simple and cheap things that help free up more T, and lower SHBG, I usually see a 10-20% improvement in labs with that change alone. Even in guys who don’t pin. Like I mentioned, adding HCG weekly with the Test Cyp usually REALLY helps drive and feeling better too, if your Doc will do that (even a low 40-50 units weekly).
I’d say typically 650-800 in trough and 950-1100 at peak but it varies depending on individual metabolism. If you’re pinning fruequently your levels will have less variance we administer vast majority once a week. Starting natural level obviously has an impact too.
Thank you for the Info man. I really appreciate it.
I got my three month blood work back and I’m at 887 in a trough on 90mg/week. The doctor did say that my estrogen was getting quite high so I’ve been prescribed a small amount of AI. Also liver numbers had gotten a little bad so I’ll begin taking milk thistle. Iron is low so I’ll be taking a prenatal vitamin.
I haven’t got the lab results but I am going to request them and use the calculator you had linked.
I tried to get a slightly higher test dose but in light of the other numbers being off, they would not budge at all on the 90mg/week.
Sure thing man. Often times when I’m talking with guys, it’s about finding a good hormone balance and more free T. Ideally, having a Free T roughly 2x your Estradiol is a sweet spot for most men. If your E2 had jumped up, especially over 30, that can probably be more of a problem for how you feel versus “only” an 889 T level. The AI should help that. I agree, I probably would try some other things before adding more TC. Hope you feel better on this.
Thank you man. It is incredibly comforting to have an Impartial opinion. I am very unhappy with my clinic for many reasons. They do next to nothing to Inform the client and I don’t really trust anything they say. I am going to try to stay here until things stabilize and then switch providers.
I got a copy of my blood results and I need to do a lot of learning before I understand them. But I do see that my estradiol went from 51 to 113. I have been prescribed Arimidex 0.5mg once weekly for the first four weeks, then 0.25mg once weekly for the next eight weeks.
They also told me that my liver function has decreased and said to take milk thistle, but would not say how much. The last thing recommended was a prenatal vitamin for low iron, which had been good prior to starting TRT.
Yea it sounds like they may be making some guesses instead of having answers.
Those estrogen levels are really high, it sounds like you may aromatize more, but most guys we shoot for an estradiol under 30. For your numbers that seems like a very conservative arimidex dose. I’d normally expect a full 1mg. You may want to consider 400-800mg of DIM daily too. I have seen it dump excess E2 in men and women with that kind of use.
For the liver enzymes, I’d eliminate any and all energy drinks/preworkout. I’ve regularly seen the combo of taurine and sucralose jack up liver enzymes, especially with daily use. Don’t have any good research or links to back it up, just what I’ve seen in clinic, and resolve with abstaining use.
No way brother. Unless your compounding pharmacy is under dosing or someone has naturally low SHBG a once a week shot of 150-200mg is going to far surpass those numbers. I know you run a clinic now but doing so for a year doesn’t make this any less or more true.
The numbers would certainly be closer at 150mg to your statement again, with midrange SHBG, but 200mg would be a rare metabolizer for such low TT.
Further the whole lower your SHBG to benefit from more FT is not correct as discussed above. TT is not reservoir for FT, FT is simply a percentage of the unbound Testosterone in your system. If you lower ShBG in a person without injecting Test you won’t gain a thing. You’ll just have less TT and same approx FT levels. Your body isn’t going to all the sudden make more circulatory Testosterone because you lower SHBG. The only way to truly increase FT is by increasing your Test via injection etc and or a combo of lowering SHBG and supplementing Test.
Many injecting testosterone have lower shbg as androgens drop SHBG
By injecting exogenous test and hitting 800ng/dl etc you’ll often find the free testosterone levels of that individual are quite elevated owing to exogenous T + lower shbg
My trt dose is legit like 75mg/wk now which puts me at 450-600ng/dl
But my shbg is very low so put me next to a natural individual with 450ng/dl and my FT is likely 2x theirs
If I take enough T to get to 1000ng/dl my T levels are now supraphysiological as my free testosterone is now 2-3x the top of the ref range
Now add in 20mg anavar daily (which for clarification is now steroid use/a cycle and not TRT) and crush my SHBG into single digits and my TT might drop to 350ng/dl but the FT doesn’t budge because I haven’t actually added in more testosterone