Your Free T is almost exactly average (average based on your lab’s range is 135), so you definitely won’t feel superhuman at those levels.
Keep in mind though that Testosterone is not the only hormone that matters. Your HGH/IGF-1 levels could be low also, which supposedly (I’m about to start GH myself) has a huge impact on energy levels and recovery from workouts, sleep quality, etc…particularly if you’re deficient.
I believe that’s partly why a 40yo won’t feel as good as a 20yo even with the same Test levels.
My personal theory as to why some need extremely high levels of Test to feel good, is that the Test is making up for other deficiencies. There was an article where the guy explained how higher Test levels will create an excitatory state in your brain which will make you feel great but isn’t sustainable, which (again imo) is probably why certain men report losing the benefits of TRT after years of use.
When I started TRT I was all about Testosterone. “Test is good, more Test is better, Test is good for everything, etc…”. As time goes by I’m starting to realize that while Test is great and important for many things, there are many other hormones that are important. Your thyroid, neurosteroids such as Pregnenolone and DHEA, HGH, Cortisol, etc…
That’s why I personally don’t buy into the idea of blasting more and more Test until symptom resolution. You might feel your symptoms are resolved on 300mg/week of Test, but you’re probably making up for other deficiencies and there are probably some serious long term problems waiting for you. Keep in mind that not everything shows up on a blood test. Neuro toxicity and left ventricular hypertrophy among others.
High levels of androgens are neurotoxic and lead to neurodegeneration, even from Testosterone. I don’t think we can link to other forums but google “androgens neurodegeneration r…”, where “r…” is the name of a famous forum. It should be the first link.
My advice would be do a more complete hormonal pannel. Look at GH/IGF-1 at your age, and the other stuff I mentioned. If you get on TRT you could see benefits from it by pushing your FT to the top of the range, but if you get there and don’t feel the resolution of every single negative symptom in your life, I would strongly advise you to look at other hormones in which you could be deficient and not raise your dose more and more until all those symptoms are gone.
Testosterone does certain things, but not others. Don’t use it to solve all your problems. There’s a typical human tendency to use oversimple models to deal with the complexity of our environment. Don’t make that mistake. Testosterone is only one, albeit important, hormone.
EDIT: Just saw your protocol, is doesn’t make sense to me. Why add the Clomid? Minimize the number of drugs you take. The beauty of TRT is that Test is a bio-identical hormone your body and brain are already designed to know how to work with. Same with GH, Pregnenolone and DHEA.
Clomid is not in that category and you don’t need it. I would drop the Clomid and start at 50mg 2x/week (100mg/week total) IM injections. Start with what’s known to work, subQ doesn’t work for some people, I felt terrible on it and so do many others. You might need to go to more frequent injections to feel really stable, but 2x/week is a good start imo.
