Hey guys, awesome forum and members. I’ve been lurking for a couple of months and find this stuff fascinating, especially KSman who has some very insightful posts so I’m hoping I can catch his attention in my questions.
I’ve been on HRT for about 4 years now, I’m 41 years old and initially my TT levels were in the low 200s. I’ve kind of bounced around different things in this time, and part of the reason was I got greedy with TT levels before fully understanding all the nuances and interworkings of all the different hormones and factors.
Initially we started on 100mg test/week, we tried all different combinations, cyp, enanthate, they even threw in nandrolone at one time which I absolutely hated. My TT was usually coming in around high 700s with FT about 15-18. We got to a point where I would take a break before doing my tests and my TT would come in low, so they would raise the test injections first to 200/week and then we even went to 300/week. Needless to say I felt incredible in the gym, but the things I initially went for like libido, anxiety, motivation etc all got worse. I had to go through this myself as I’m hard headed and wouldn’t believe it otherwise, but now I realize less is more as I keep hearing.
Now here are where some of my questions come up. I’ve always (regardless if I was on 100/200/300 test/wk) had a protocol of 1500iu HCG/week (500 x 3)and 3mg anastrazole/wk (1mg x 3) and always felt that this was an issue that was not positive. The days I took the HCG or the anastrazole I felt good in the morning, but by mid morning would crash, very tired and sleepy, very moody, at times I would even get E2 symptoms like bloat and sore nipples. This was a conundrum because this was supposed to lower my E2 levels and my doctors could not understand this.
This last cycle of 20 weeks they agreed to let me do test by itself with no anastrazole and HCG, I needed to see for myself what my labs would look like and if those substances were causing an issue. I also made the decision to go very low on the test and see how I felt and work my way up, part of the thought process was the high levels of test were increasing my E2 and that less test would give me a better T/E ratio without having to use the anastrazole. So I brought it all down to 120 test cyp/week given in 2x60 IM injections per week, no HCG, no anastrazole.
20 weeks later we did labs, I only have the values he told me over the phone, but they will fax it to me next week and I can post it on here. I did wait one week after my last 60 injection before doing the labs. here are the numbers as I can best recall them, I’ll post up the official numbers next week: TT: 642, FT: 15, E2: 26, LH: 0.1, DHEA: 152. Those are the numbers I remember, this is after a 20 week program of 120 test cyp/week, no HCG, no anastrazole.
Honestly I felt pretty good during that 20 weeks, no mood swings, I wasn’t my usual a$$hole self but I was actually pretty caring individual. I lost a good amount of muscle mass but I kept fairly lean and kept most of my strength, best of all I didn’t really care, you tend to build up a body image you feel you need and the more test you take the worse this gets it was nice to not have this worry as much.
Now the issue I’m having, my number 1 issue is Libido. I don’t have an issue with ED if I have libido, and I was tested for any ED type stuff by my urologist so there are no physical issues there. The higher and higher the test went the worse the libido was, although it was cyclical, when I would first start a cycle my libido was great, but then it would taper down to nothing. In fact all positive aspects were like this, start off great then taper down as I reached a steady state, this is one reason why cycling is a good thing.
OK so fast forward to my latest labs and examination. Testes are very small, one of them aches, libido is down to nothing, but I feel great overall and the very last thing I need to fix up is the libido. Doc says that LH is really a big issue and I need to get back on the HCG, he says E2 looks ok, but is more comfortable with some anastrazole, although he agrees it needs to be a lower dose.
I proposed I stay on the 120/wk, but add in 250UI HCG 2x week for total of 500, and .25 to .5 of the anastrazole 2x/week. HCG the day before the test shot, anastrazole the day after to coincide with the test peak. The reason 2x/week is both economy (can cut tabs in half), and from reading some of KSman’s posts if I am one of the anastrazole over responders it seems that issue may be slower clearing of the anastrazole by the liver, which may indicate less frequent AI would be beneficial.
Last week I started on my new protocol, I’ve only done one half week cycle so far. HCG x 250 UI, next day 60/test cyp, and yesterday .5 anastrazole (cut in half one of my old 1mg capsules until pharmacy fills my new order). I’m still feeling like crap on HCG and anastrazole days. HCG days I will feel very moody and sleepy, possibly an E2 spike? Anastrazole days I’ll feel very foggy and VERY sleepy, like I can just sit down and close my eyes and I’ll fall right asleep. But the next day after anastrazole my libido will feel great so I’m assuming I’m on the right track.
Well that’s about it. No real concrete questions, just a lot of variables for you guys to look over and tell me what you think and what I should think about tweaking. My number one concern is libido, number 2 is that sense of happiness and well being, number 3 is just to look good but I’ve learned that this shouldn’t be number one.