Rounding out week 2 of the new protocol using shots as noted above. I can’t really tell the difference - other than the Testosterone buzz I get the day of injection. Less morning woods compared to gels. I have a blood test the end of Sept so I will post back.
On another note - today my endo kicked me out of the practice. I had seen him in Feb when I started TRT from another doc. He said I did not need TRT since my total Test was 425 - even though I felt like shit and had all the symptoms. When I followed up with him today for a Thyroid issue he flat out banned me for not listening to him about stopping TRT. Ass.
Just got blood back after 5 weeks on the new injection protocol 5 1/2 days after the last injectuon with no HCG that morning.
Total Test 960 mg/dl
Free 137 pg/ml (46-224) (they listed Free Test twice and the other value was 197 with a range of 35-155 - strange
Bio available 287 (110-575)
Estradiol 59
SHBG 34
I was only taking .5 mg of Arimidex / week. I could’ve told him that this was not enough. He only wanted me to up the dose to 1 mg per week – and said to strive for an estradiol level in the 30 to 40 range. From what I read here that seems too high.
Any case, I’m feeling great – and these values were a definite improvement over the gels and Hcg that I was on.
Quick update to keep track of my log and protocol -
I experimented with lowering my dose to 80 mg Test per week - keeping Arimidex and HCG the same (.5 mg 2x week and 350 IU 2x week, respectively) for two weeks prior to my recent blood test which noted the following outliers:
Total Test 517 ng/dL
Free Test 10.9
Estradiol 6.6 ng/dL
TSH 4.1 with high Anti bodies
SHBG 48
Results were obtained day 5 after injection.
Clearly the dose was not sufficient. A 20% reduction in Test for two weeks yielded an almost 40% reduction in blood levels since the last time. Also Estradiol crashed and there was a big uptick in SHBG.
So, after consulting with my Uro, and DefyMedical - my new protocol will be as follows:
2x Sub q injections 50mg
.5 mg Arimidex weekly
350IU HCG at the time of injection
Defy suggested raising Test and HCG - but since I get my Test through my Endo, and my
previous labs on 100 mg of Test were great, I’ll stick with the above.
Also - I am finally giving in and starting Armor thyroid. I have Hashimotos and while most Endos are fine with my levels, the folks at Defy, who are up on this, said there is no reason to wait till my thyroid is destroyed to start meds.
Update - I dropped Arimidex to .5mg 1x / week but split the T dose (doing Subq 50 mg 2x week) and 300 IU HCG 3 x week.
Results rock:
Total T 1111 Ng/DL
Free T 28 pg/ml
Estradiol 22 pg/ml.
Can’t get any better than that I think.
I’ve also been on 1 grain of Armor Thyroid but it didn’t do much to raise Free T3 - actually reverse T3 went up and free t4 went down despite meds. Getting a new consult for that.
Regarding Test - Subq is the real deal. I followed the instructions in the Injection Protocol sticky exactly - and pin with a 28g 1/2 cc syringe.
If you felt great and your labs were good you might need 200mg a week. See how you feel after halving it and if not as good report back to your doc regarding your mistake. How many months did you do this for?
Thanks for asking. Yes. Feeling great. Been on TRT ever since and also added nandrolone to the protocol. Best I’ve felt in decades. My current regiment is 12 mg Test pinned daily with 90mg of Nandrolone weekly. I was cycling the nandrolone on and off but my joints are so bad I was approved to be on full time. Not worth the quality of life reduction living in pain without the nandrolone.