HRT - Injection Frequency?

[foxdie]

(yes ksman i triple checked. its 100mg/ml)

Hi!

So I have been doing 50mg E3D of 100mg/ml test cyp.

here is my blood test situation and the results:
I did a 50mg injection on Friday May 11th about 3pm. (Before that on Tuesday May 8th, and so on…)Then on Saturday May 12th at around 8am I took a blood test.

I got my blood tests back today. Now had this been weekly injections I would have been concerned that the levels I got back were my “peak” levels. But since I am doing this every three days is it safe to assume that my level that I got back would only waver 100+ or 100- or so?

My concern is that my Testosterone came back at 682.

(As a side note I know that when I was doing weekly injections that the peak felt really good and noticabley better. )

Does this Testosterone level sound right for my dosage of 50mg e3d?

Also I have been worried that my libido problems (ie. NO sex drive, NO urge to have sex or want women, EXTREMELY weak erections and rarely) were caused by estrogen. I have been taking 100mg zinc everday and my estradiol levels came back at 8.

So what should I do about my estradiol? What about my testosterone levels?

If my levels would still be on the rise after that Friday injection when I got my blood test on Saturday, then I guess 672 isnt that bad. But if thats my peak or where Ill be at, Id like to push that up a bit.

Im 22 and i want to get back the amazing confidence, sex drive, poweful unending erections of my earlier 20’s (sounds funny saying that).

Should i just administer more T myself for a week or two and see if that even helps, then if it does push for it, if not then look to other factors?

Also a question about injections. I always have trouble knowing where to align the plunger against the dosage amount “ticks” on the side of the syringe. Like do i match the pointy top of the concave stopper end at the line that i want or do i push it up more so that the black rubber edge near the bottom of the concave stopper is aligned at the line? hope that made some sorta sense…

Thanks! and please answer each of these questions in an interjecting quote style if possible. makes it very organized.

[foxdie]

[quote]foxdie wrote:
(yes ksman i triple checked. its 100mg/ml)

Hi!

So I have been doing 50mg E3D of 100mg/ml test cyp.

here is my blood test situation and the results:
I did a 50mg injection on Friday May 11th about 3pm. (Before that on Tuesday May 8th, and so on…)Then on Saturday May 12th at around 8am I took a blood test.

I got my blood tests back today. Now had this been weekly injections I would have been concerned that the levels I got back were my “peak” levels. But since I am doing this every three days is it safe to assume that my level that I got back would only waver 100+ or 100- or so?

My concern is that my Testosterone came back at 682.

(As a side note I know that when I was doing weekly injections that the peak felt really good and noticabley better. )

Does this Testosterone level sound right for my dosage of 50mg e3d?

Also I have been worried that my libido problems (ie. NO sex drive, NO urge to have sex or want women, EXTREMELY weak erections and rarely) were caused by estrogen. I have been taking 100mg zinc everday and my estradiol levels came back at 8.

So what should I do about my estradiol? What about my testosterone levels?

If my levels would still be on the rise after that Friday injection when I got my blood test on Saturday, then I guess 672 isnt that bad. But if thats my peak or where Ill be at, Id like to push that up a bit.

Im 22 and i want to get back the amazing confidence, sex drive, poweful unending erections of my earlier 20’s (sounds funny saying that).

Should i just administer more T myself for a week or two and see if that even helps, then if it does push for it, if not then look to other factors?

Also a question about injections. I always have trouble knowing where to align the plunger against the dosage amount “ticks” on the side of the syringe. Like do i match the pointy top of the concave stopper end at the line that i want or do i push it up more so that the black rubber edge near the bottom of the concave stopper is aligned at the line? hope that made some sorta sense…

Thanks! and please answer each of these questions in an interjecting quote style if possible. makes it very organized.[/quote]

also i take levothyroxine for my hypothyroidism. should i ask if i can try a different t4 med, or switch to something like armour which is t3/t4?

do i have a dopamine deficiency possibly? i want my sex life back!

[bigdawg011]

[quote]foxdie wrote:
…
Also I have been worried that my libido problems (ie. NO sex drive, NO urge to have sex or want women, EXTREMELY weak erections and rarely) were caused by estrogen. I have been taking 100mg zinc everday and my estradiol levels came back at 8.

So what should I do about my estradiol? What about my testosterone levels?
…
[/quote]

Your estradiol is too low. You need some to be healthy. Appropriate levels are needed for arousal and orgasm as well as genital sensitivity. Cut back on the zinc. You’re probably depleting copper and other minerals at that level.

As for lining up the marks in the syringe, given the half-life, just do your best. You don’t have to inject the perfect amount every time.

Don’t change your dose without talking to your doctor about your concerns first. There could be other issues going on with you. If you make changes on your own, you could be doing the wrong thing and masking an issue from your doctor.

[foxdie]

thanks to all who replied, especially pmgamer. your information is topnotch.

so to summarize:

1.) Start HCG
2.) Check T4 levels? and T3?
3.) Check prolactin
4.) Discontinue Zinc

sound right?

And I will get comprehensive bloodwork later this month. I was in the hospital a few days ago so I just asked to know my total test and estradiol levels.

UPDATE: today for my regular E3D T-cyp shot i increased the dosage to 70mg from 50mg to see if i notice positive differences. I figure if I do this and talk to my doc and explain that my levels were low before at 50 e3d and even worse at 100mg ew that I figured a small jump up couldnt hurt that much. im only doing this because i havent been able to get a call back from here in 2 weeks. im tired of waiitng.

should i explain this all to my doctor or just shut my mouth, get her to order a blood test, and just drop back down to the original 100mg a week so that she can see how low my results are firsthand?

How would you guys handle this? suffer and continue at 50mg e3d or even worse try 100mg ew like she originally ordered so that my levels come back even poopier meaning she may increase my dosage even more? Im thinking if I do once weekly she will see the low trough, increase the dosage nicely and then i can on my own do e3d distributions…

FYI: when doing the 100mg weekly, the two days after the shot felt great. if i were to be able to do 200mg a week, split e3d i think i would be in heaven.

help! so many ways of handling this rightnow

[foxdie]

ok so check out this great news!

today i called my doctor

1.) told her im not satisified with my synthroid (levothyroxine) and that my temp is consistently low. she said i can start armour!

2.) told her my testosterone total levels peaked at 682 so she said i can start doing 150mg a week instead of 100. even better she said i can do 75mg e3d. didnt even have to worry about getting actualy blood results to her or anything.

when i informed her about my high prolactin and low e2 she said she doesnt “get into that”. whatever ill self medicate for now i guess…

so will my increase of 100mg a week to 150mg a week raise my e2? or should i begin taking some dhea to get e2 up. (im hyoppituitary or whatver so i dont think my body makes dhea as well as it should anyway) i dont know my dhea levels right now…but its much more likely there lower given my background information and other blood results, then higher right?

and for prolactin i was gonna get some b6? 200mg a day sound right if im 14 on a scale of 4-17?

[foxdie]

so did u have no libido before caborline? did that help once u started taking it?

[KSman]

HCG will increase your E as well as T, also improves mood.

What test did you have for E and what are the reference ranges? Your number is suspiciously low.

Some transdermal T would increase E and also DHT<-- good for sex drive and sensitivity.

Zinc rarely is very effective, so might not be the root cause. I would not quit completely.

BW should be half way between injections. Time of day is not an issue when your HPTA is shut down.

When will you start HCG?

[foxdie]

when i was on 100mg a week i had a level of test. 682 and an e2 level of 8.

i started on 150mg a week of test. cyp. after that last bloodwork. i also started taking 1.25mg of arimidex a week, and wellbutrin. my levels came back test. 1797 and e2 <2.

it is clear i need to elevate my e2 levels. i will stop the arimidex, but im wondering:

are my testosterone levels so high because my e2 was driven so low? like if i stop taking the arimidex, will my levels drop from 1797 and to something more correlated to my 100mg response? (like approx. 1000) i ask this because my doctor wants me to lower my dosage, but if im going to start raising e2 to healthy levels then it may start driving my test levels down right?

also i have been taking 200mg dhea a day. my results came back 481. should i modify this dosage? and after the arimidex is stopped, will this much dhea help put me in better position in the e2 range?

should i start low, and up my dosage 25mg a day?

help!

i read that having e2 very low such as mine permanently allows dopamine receptors to die after as little as 10 days and definitly by the end of 30…i have been with very low e2 for months and months maybe years… do i need to get my dopamine levels checked?

and last but not least, i called my doctors office to get the results. when the nurse said that my levels were high and that the doc wanted my dosage of test cyp reduced, i told the nurse that i was taking something to lower estrogen and that that probably made my testosterone go to high.

i told her to have the doc call me so i could talk to her about it. now should i just be honest and explain i was taking arimidex from a damn website i ordered it from? how do doctors react to things like this?

[bigdawg011]

Wellbutrin helps maintain higher dopamine levels, which is directly associated with higher testosterone levels. That combined with your very low E2 is why your T is high. I assume your testes are big as normal and not atrophied? You must not have much fat on you. Was that E2 a highly sensitive assay?

200mg DHEA per day is a lot, by the way. It can lead to estrogen. You have a lot of variables there.

As for dopamine levels, I don’t believe it’s really possible (without tapping the brain) to get direct dopamine levels. Why not just reduce your Arimidex to 1mg per week for a few weeks and see what happens. Best not to make big sudden changes, or to change more than one thing at a time unless a doctor tells you to do so (I’m not a doctor).

BD

[KSman]

HCG will help increase E2.

That level of HDEA is fine. Was that a DHEA-s test?

What is the lab range on the E2 test? <53 or ?

If E2 was 8, arimidex does not seem to have been a good idea.

I would not be concerned with what amount of T is converting to E right now.

When was the blood work done relative to your last injection? Were you then injecting 75mg E3D or ?

[foxdie]

[quote]KSman wrote:
HCG will help increase E2.

That level of HDEA is fine. Was that a DHEA-s test?

What is the lab range on the E2 test? <53 or ?

If E2 was 8, arimidex does not seem to have been a good idea.

I would not be concerned with what amount of T is converting to E right now.

When was the blood work done relative to your last injection? Were you then injecting 75mg E3D or ?[/quote]

DHEA sulfate was 481 range was 110-510…i didnt take dhea the day of the test. is that correct to do? also that was my result taking 200mg of dhea a day, split up 100mg in the morning and 100mg in the evening.

estradiol, ultra sensitive was <2 range was < or = 29

testosterone total was 1797 range 250-1100
testosteorne free % was 3.28 range was 1.10-2.80
testosterone free was 589.4 range was 35-155

also, like the dhea, i figured i shouldnt take my Armour thyroid mediciine the day of the blood test. here are my thyroid results…shouldnt i be in the upper end of the t3 and t4, just like you try and get testosterone in the upper range if your on replacement therapy?

t4 total 5.9 range was 3.8-12
t4 free 1.0 range was 0.8-1.8
t3 free 386 range was 230-420

those were my results on 60mg (i believe thats one grain) of armour thyroid, split in half, taken once in the morning and once in the evening, sublingually. again, i did not take this med the morning of my blood test.

i was injecting .8mg e3d and this was 2 days after my last inject, which means the day before my next inject.

since then i have dropped the dosage as such. .6mg of t, then .7mg of t.
instead of doing e3d, im doing .7mg t then waiting FOUR days, then doing .6mg t then waiting THREE days. so bottom line is instead of 150mg every 6 days im doing 130mg every 7 days. is that a big enough drop?

and the strange thing is when i started arimidex i felt better using it, and i got morning wood…but this was after my E was 8…now it is <2 and i have no wood…how could lowering it from 8, but keeping it higher than <2 given me good feelings and wood? doesnt make sense. maybe it was placebo at the time?

anyway, i have since stopped taking all arimidex, no real improvements yet but i didnt stop arimidex until the 25th.

now here is the other problem…e2 was 8 before using arimidex. then when it dropped to <2 it was after using 2mg of arimidex between tuesday the third and sunday the 8th. i guess i may have gone overboard a bit, but wouldnt it take more time for the levels to drop by the 11th when i got the blood test done?

do you think my level was 8 while i was not on arimidex and taking 100mg e6d and now that my levels went up from the increased dosage of 150mg e6d that i actually DID need arimdex, but that i took too much before my next blood test?

HELP! my best idea for where to go from here is:

1. maintain new dosage of 130mg a week.
2. see if i feel better using 130mg and 200mg dhea
3. if not introduce arimidex, but instead of 1mg a week, start at .5 a week or .75
4. titrate dosages of armidex slowly, maybe increasing dosage every 2 weeks to give morning wood a chance to show itself again

so that was a long post…any ideas? and should i press for higher Armour dosage as well?

[foxdie]

hey ever since i dropped the arimidex, my e2 has been going back up…obviously…

i had a few days where i had morning wood, but it i think that went away recently

in addition:
as many of you know, estrogen activity competes with thyroid activity (or something to that effect)

my temperature on one grain of armour originally kept me around 96.8-97.3osh
then when i started taking arimidex, my one grain of armour kept me at 98.6!

now i stopped taking armidex, and my temps dropped back down to 96.8-97.3ish

i assume that when i pushed me e2 too low, i had plenty of free T3/T4 and great temps. now that e2 is elevated or maybe normal, i have poor temps again.

so basically i need to check e2 levels and thyroid levels again

do you guys believe i should start a low dosage of arimidex as well? maybe .25mg e3d? remember that at 1.5mg of arimidex a day i got down below <2 e2, and when i used no arimidex i had an e2 of 8…

but when i started using armidex when i only had an e2 of 8, i actually started to get morning erectins for a little bit…

so confused! what should i do!?