If it wasn’t for a daily injections crushing my ferritin levels, 7 mg daily would’ve been my perfect dose. Stop thinking about it in terms of dosage and start thinking about symptoms relief.
It seems no one even considers how sensitive men can be to androgens at the receptors (or receptor density) and target tissues. You’re hung up on the absolute hormone level.
After seeing the results I decided to suspend the injections for two weeks. And to my surprise, from the tenth day onwards I started to feel really good. Good libido, good erections and great performance in the gym.
Adding this to the fact that I never felt well right after the injections, I think I may have sensitivity and not respond well to the increase in androgens
I’ll bet it’s the long unnaturally the long time to peak hormones, which can last 12-18 hours. Naturally peaking hormones occurs in a pulsatile fashion, which is very brief but a lot of little peaks.
You don’t have anything to loose by lowering your dose. I was fine on 80 mg/wk then had the same symptoms as you. My Shbg lowered over time and my free shot up. Something like 190 at trough (peak would be about 240 or so). Too stimulating for me. After lowering my dose to 53/54 mg/wk 6 months ago I sleep great, no more anixety (very calm), energy levels great, libido fine for a being almost 60. Also, my workouts are tons better as i had become tired so quick on the higher dose. Giving up is a bad option. As Systemlord said his dose would have been 7 mg/day (49 wk) if he wasn’t on oral test. Quitting until you try to lower your dose seems like folly. You tried an AI so I have no idea how long that will be in your system so if you lower your trt and don’t feel good it may be the AI still. When I lowered I felt like shit until it stabilized. Big percentage lowered doses was not easy or fun but my sleep improved quite quickly. 6 to 8 weeks minimum when you lowere to have a clue where it’s at. Screw the levels have to be such and such, it is how you FEEL too.
It may take several months for you to start to experience side effects from being overdosed on TRT, it doesn’t always happen right away.
If I need to lower further , what is an ideal free testosterone to shoot for ??
I agree, it took a year for it to catch up to me and months after lowering it twice to reach a level that I felt better at. I am on 7.5 mg/day (dosed EOD). Feel much better and it seems to be holding since it has been about 6 months or so.
As far as a free to shoot for, I think you are still worried about numbers. From my experience lower it 10% and then see how you feel. If you get to a level that you feel good at and anixety and sleep improve you could always hold that for a while and then increase a little to test it out or even lower it to find that sweet spot. I am very sensitive to changes and excessive levels. Some guys can go up 50 mg plus and be ok. Not for me but I am cool with that.
I will be getting labs in the next week and I haven’t had any since settling on around 53 mg/wk or so. I have a hunch where I will be but am not too concerned as I developed anger issue too at 80 mg/wk. I don’t want to be there again, that sucked and was not good for relationships and such.
Just remember lowering it could have side effects. Took weeks for things to settle. We are talking hormones here not asprin. I had some huge anxiety about lowering it and wating for it to settle. I kept thinking “everyone says start at 100 mg/wk” why is that not working for me? Yet if I was at 100 mg/wk I would be supraphysical all of the time. When I went to Defy they did want to start me on hcg, trt, and an AI. Glad I just went with Test Cyp.
I’m going to wait and discuss with my doctor . I’m getting a lot of mixed advice . I have suspicion that it’s higher estrogen than I’d prefer .
Good libido
Soft erecrions
No morning wood
Very delayed climax : almost impossible
Insomnia that isn’t helped with sleeping medication even
Very mild anxiety but not much
I don’t think it’s low e2 because even though I feel like shit my outlook on life isn’t horrific. I cashed e2 a long time ago when old doc had me taking .5 anastrazole 3 times a week for 3 weeks . I just felt terribly depressed . I don’t feel that now just freakin tired lol
You said it yourself, you feel bad shortly after your injections.
Probable is I had the anxiety and insomnia before the ai and hence whey i took it. It hasn’t cleared up and i doubled down yesterday with more and not better. Don’t feel joints hurting or anything but now suspecting maybe my low e2 sides are the same as my high e2
Making judgments shortly after changing your TRT protocol is foolhardy. The true test of one’s protocol comes 4 to 6 weeks or longer.
In going to follow docs advice . Get off the forums as it’s leading to too much confusion and bad advice . Thank you for taking your time to reply though !
You being so new to this, I don’t know how you determine if something is bad or good advice being that you are a newcomer to TRT.
Blindly trusting doctors is a mistake.
Good luck.
Dude everyone has a different opinion . I’m tired of the bad information . Literally told opposite things by half the people here . I don’t know who to trust
You came here for opinions and you got them and now you’re complaining.
You come across as ungrateful!
At the end of the day all of us are different and can only share our experience which may or may not be right for you.
How long where you on 100mg and then when you switched how long on 80mg?
There are “break in” periods for lack of a better term. You need to give a protocol months before changing as your body needs to reach homeostasis with that protocol.
I will 100% agree with this statement. Most GP docs have no idea what they are doing with hormones and most clinics just wanna sell you shit.
The doctor i use i pay for out of pocket and he is not a TRT clinic. He runs an osteopathic wellness center that offers many services and hormones is only a small piece but he knows his shit but is also willing to listen and learn. He pushes nothing and only gives advice/opinion and monitors my bloodwork. I feel very comfortable with him and his knowledge/guidance.
I do very much appreciate all the advice. I don’t want to come off as ungrateful. Im just struggling and also a bit bitchy as i havne’t slept more than 3 hours a night for 8 nights now.
I got to speak with urologist over a coffee at the hopistal. Her “ theory “ and she said this is just a theory is that the subcutaneous injections at the same dose caused my total test to drop a good bit ( 843 down to 400’s ) Now this isn’t so much of an issue as she agreed with you guys not to chase numbers, but…. In my case what possibly happened is that My E2 was remaining in the 40’s and the new lower Testosterone sent me from feeling ok to horrific. She told me to take a nice fat shot tonight to get that T level up , stop taking a fucking AI until we have labs ( her words exactly ).
I apologize if i seemed like a dick earlier, im just really struggling with life right now.
That’s good advice! SQ has a greater potential to create estrogen dominance.
SQ is overrated and I never recommend it for new comers starting out, IM on average is better. Now If you’re having problems dialing in on IM injections, then it would make sense to give SQ a try.
Also have another potential for the insomnia . If it’s this I’m an absolute idiot .
So just moved into new place . Ac is not working well so sleep temp in house is about 74. I’m used to 68 . Got a portable to help cool tonight. Would be very interesting as even with 3 hours sleep I feel damn good . Just can’t sleep at night ,
That could 100% be the initial issue. Now the only thing is if your body has now become accustomed to waking up at weird times you’ll have to break that.
I’ve had this happen numerous times over the last 20 years. If my sleep pattern gets messed up for any reason it takes a while to get back on track.
Hopefully it is the issue though and it resolves quickly for you. Lack of sleep really sucks.