I’ve been on TRT for 2 months. I’m on a very low dose - 50mg/week. I’ve tried a number of different doses and anything above a 50mg injection, I have a noticeable decline in libido. My endocrinologist only took my Test Numbers upon check-up so that is all I have to go on.
Can anyone guess as to what is happening when I increase my dose to cause such a decrease in my libido? What levels should I ask my physician to check next time?
I believe your dose is too low. You should take a few weeks and do shots every 3.5 days of 50mg each. The 100mg per week is the pretty standard starting dose for TrT. Its hard to believe that the 50mg you are taking per week is even enough to get you the levels you are at. You are barely in range. Not to mention you are hitting peaks and valleys with that small dose so infrequently.
Thank you both for your input. I’m wondering if anything over 50mg is causing my Estradiol to rise too high and thereby inhibiting libido. I guess only blood work can confirm.
Roscoe88 nailed it. Your SHBG is bound to be low based on your follow up tests. Would you be willing to try injecting EOD? Next question, if you feel ok on 50mg/wk why worry about it at all?
Great Question - The problem is that 50 mg injection feel great but after day 3, fade rapidly. By day 5 I feel pretty crappy but have to wait another 2 days to inject and another day for it to kick in. So taking 2 50mg injections every 3.5 days seems like the next logical step but would be double what my physician has prescribed.
I’ll look into getting my SHBG levels tested. Thank you for the advice both!
Compared to your injections, when did you get blood work drawn? Was it the day before injection? Was it 3-4 days after injection?
I am assuming is SHBG is going to be middle of the road to lower end. His Free Test is 111.9 with a range of 35-155. His lower dosage shots are keeping his TT and FT lower. Then on top of that he is hitting peaks and valleys because of small dosage and only pinning once a week.
Blshaw gave you solid advice. Another piece of advice would be to get 1ml syringes which would make it much easier to get such a small dosage to be accurate.
E2 could be lowered or at least leveled by more frequent dosages that would help stop the spiking. Test comes down, E2 keeps going up.
Your levels are dropping after 3 days and your levels are swinging, when Total T drops Free T drops more dramatically, when this happens you feel a crash after a few days. You need to inject multiple times a week to keep levels stable, otherwise the swings or crashes will get worse with time.
I believe the reason your libido is nonexistent is because of estrogen rising on anything above 50mg, frequent injections can minimize and better control estrogen levels. The more frequent and smaller the injections, the lower estrogen will be.
Testing only Total T is a red flag and is telling me your doctor doesn’t do this very often. A lot of doctors will be TRT ignorant within insurance networks, your doctor has no idea what he’s doing. Find someone who’s been doing TRT for decades, sports medicine or anti-aging. I would want someone more qualified when my health is concerned.
My protocol is 20mg every other day injecting using 29 gauge insulin syringes and inject in the shoulders and outer quads and feel the same every day of the week, no crash, no swings in T levels. I require a very low dose AI to keep estrogen from getting out of control.
That is when your Test levels would be the highest after a shot, 2-3 days. That would explain why your TT and FT were high at that time. They start to come back down but your E2 is still going up. Its not a perfect snapshot of what is going on.
I have been told the best times for blood work is the day of shot but before injection. Of course its going to be low unless you have divided up your shot into multiple shots per week.
Sounds like you need to look at micro dosing say 3 times a week at a lower amount to reduce the highs and troughs. maybe start with 20mg per dose? And like everyone has said get a full blood panel for TRT leave no stone unturned so you have a full picture of what your body is doing..