Libido/ED Issues on 500mg Test. Too Much?

Pharma / TRT
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Old guy on the cusp of 60. I’ve been lifting and running since the late '70s. Three years ago when my 30 year marriage blew up and I was plunked back in the dating pool for the first time since the '80s- I finally decided to give pharmaceuticals a try.
You have to understand that I don’t have the lifting social network that many of you do. The “kids” at my gym are 30-40 years younger, they’re not going to share advice and I’d be uncomfortable to ask.
I read what I could here and made a disastrous mistake with my first cycle- wrong drug, full on ED, racing heart, almost no quality sleep. It took 2 months to recover.
On the suggestion of someone here- I decided to give it a second try, using almost exclusively test-E, 250mg per week. Someone else suggested Anavar- and I generally got a good response from that except that it completely messed up my liver enzymes so I discontinued.
That dosage of test seemed to work well and I was regularly complimented on my fitness level for a man in his late-50s. (Getting dates is easier when most other 50-somethings have no arms and barbecue-bellies.)
On the (questionable?) advice of a semi-pro BB acquaintance I started doing longer 4 month cycles with 4 week PCTs of nolvadex. He also seemed surprised at what he considered a low dosage of testE. I upped it to 350mg per week and then 500.
That’s when I started to have ED issues again. I decided to do a prolonged, 4 month PCT. Libido and function returned nicely.
6 weeks ago I started another cycle and initially felt great at 500mg of test but the dreaded libido and ED issues are back as of only a couple days ago.

Advice?

Sorry, no lab work to share. That’s another issue I need to address-- everything was going through my personal physician and I need to find a more discreet way to measure my levels.

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OK, I’m going to be 57 next week and you need to start TRT. At our age, cycles just aren’t going to do it. You either go see an HRT clinic/specialist or you can run your own. Its your decision. Either way you need to keep track of your bloodwork.

You’re probably getting ED from an estrogen rebound when you stop your cycle or your body is responding negatively to the normal increase in estrogen during your cycle. You should consider a SERM like novladex.

You also should consider finding a generic source of cialis. I run a daily cialis and it just gives me the confidence that I will be responsive to my wife 99% of the time. The only thing that causes me to be unresponsive these days are being too hungry and having low blood sugar.

I will also tell you that if you any type of sleep issues, you might want to consider getting on HGH. It has made a world of difference in my life from sleep to recovery to overall quality of life.

3 Likes
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Order labs yourself, cos we are just guessing with something like this until you get them. ED can be many things

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Thanks, but in Canada all blood tests are supposed to go through a licensed doctor. If anyone knows of a work-around, I’d love to hear it.

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I’m 40 but I get what you are saying about the kids, plus they are not the best source of info for this stuff.

I heartily recommend you spending the time to learn whatever you can. (That’s my soap box statement I try to spread around)

Right off the bat, what are you doing for estrogen control when you run 500mgs a week? True many guys don’t need any estrogen support at 500gs a week but some do and some need serious support.
Estrogen is what is produced when the aromatase enzyme interacts with the testosterone. So your body has been use to low test (age) and this lower estrogen because there was less test to eat up. The same way that you super reacted to the extra test, the same is possible to the new estrogen in your body. Plus you just might be a super sensitive individual.

Just to help you along and I don’t know your full education background in this world so I am not trying to do anything other than make sure you do know this, not trying to man-splane anything. There are two ways we tend to manage estrogen on cycle, with a SERM or an Aromatase Inhibitor aka AI. A SERM blocks estrogen from attaching to certain tissues like the breast tissue that can grow causing gyno. The SERM does nothing to manage the estrogen level it simply blocks the estrogen and that is a very simple way of saying it, plus it does other stuff but those things are not important to this. SERMs are used in fertility therapy sometimes, so they do all sorts of stuff beyond just blocking. I saw that Hammer recommended a SERM and it’s possible it could do something outside it’s gyno type duty that helps but my statements are in regards to estrogen being too high and causing the ED as a side effect of the extra high level. The two common SERMs are nolvadex and clomid. Now an AI actually effects the estrogen level. What it does is stops the aromatase enzyme from breaking down the testosterone and if the enzyme can’t breakdown then no estrogen. The main three AIs are aromasin, arimidex, and femara.

I would think if you took a light dose of any of those three AIs along with your test shots, you would see a difference. I personally think femara is more “heavy duty” plus it can mess with our cholesterol. And also another FYI, if and when you do mix in the AI, you will have to play with the dose and schedule to find your best window.

As far as your cycling, WHY? Just blast and cruise aka go to testosterone replacement therapy level dose after your cycle. I can’t imagine your natural test is coming back in any real level or speed even with a great PCT plan. Plus why go through weeks or more likely months of super low to NO test waiting for the HPTA to recover. Fuck that feel good and healthy and more importantly be healthy with a healthy test level after your cycle. Something like 100-125 mgs a week is a typical window for trt dosing. That’s for enanthate and cypionate esters. Also with enanthate and cypionate you should divide your weekly doses into two even shots per week. That will help keep your over all levels more even and stable…that’s good. Actually your ED and mood could improve completely just switching to two even doses vs one large weekly shot. Our bodies like homeostasis, I think thats the word. With any estered hormone there is this peak level release post injection the different esters just effect how high and how long the peak is. Post peak the levels drop noticably.
With one large dose of enanthate or cypionate per week you will have this super high level for about 2-3 days then you drop for the rest of the time until your next shot. With two shots per week you will stay in that post shot window of higher levels. Weather you are doing a cycle or TRT I would urge you to do the two equal shots, it makes a serious difference.

As far as adding in Anavar or anything else at this point, just don’t. I promise you testosterone can do 95% of your wildest fantasies. It is truly king for a reason. I have done numerous cycles with things you have not even heard of and I am telling you test can do it. Now there is nothing wrong with trying the other compounds but you don’t need their complications right now. Get this current situation addressed, try the trt if you want and then see what you feel like in six months. I bet you make some crazy progress you didn’t expect and just want to try another test blast.

And as far as you looking for experienced sounding boards for this stuff, you’re in the right place. This site has well intentioned knowledgeable friends you can speak with. My email is in my profile, you can email me and I will do my best to share why my experience says X, Y, or get the fuck out of the way.

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Thanks, gentlemen. I really appreciate the advice. Things seem a lot better even today but I’ll cut the dosage back to 250mg weekly split into two 125mg shots.

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My two cents from personal experience: my libido is best on TRT doses under 200mg/wk. My blasts above 500/wk do lower my libido, but always improves when I come off cycle. For me SERMs didn’t help libido, arimidex can but bottomed out E2 for me causes the same libido dump.