I seem to be struggling on getting to a good place with the E2W injections. Still doing 250 iu hcg EOD and 1mg anastrozole per week in divided doses. Some days I feel good and others not so much. Is there anything in this schedule other than more frequent injections of T that can help, like hcg and anastrozole dose and timing changes. Also it seems that my testes are starting to ache again and maybe a little softer, my hcg is 30 days old and I’m sure that it was mixed and dosed properly. Could high E2 cause any of this or ITT E2, Any thoughts on these issues?
I have been checking my temps also and in the morning right out of bed it’s been between 96.9 and 97.2 but it has gotten up to 98.9 in the evenings and as low as 98.3, I’m not sure what this means.
You will have a very difficult time with every two week injections, honestly. The swings are just going to be too big. You’re already doing EOD hcg, so that isn’t going to help much. I suppose you could try 100iu hcg ED. I don’t think it will make much difference though.
The problem is the infrequent injections. Nothing can be right until you self inject at least twice per week.
Go back to the stickies:
advice for new guys
protocol for injections
finding a TRT doc
hCG response after 4 years is not predicable. Refrigerated hCG is known good at 80 days.
E2 cannot block LH peptide receptors.
Body temps:
read the thyroid basics sticky
get labs TSH, fT3, Ft4 [not T3, T4]
eval your long term intake of iodine from iodized salt, must be iodized, sea salt does not have iodine and Himalayan sea salt is a fraud when it comes to viable iodine content.
Clomid was horrible? Use Nolvadex instead and you will feel pretty good.
Thanks for the response guys, I have read the stickies several times and thought about my iodine intake and I’m quite sure it’s not adequate. I also was interested in the fire retardant clothing cause a lot of our gear is treated with it and I’m exposed to an array of byproducts of combustion, wonder what effect that may have. I can’t help but wonder if my E2 is fluctuating so much on this protocol that the 1mg a week is not sufficient at times. This last injection on Monday was 200mg so I’m not sure how to dose for that, will the 1mg per 100mg of test still apply here.
What are the retardants? Bromine based or a metal based type?
If you gave bromine issues, large dose iodine replenishment can displace the bromines and they get excreted. However, you can feel unwell during that phase and you can really stink.
I worked with a Firefighter. The crew was required to wear fire pants at all times while on duty. He was young and hormones were a mess. Others in the crew had a lot of health problems.
I’m not sure about what kind but I did a few searches and found that carpet is treated with bromine type and I have installed carpet for around 15 years. Is the 50mg a day iodine a safe starting point or should it be lower?
Please search and read “KSman has a thyroid problem”
I was referring to " I also was interested in the fire retardant clothing cause a lot of our gear is treated with it and I’m exposed to"
What are the retardants? Bromine based or a metal based type?
Bromine is in a lot of materials. Skin contact is an issue, so clothing is the major issue for a firefighter or ERT member.
I haven’t found out about the retardent on the gear yet, it said that a lot of carpet and pad is treated with bromine based fire retardent and I’ve been around that stuff for my whole life. I did get me some iodoral 12.5 mg tabs and some selenium 200mcg along with a good multivitamin with d3 and k2 and have been taking them, started with 6.25 mg a day and have worked up to 25mg daily so far.
Should I keep increasing up to 50mg daily. My temps have fluctuated since starting. I had gotten up to 97.8 and as low as 96.4 in the morning upon waking. Does this indicate anything at all, should I just keep going up until they are consistent? I have had some stinky urine and some slight metallic taste in my mouth.
On a brighter note got my biweekly injection yesterday and asked about self injecting and he said sure but wants to do bloods on Tuesday to make sure the dose is correct, I have had a really hard time with e2 balance with this protocol so I’m hoping this will help. I seem to need more than the 1/4 EOD in the first few days after injection and less on the second week, is this pretty common?
I had my blood drawn on Tuesday and he checked TT,E2 and vitamin D. I am gonna ask for thyroid labs on the next round also. Test level was in the low 1200’s, E2 was 29 but I would’ve sworn it was a lot higher than that because I was having a lot of E2 sides that had me convinced it was high, I was having to take about a 1/4mg arimidex a day instead of EOD.
On the Sunday before the BW I had taken 1/4mg and none on Monday or Tuesday, so it must have been pretty high before. The last time I had labs one week after injection my TT level was around 1000 and that was when I was taking 500iu of hcg for the first few days and then went to 250iu EOD. This time I was taking 100iu every day and TT was 200 points higher, I don’t understand why. Vitamin D was between 100 and 110 I forgot the actual number.
I need some advise on this also, I called a local compounding pharmacy about making some arimidex solution for me with my 1mg tabs. The pharmacist said that the solution would only last 14 days in certain liquid he uses or he could put it in an oil and it would last 90 days. Of course he couldn’t do it without a prescription first. I have dissolved a few in some vodka and have been taking that, I wonder if it is degrading and is why it seems to take so much?
Anyone else noticed anything that supports this? Also I would like to know what kind of oil is he talking about, could I possibly get it myself and make it into a more stable solution? I seem to do better if I take some every day instead of EOD. I really need some help on this cause I don’t want to be wasting my arimidex cause it was hard enough to get it prescribed in the first place.
I just got some labs done and was wondering what you guys thought. I’m still on the crappy E2W injections of 150mg, hcg 250 EOD and arimidex. I didn’t get the reference ranges but they were done by labcorp and I’m not sure how to find those.
TT- 896
FT- 27
E2- 28
CBC- 48
Vit D- 95
This is the only ones that he ran this time but I will have more done in a month, what should I ask for? I should say that this E2 reading I was having to take 1/4mg of arimidex a day just to feel normal, what’s up with that. I got an injection yesterday and after a few hours I felt progressively worse, every time I get that big injection I can’t hardly sleep for a few days, this happened last night like always. I feel like I get a huge E2 spike nipples get tingly and a little burn/tingle sensation. He did say if my levels look good after two more injections I can start doing them at home so I’m trying to hold onto that. Does hcg have to be subq in abdominal fat or is anywhere else just as good.
Once again thanks for any help.
When you inject ever week or two weeks the labs are sort of meaningless. Your levels have huge swings and the lab results are more determined by lab timing than dose.
With T levels moving, your anastrozole dose cannot be right; it needs to match blood T levels.
hCG can be IM or SC.
CBC = ?
You need to self inject twice a week to get steady levels then make changes after that for T and E2 target levels. You are doing poorly with your current protocol.
That’s what I was thought was the cause also. I didn’t have all these problems when I was doing EOD t subq with my previous doctor but they wouldn’t test anything but TT so I swapped. He said after two more injections at E2W if my levels are good I could self inject, fingers crossed. If this drags out much longer I’m gonna have to find a new one. Many thanks for the reply.
What do you think about this. I was thinking of using the formula 1mg anastrozole per 100mg of test the first week and then maybe 1mg or less the second week. I know it’s not good to keep changing it but until I can self inject my only other choice is to suffer through it. I even thought about aromasin but don’t know much about it. I’m curious how some who have tried it have done, if anyone has any experience with it I would welcome your reply. I can’t keep this protocol much longer I only sleep 2 to 3 hours a night the first few days after the injection, it really wears you down.
Also this is probably a stupid question but I’m getting frustrated. I have noticed that when I take adex that my nipples are mostly erect and when I feel like my E2 is up they get soft and a slight tingle/burning sensation but not as bad as when I was on the Clomid, it felt like they were on fire then. Has anyone else experienced this. I’m wondering if prolactin could possibly cause this, if so I’m gonna have it checked this time.
I got some BW back and my FT was high 34.4 (8.7-25.1) and last month it was 27 and 18 the month before. TT was about 1100, this was with 150mg T Cyp E2W with 250 iu hcg EOD arimidex 1 mg EW divided doses. Why would it keep going up all this was with the same vial of hcg so mixing is not an issue, My E2 was 47 also.
I asked to have my thyroid levels checked and TSH was 4.8. I have been taking iodine for about two months or so, started at 12.5 mg along with selenium 200 mcg and a multi- v all taken daily. It seems this might be common while on iodine, any thoughts or input? Should I look further into this, my temps have shown improvement but I think I could feel a lot better than I have been.
were the tests all on the same day of your injection schedule? If one test was 7 days after injection and the other was 10 days after, you can pretty much throw them out from a comparison standpoint.
TSH of 4.8 is horseshit. You need to find a doc that run proper thyroid labs. You’re everything but the kitchen sink approach is going to get a lot more complicated if you have to treat thyroid. Even tougher to find docs that know what they are doing there.
Yea all test were 1W after injection. I feel like it’s been a rough year with all the changes in protocol and ups and downs. I’m gonna tell him I can’t expect to get to a steady state with him changing things all the time. I was supposed to get to self inject after these labs but he said now he thinks I can wean off the Cyp and go HCG mono. I don’t understand why he is letting me inject HCG but not the test at home, I think he’s a little to fond of the office charges to my insurance. I think I’m gonna have to search for a new doc.
If you can get testosterone in 600s with a SERM, why not do HCG mono? Seems like the approach you should have started with when the SERM was giving you sides. 750IU per week put me at the top of range for Free T.
Your bouncing around way too much here. Get Free T and E2 in the 20s with HCG and then leave your protocol alone. If you still don’t feel right it’s not because of testosterone. Look elsewhere, like thyroid and adrenals.