Shouldn’t daily injections LOWER hct and rbc and raise shbg? Which my dr also is hesitant to check because he says there is nothing we can do to change it. However, I know otherwise.
If I take supplemental iron, am I running the risk of driving hct and rbc through the roof? Or is that kind of set based on Test dose?
Blood is iron and testosterone influences hematocrit. Hemoglobin would decrease if in a low iron state.
Sorry I don’t completely understand. Is it safe to take iron supplements with rbc and hct high and ferritin low?
The topic is controversial, you’ll get no definitive answers. Some doctors say high hematocrit and hemoglobin is fine as long as you have no comorbidities.
The 54% cutoffs was chosen out of thin air, because no data exists on long term high hematocrit and hemoglobin in the absence of disease.
Glenn Cunningham. Dr. Abraham Morgantaler asked him both on stage and in person where did you come up with 54% HCT cutoff? His answer was we actually don’t have much data to say anything but we had to pick a number and it seemed like a reasonable number.
From you pictures it doesn’t look like you are on a TRT dose. This isn’t a knock on you but there is TRT which to me means something different. We all want something out of TRT or higher doses. For me, this means feeling good regardless how much muscle I put on. I am 6’2" and 190ish or a little more and am not remotely interested in putting on 20 pounds which would require a higher dose and intorable side effects. I actually have better workouts on lower doses because my head is clearer and fatigue is much less and I am less of an asshole.
I am on 63 mg/wk which after you factor in the precent of test is still 6 or so mg/day. This is well in range for how much test a person puts out per day. I think saying even 14 mg/day isn’t TRT is not helpful to people who struggle with side effects. It almost seems like malpractice to have people on estrogen lowering drugs from the start. How in the world do you know what the cause of side effects are if you toss numerous drugs at something?
That said, me lowering my dose from 80 mg/wk made me feel better in one sense but still had withdrawl. I was nautious out of the blue and felt weird at time and had a short few days of sleep distrubance. It wasn’t pretty and things do not get better in a linear fashion. It is about 3 weeks now and what people forget is that hormones are so damn powerful. I can see now my dose was too high. Ask your significant other if you have changed since TRT. What are the good and bad points. For me, I didn’t see the irritability and anger and sexual problems I had created and sure enough labs showed me at the upper end of the scale.
People that say their TT is 1500 and wondering why they have side effects is silly to me. Why take additonal drugs in hope you can continue somehting that is supraphysical for most men? If i bought into this I would be miserable.
I understand this site is more about supraphysical levels compared to Excel Male but lets be honest on what TRT is and isn’t. Chasing a higher and higher dose isn’t for me. Again, to each his own but I wouldn’t make anyone feel that becase they are on a lower dose than you they aren’t doing TRT correctly.
I’m not now, but i was when this picture was taken - thanks for the compliment.
I dont think 14mg daily is some crazy dose but you think otherwise - which is fine. I felt good with 120mg weekly but noticed a drop when i went down to sub-100mg weekly.
I don’t think it is a crazy dose and didn’t mean it to sound that way as I thought you meant it wasn’t TRT level but to me it seems well within the range for TRT. I do envy people that can take larger doses and don’t seem to have to monitor like I do. I tried subq at first but always felt off. Shallow IM cured that until my SHBG lowered and free shot up. Apparently it is not uncommon over time.
1 Like
Didn’t you start with a high frequency from the get go? How long did you try twice a week for?
I started with daily and it was fine. Felt no difference with EOD, then tried 2x weekly and felt a drop towards the 3 day mark. I stayed with 2x per week for only 2 or 3 weeks. I had a noticeable drop within the first week and by week 3 i figured it was reasonable to just do what i knew to work.
MWF is easier to remember than EOD so i stayed with this.
1 Like
40 mg three times a week?
Hey what was your testosterone and shbg before trt. Also what dosage are you now and do you do im or subq?
You really shouldn’t base your protocol off what anyone else does.
Test: 329ng/dL
SHBG: like 11 or something
I’m pinning MWF, IM.
I’m doing a good bit more than TRT now.
Yea man I am 9 months on trt and feel nothing because my doc is giving me 250 mg every 14 days and i need to fix and i have no idea how.
I read a lot bro science about smaller and more frequent injections for people with low shbg. I will give it a shot
