Hoping to find support here as I’m only getting castigated on Reddit. I’m already living on disability in addition to low t, so please go easy on me…
Location: Western Europe. To my knowledge, the only legally approved injections are Test E and Test U (aka Nebido). **Test e only comes in 250mg ampules for one-time use only; you’re supposed to discard the rest if on a lower dose.
Diagnosed with hypogonadism early this year by an actual urologist instead of some online clinic. Starting levels sub 300. Brain fog, tiredness and listlessness being my main complaints; other complaints being libido and erection. Height 5’10” weight about 200lbs
Started on the Gel and did have a honeymoon phase, after which things kinda went downhill. Had to “play the long game” so to speak before getting the green light for injection on the statutory health insurance.
Current protocol: Test e 125mg every 10 days — yes I know, I know. This is the best I could do, as the uro even wanted to go the textbook route of 250mg every two weeks and I had to educate him (based on everything I read on Reddit and on here). We agreed on a middle ground of every 10 days; uro is open to adjusting the dosage and frequency pending next blood work.
Now bloodwork after 10 days @ 125mg — total t 135!! That is even lower than my pre trt levels
Should I have gone with 250mg every 10 to 14 days instead? And play another long game until the uro eventually agrees to go weekly
Could this have anything to do with my natural levels having already shut down after being on the gel for about 10 months?
Please note that where I am in Western Europe, the gel and Nebido are pretty much the norm unless you go private. Like I said, this is the best I could do given the circumstances and my limited finances.
Your bloods are not gonna be accurate after 10 days. The ester in testE takes weeks to build/drop but if you have a 10-day trough then you will notice a big dip for sure. You need to read/understand this and possibly educate the doc on this. What he is doing is putting you on a hormonal rollercoaster. Your prob never gonna feel great. You were prob better off on the gels honestly. With testE you really need to be injecting weekly at most for fairly stable levels. I’ve been on TRT for around 10 years and found E3d is best for me.
Personally what I would do is take the 250mg vial, split it into two syringes and inject weekly or 4 syringes and go e3d.
Your not posting the lab test ranges so hard to tell where you are at. Once you introduced exogenous test your balls shut down and your at 0. The test brings you up to whatever level your at based on amount you take and injection frequency. If you took a shot of E and waited 10 days for bloods you are right around a half life of the drug so half of the hormone has already been used.
At the end of the day the number don’t mean that much. It’s how you feel that matters. That is what TRT is about.
Play around with this tool and you’ll see what i’m getting at. You can see how test at a given amount clears your system. Might be handy to print up some charts to show your Doc.
Typical TRT is 120-180mg/wk but it needs to be taken in a week.
Looks as though you would have been better off with some online clinic. Without that option, I like s.gentz’ suggestion of splitting the 250mg ampule into multiple syringes. I would also focus on how you feel over the lab numbers. Your best bet is 4 doses over the two weeks since you only have 250mg to work with..
4 1/2 to 5 days is the sweet spot for IM. If you are doing subq, maybe every two to three days at lower doses.
My cruise is 250 every five days, and honestly that would make you feel like heman if you never blasted assuming you dont have extraordinarily long tails on your androgen receptors.
If you could get him to let you IM 125/week, that would even be a good starting point, and then get the labs after a month and see where you are. Then he could go up or down accordingly. Then you wouldnt be on a rollercoaster also, it would be consistent