Hetmatocrit=53.6
Test that again. You should consider donating blood, but they may not work with you with levels that high.
Check ferritin and serum iron.
If you eat iron fortified foods, stop. Breakfast cereals can have high iron levels, aimed at growing kids. Adult men can be hoard iron and levels can be too high.
Yes, your iodine levels are good and all you need now are maintenance amounts. I would not test for iodine. We have simply take iodine deficiency off of the table.
Nolvadex, not clomid. You need to taper off, never stop suddenly. And you should use a small dose AI during and cruise after for best prospects of a restart. Clomid for some guys causes mood and libido problems. SERMs have limitations as I described earlier.
Fatigue can be from many causes and often not from a single issue.
SHBG=12 should be good for %FT and E2 is obviously not a problem.
Sorry if I’m being thick, but are you recommending I restart my TRT protocol? Or were you saying that I should give Nolva a shot, and if I ever come off in the future to make sure I taper?
How does dosing the Nolva go?
If you are saying I should taper off the test and then back on, what should the dosing and timeframe look like?
Sorry if I’m just not getting things - my brain has really been running on empty these last couple months.
In June of last yet I had my first set of tumor-marker tests since starting hCG. I did my injection 24 hours before the bhCG lab and got a result of 5 in a range from 0-3. Normally this would be indicative of an hCG producing tumor, but since I was injecting hCG we knew what was the cause. In the past this lab has always come back at “<2” or basically undetectable levels.
This past round of blood work I had my doctor add the bhCG test just for comparison. I did my hCG injection about 8 hours before the draw. It came back at the “<2” mark (the range on this one was anything <5).
This would indicate that the hCG I am getting has issues with it. I called my pharmacy again, and the owner/head pharmacist said he would sent out a batch for testing, but that it wasn’t likely that his stock is bad. I would disagree, but when the test comes back we’ll know for sure.
In the meantime I am calling around pharmacies to see if I can get it somewhere else, but living in the SF Bay Area means lots of people and lots of hCG-dieters. The only (non-compounding) place that seems to be able to get it consistently is Costco, but they only carry the 10k vials which are $180!
Just for info’s sake here are my Iron Labs that I just got back today:
IRON AND IBC W/O REFLEX [no idea what that means]
Iron, total 108 (45-175)
Total Iron Binding Capacity 374 (250-425)
%Transferrin Saturation 29% (20-50%)
I thought I had a straight Ferritin test, but I guess not.
I told my Endo what you said about my T3 levels, and she said that she disagreed and feel that it is at a perfectly normal level. I didn’t push the matter since there’s all this other shit going on.
I’ll keep you guys posted if/when anything comes up.
So I am interested in getting a sample frozen and was wondering what the proper protocol for coming off TRT is? I’ve been thinking about this for a while and feel like now is a good time since I feel like shit all the time as it is, so what is the point of taking testosterone if it isn’t going to improve my QOL? It will also afford me the opportunity to see if I feel worse off the testosterone, and maybe when I go back on things will be different than this past year. Since I may want to have a kid or two later in life it’s probably better to get this done sooner rather than later.
The problem is: I have read a dozen threads and literally a dozen different protocols are given. Some say same as Steroid Cycle, others say less, some say Clomid and Nolva, some say no hCG while on SERMs. Some say bump AI dosage and some don’t even mention AIs.
So, what is the proper way to come off? Time-frame plus dosages of things would be greatly appreciated.
With what I’ve read so far it seems like I would do the following:
Continue with 250iu hCG EOD wks 1-4
Clomid 50mg ED wks 1-2
Nolva 40mg ED wks 1-2
Adex .25mg EOD wks 1-4
Clomid 25mg ED wks 3-4
Nolva 20mg ED wks 3-6
That about right? This seems kind of like the average of everything I’ve read, so I’m probably way off.
Not to divert the topic of your thread, but can you PM me with a physician who put you on your TRT regiment? I’m also in the Bay Area and have been looking for a while without luck…
As a side note, I think the reason you shouldn’t take a SERM with hCG is because that can desensitize the hCG receptors if there’s too much of that stuff in your system… you stop responding to it completely.
Do not take hCG and a SERM at the same time. No need to switch clomid and nolvadex. You can do nolvadex and not have any clomid side effects [if susceptible].
You need to taper of of SERMs to recover, never dead stop and land in 0.5mg anastrozole per week and cruise on that.
Thanks for that ‘dry’ tip. I’ve found a ton of Canadian pharmacies that will ship hCG but they only have the 10k vials that cost about $30 more a month than I am paying now (and I’d be throwing away half) and that doesn’t include refrigerated shipping. I have a couple leads that I’m searching out and waiting to hear back from.
I see my Endo on Thursday. What is the recommended dosing and schedule for the clomid/nolva combo? Is what I outlined (minus the hCG of course) a wise thing to do? Do I need to break up dosing into twice a day? Or take one in the AM and one in the PM? Do I need to bump the dosage? Any links to anything I can educate myself with? Just in case my Endo gives me a difficult time I wanna be prepared to argue. Sorry for all the questions; I just don’t wanna screw this up and end up in even worse shape.
How long do you think I should wait until I go get my fertility testing? I want to make sure I wait the right amount of time since going in early would be a waste and give inaccurate info!
Thanks a ton for your help KS. I know this can be a very thankless task on here, but I wanted to let you know I really appreciate your time and effort!
I’m hoping in my time off TRT I can find out about my hCG situation, which I’m sure will make some things better when I go back on (pregnenolone levels, etc.).
Hey Master P: We should be friends on reddit! I have the same s/n there. You can read me bitch about MMA fans’ awful misunderstanding of how TRT works!
Many doing 250iu EOD for 80 days, no problem with the drug going bad. BA water prevents bacterial problems. Keep refrigerated when wet. This time of year you do not need refrigerated shipping, but possible issue with the BA water freezing. Getting from Canada does not make sense. You can get from any compounding pharmacy in the USA with a script.
I finally heard back from the pharmacy where I was getting hCG. It turns out the product was less than 75% pure. The pharmacist sounded pissed, not at me, but at his supplier. So now that I know there will be better quality control I feel secure buying from them again in the future.
So you don’t have a recommended protocol for clomid/nolva?