I am a guy with Low SHBG and 11 weeks into TRT.
Age 31.
Need your guidance, knowledge and experience.
I just tested recently for my SHBG and it came out as 14.5 nmol/l. Before starting TRT SHBG was 19.8 nmol/l.
My current protocol ( one time changed since started ).
Testosterone Enanthate = 70 mg E 3.5 D( 140 mg per week).
Arimidex 0.25 bi-weekly with injection ( 0.5 mg per week).
Previous Protocol
Test Enanthate 60 mg E 3.5 D( 120 mg per week).
No AI.
Labs before starting latest protocol.
Total T = 700 ng/dl
Estradiol = 22 pg/ml ( non sensitive test, sensitive Estradiol test is not an option for me, unfortunately). So must be even lower than 22. A wild guess would be around 14- 17. I just bumped my Test dosage to 140 mg per week from 120 mg per week to fine tune my Estradiol( raise a few points) as i was doing Ok and need little adjustments.( Even at such a low Estradiol i was doing Ok) .
Now it gets really interesting here, I have read a lot of guys with low SHBG dont respond to TRT at all as the testosterone gets quickly removed out of the body. But in my case its not exactly like that. I have responded to TRT up to a decent level. ( Even amazingly a Test boost supplement gave me great results before TRT that unfortunately stop coming and i have to start TRT).
Noticeable changes after TRT:
Improved sleep
Fat loss
Better mood
no brain fog
fatigue
In between change:
Libido ( i can say i would give it 0/10 before TRT and now 3.5/10 after TRT).
No change:
Errection quality
Morning wood
Poor recovery after exercise
Now here is the real confusion: My questions.
1)Do you agree with my current protocol? assuming i am not doing very bad on TRT even with a lower SHBH and low Estradiol. But same time i am not dialed in.
2)Should i inject same protocol with Sub Q injections, considering low SHBG?
3)How i can get further improvements in the " No change" section?
4) Is there any need to worry about the low SHBG(and trying to raise it by specific diet and lifestyle changes) at this stage in respect of my TRT goals e.g. Libido, quality exercise etc.
Your comments will mean a lot !
Thank you in advance.
“Estradiol = 22 pg/ml ( non sensitive test, sensitive Estradiol test is not an option for me, unfortunately). So must be even lower than 22. A wild guess would be around 14- 17.”
Thank you so much for your time, taking pics and helping me.
So what i can take from your point is that sometimes it is not necessary for the non sensitive test to always show high numbers compared to sensitive test. I should go by how i am feeling rather than numbers ?am i right?
Yes, as you can see, those tests show similar results. You should always rely more on symptoms than a number. Over four years, I’ve always had the immunoassay test, but I’ve never had symptoms of either high or low E2.
From reading here, I decided to look into the difference and compare the two tests, I’m still doing so and I’m working on speaking with a doctor that works for Quest. That should be interesting.
I suppose it would be a different story if I was having symptoms and the E2 level was crazy high or low and there were significant discrepancies in the two tests. For me, I don’t think my protocol would have been any different if I had only used the LC/MS/MS test over the last four years.
So much more to this than test and E2 and we all respond differently.
Your dosage is too high given you don’t hold onto your testosterone well. No experienced doctor would be focused on Total T on men with low SHBG, you need to target free T as your guide on dosing. It doesn’t do you any good to have a high Total T with free T way above ranges.
Test boosters have been proven scams time and time again, what you felt was a placebo effect. You can’t buy passion, drive to succeed in a bottle. Supplement companies would love for you to believe it though because it pads their coffers.
Thank you so much for your interest.
My current dosage is 70 mg Test Enanthate every 3.5 days. I am using 0.25 mg Arimidex along with shots.
As you must have read i am not doing v bad at the moment. Just need better results in sexual department and muscle recovery after exercise.
What Test dosage and frequency you would suggest to me? Along with Arimidex.
I am in a country where basic medical facilities are few and far. So no point thinking of a TRT clinic or doc. I am all on my own. As i can tell you even i dont have sensitive Estradiol test and free testosterone test available here, lol. I am blessed that i have shbg test available to help in making an educated guess of my free T situation.
A lot of them (OTC supplements) are laced with anabolic steroids. Yeah, guys will feel better, gain muscle, get stronger, etc. But they won’t help testosterone levels.
Suggest 50mg twice weekly, lowering your Total T with lower free T and therefore possibly lower estrogen. It’s known that low SHBG men can tolerate almost no estrogen do to most of it being free, typical of low SHBG men.
Lower AI whenever lowering test, .125mg twice weekly. See how you feel, if you feel mediocre you may need to inject smaller doses every other day like myself.
Thank you so much !
One last question and it is very important for me.
I am planning to draw blood just before my next shot (i m on 3.5 d protocol ) and see how much test i am holding at trough. I think its a good idea to see how much test my low shbg clearing rapidly from body.
If the lab comes low test level at trough, i will alter my protocol.
If not then stay with my current protocol, may be just shift from 3.5 days to eod with same dosage.
How do you see my this strategy? I think it makes sense?
Post all available labs in list format with ranges. Normal results, still need to see it.
Do you have fasting glucose or A1C?
When you increase T, E2 will increase unless anastrozole is increased in proportion.
With low SHBG, you need to take less T, not more as there is more FT, which you have not tested/reported. And then TT should be lower and FT or Bio-T is your criteria.
Lack of expected benefits could be low thyroid function, seen quite often. You can eval and report via oral body temperatures, see below. This may be key to your TRT success.
Evaluate your overall thyroid function by checking oral body temperatures as per the thyroid basics sticky. Thyroid hormone fT3 is what gets the job done and it regulates mitochondrial activity, the source of ATP which is the universal currency of cellular energy. This is part of the body’s temperature control loop. This can get messed up if you are iodine deficient. In many countries, you need to be using iodized salt. Other countries add iodine to dairy or bread.
KSman is simply a regular member on this site. Nothing more other than highly active.
I can be a bit abrupt in my replies and recommendations. I have a lot of ground to cover as this forum has become much more active in the last two years. I can’t follow threads that go deep over time. You need to respond to all of my points and requests as soon as possible before you fall off of my radar. The worse problems are guys who ignore issues re thyroid, body temperatures, history of iodized salt. Please do not piss people off saying that lab results are normal, we need lab number and ranges.
The value that you get out of this process and forum depends on your effort and performance. The bulk of your learning is reading/studying the suggested stickies.
!