RR's Once a Week to Twice a Week Cyp Log

Pharma / TRT Testosterone Replacement
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I’m not a great sharer, nor do I particularly love talking about myself, but I thought it would be useful to do a log of my switch from 100mg cyp once a week to 50mg cyp twice a week. No dose change, just frequency. No AI. I know everyone is different but I’m hoping this will be informative for people as I haven’t seen anything like it on here and these changes can be something of an intimidating adventure.

Notes:

  • Mid 40’s male. I have been on T injections for nearly a year. For a few years prior to that, I was extremely foggy, confused, tired, anxious, depressed, with a useless memory (that was previously close to photographic) and a numb member doing nothing between my legs for months at a time. T has definitely changed all this for the better.

  • I am making the switch because I got tired of the roller coaster feeling and suspected a possible buildup of E2. On a good week, I would feel great through Day 5. Last two days were always quite tough though. I get tired every single evening regardless of how much sleep I get. Then I generally wake up as the night continues, as I am a night person. My good weeks were getting fewer and further between.

  • I have tried to make it a little less than 50mg each injection but have found there’s some guesswork in measuring, which I’m frankly not enjoying.

  • T was measured near 1100 at a peak back in January. This was up from 170 prior to treatment. I have never had the “trough” measured. Have not had a full hormone panel, and doc won’t do one. No info on SHBG, E2, etc. For now this is a pure “feeling” and “experience” log. I sincerely apologize for not having numbers for those inclined to those things.

Log:

Mon 5/27/2019 - My first “half” injection. This was a Monday evening. I am used to doing my shot on Wednesday morning. Now it will be Monday evening and Friday morning. 50mg E3.5 days. By my calculations this was pretty much a perfect time to make the switch as a half injection would bring my blood levels of cyp near-ish to where the full injection would on Wednesday morning.

Tues 5/28/2019 - Day after shot. Feeling excellent. High energy. High motivation. Low anxiety. Nice feeling of well being. Not too far from how I’d feel on any good injection day but definitely a little “extra”. Kind of similar to the initial honeymoon phase from way back when. Which is a little worrying in itself because I am expecting this next few weeks to be a roller coaster. I have read that the third week is the toughest as your body adjusts to the new protocol.

Wed 5/29/2019 - Incredibly focused along with the high energy and motivation. Similar to how T used to make me feel when I did injections the first few months. It’s like something has woke up. Like I’m alive. Weird. On a good normal injection week, I get something I like to call “mountain air”. Like a nice cool feeling in my lungs like I’m breathing air that is just pure and clean. As you would feel in the mountains. It kicks in about 8 hours after my usual (previous) 100mg shot. In this case I felt it kick in about 24 hours after Monday’s 50mg shot. It’s my little clue that my T levels and probably other hormone levels are in good shape. I am getting all that. Libido which had been kind of absent for several weeks has returned.

Thurs 5/30/2019 - Still some “mountain air” feeling. Total well being. Definitely tired in evening. Libido seriously cranking. Wouldn’t mind feeling like this every darn day.

Fri 5/31/2019 - Time for another injection! Woo-hoo. Injected again in morning. Woke up feeling much better this morning for my second weekly shot, than on any Wednesday when it used to be time for my once weekly shot. I generally felt anxious and miserable on those days and relieved to be doing a shot. Today, on the other hand, I just felt good. Still a little of that mountain air, even prior to the injection. I feel very in control of my mind and behavior. I’m really curious to see how this next week goes.

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You’re flying blind without proper labs, just go to discount labs and order it yourself. If your SHBG is on the lower end, you are on the wrong protocol. Excess estrogen will affect mood, happiness and even effect motivation and confidence. If SHBG is <15 it’s going to be along time before you figure out what works.

Sure always go by how you feel, but you need labs to see if you are on the right track.

It sounds like your injection frequencies are spread too far apart and I believe by what you have told me that your levels are swinging. When I was injecting 50mg twice weekly I felt different great after injection and felt bad closer to my injections. You should also do thyroid testing, good thyroid function is needed for TRT to work consistently, if thyroid is only good some of the time, you will only feel good some of the time.

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Thanks sl. You have been a big help and I enjoy your contributions. If/when I do the labs I will share them here.

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Do you even have trough labs or just peak?

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Peak only but it was just coincidental with my draw.

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Shot again this evening. Shooting from a 3ml so measuring has been very difficult. The plunger has a huge rounded rubber nub that takes up space and messes even more with the measuring. I don’t get that.

I could see there was not enough left in the vial for two more doses. So today, my third injection since switching to twice a week, was noticeably less than the previous two. I would say the previous two were 30+ and today’s was closer to 20. Aiming for 25 (50mg).

Sat 6/1/2019 - This was a good day. Good energy in the morning, woke up easily and my mood has noticeably brightened. Before starting T I was quite malaised and depressed. My mood has not been terrible most of the time on T this last year, but I honestly can’t remember the last time I just felt “good” emotionally. I would say for the year, I’ve been bouncing back and forth between slightly better than neutral (default) and occasionally not so great. But today I just felt happy and optimistic.

Sun 6/2/2019 - Still in a good mood but fatigue has kicked in. It’s not that I have no energy at all, just that I felt like I could easily sleep at any time. As mentioned earlier I feel like I can sleep (and often do) any given evening. This was like that, except occurring all day long. And yet if I was on my feet for anything, I was fine. Motivation is still pretty good and has been so all week.

Mon 6/3/2019 - Beginning of Week 2 on new protocol. Less fatigued than yesterday, and again a very bright and sunny mood in the morning especially. Just noticeably happy and calm. Got tired a couple times and had an involuntary 20 minute nap as usual in the evening. Otherwise feeling good. Shot was done in evening before the nap. Will be interesting to see how the rest of the week goes.

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Ignore the size and shape of the rubber nub (LOL, I can’t believe I got to type that as a serious thing). It’s where the rubber meets the road. The part immediately in contact with the inner wall of the syringe. The shape of the plunger is made to match the end of the tube at full depression

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Thanks HA. I think maybe I misunderstood you initially. Are you saying that when I draw back just let it fill between the correct lines and then push the air out? It appears the nub is taking up a ton of space if you’re only measuring a small amount like this. Is it an illusion?

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This is an illusion. Draw just enough to get back to the line after you push the air out.

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Tues 6/4/2019 - Decent mood, good feeling of breathing pure mountain air, libido still cranking well, and not much else to note here.

Wed 6/5/2019 - And now it gets interesting! Woke up this morning in the middle of a panic attack. This is something I have suffered from on occasion, and I knew I had a pretty stressful day ahead of me at work, but I have never just woken up in one. My heart was pounding at a million miles an hour. I didn’t FEEL incredibly anxious, which just made it scarier.

Yes this sounds crazy. I did deep breathing for about 20 minutes and calmed it down. Wifey said I was drenched in sweat overnight. Like she’s never seen or felt before. She said it stunk too but in a good way. LOL. From memory I believe that’s an estrogen issue but I’m not concerned enough to look it up. I expect crap like this and that’s partly why I’m doing this log. Hoping it will somewhat help others who need to face a protocol or even a dose change.

My anxiety is definitely UP today but it’s hard to say whether its hormonal or work. I’m leaning hormonal as I have had zero anxiety for several weeks now so this is brand new even though the stress at work is not. Extremely fatigued in evening. Slept on and off on couch for probably an hour while trying fruitlessly to stay awake.

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I believe this is high estrogen and could be a sign of protocol may need adjustment if experiencing these symptoms only two weeks into an new protocol, but without SHBG testing it will be difficult to navigate.

Estrogen declines when we sleep, so sweating is a sign means estrogen may be elevated and is declining rapidly.

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A side question:
Is test cypionate in USA in powder to be dissolved and the mg are of the powder?

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In the US, Test Cyp is available pharmaceutically suspended in oil.

Thanks sl. I need to do bloods, I am aware. I’m going to try to group these and not do updates every single day, but I do have stuff to update so here goes:

Thurs 6/6/2019 - I sweat overnight again but much less. Woke up anxious with a fast heartbeat again but without any panic. Was very fatigued a couple times during the day, and other times during the day, very alert and energetic. The anxiety was high in the morning and disappeared as the day went on. That is pretty typical for my anxiety when it rears its head though. Had my usual evening tiredness and 20 minute nap.

In my old protocol Thursday was always the day after the shot. I got used to feeling what 24-36 hours after a 100mg shot felt like, and it was quite nice. Often I was “buzzing” and felt very good. It was fairly rare I had a Thursday that I didn’t feel good.

Today on the new protocol, having had my 50mg - or slightly less - shot 60-72 hours earlier (and with one due Friday morning), it’s just a better feeling overall. I’m not buzzing exactly but I feel mentally focused, physically motivated, and overall in a very positive, elevated mood. My mood is definitely more positive than for most of my first year on T.

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Fri 6/7/2019 - Fourth shot. Woke up at exactly 7am with a start like I had overslept. Popped right out of bed with high energy. I am NOT a morning person and 7am is a few minutes early for me - my standard my entire life was taking a half hour to get myself out of bed and a further two hours to no longer be a zombie. This is regardless of how much I slept. On T I definitely wake up a lot easier and I am coherent fairly quickly.

Friday morning was how I function best. Similar to my honeymoon on the patch a year ago. Mood was excellent. Noticeably better than most of the last year. Libido also returned after a small hiatus. Libido has definitely been weird. High in first week of new protocol, disappeared, came back, disappeared again, with bursts of being high. Similarly on Friday I alternated between feeling very high energy and VERY tired. I had a couple stints during the day where I just wanted to sleep. 10:30am was brutal for about a half hour. Not normal.

Sat 6/8/2019 - Decent energy, ok mood, decent motivation, good libido. All above the average of the past year but nothing special.

Sun 6/9/2019 - Good amount of sleep but extremely difficult time getting out of bed. Definitely not normal for me on T. Thereafter, great energy, fantastic mood, great motivation. All of these things well near what I would call top of the charts. Sunday was a definite red letter day. No evening tiredness. Life would be amazing if I could be like this every day.

Mon 6/10/2019 - Beginning of Week 3 on new protocol. And now it gets weird again…

Extremely difficult to get out of bed. Worse than Sunday. Felt kind of like the old days. Anxiety was up in morning. This is certainly typical for “shot day” on my old protocol. Shot was not to take place until evening.

Mood was eh, energy was ok, and I felt a bit drugged up to be honest. Like my head wasn’t quite my own. Things just seemed weird. I felt weird. The world was just hitting my brain strange, like something was out of place and I couldn’t put my finger on it. This oddness lessened some as the day wore on.

Did my shot in evening. About 45mg. I’ve got the measurement pretty down pat now I think. My “mountain air” feeling returned extraordinarily quickly. Within like 2 hours which is what used to happen in the early days of my original protocol. So I’m sitting here now, I feel nicely T’d up, and I think everything seems more normal. I feel in control and in a pretty good mood. The week is certain to be interesting. For me anyway!

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At around 6 weeks things should even out better, you’re still getting peaks and valleys right now. You might end up with a slightly higher dose, but that’s iffy.

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Thanks HA. It’s nice to have the feedback. I’m obviously being pretty granular with this log but yeah I’m not enjoying these various ups and downs. I expect it to even out and some of this first two weeks has been very promising. We’ll see.

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Tues 6/11/2019 - Middle of Week 3 on new protocol. Can’t get out of bed. Can’t get out of bed. Can’t get out of bed.

Oh the mornings have quickly become hell again. I feel like I’m pre-TRT. Honestly it’s a half hour struggle just to convince myself to even open my freakin’ eyes. I haven’t felt like this in a while.

Day was okay otherwise. I would not say I’m fatigued but motivation is definitely down. Mood actually spiraled as day wore on. General feeling of irritability growing toward end of night. Libido very low. Have had decent morning wood last five days but it correlates to jack all in terms of desire.

Wed 6/12/2019 - I was honestly done with today before it began. Another struggle getting out of bed. Did not want to be anywhere today. Motivation is low. I’m a rock solid introvert but can generally kind of play at being outgoing. Sort of. It doesn’t fool anyone but I have a quick wit and at least I can tell a good story and captivate people for 90 seconds or so.

I’m no poker player and I wear my heart on my sleeve so if I’m not in a good mood I can’t fake it. I don’t make people miserable, I just stay away. But oddly enough, today when I was around people I was pretty talkative and even felt relatively okay inside. Like being on autopilot and forgetting myself with this “good” mood switched on. But as soon as they go away and I’m back by myself, I am ready to throw in the towel. I just don’t want anything to do with being awake right now. How did I do that? I would have loved to have been born with this super power. It is NOT me.

Mood is definitely below average and irritable but still nothing like pre-TRT. Libido feels like it has dropped off the planet and into another dimension. I hope it’s having fun there.

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@systemlord
I’m curious about basing protocol on SHBG. I’ve heard it myself and catered my previous protocol to it after reading the same thing you’re saying but noticed that folks like physiolojik say that it is incorrect. That SHBG is constantly changing. Maybe @unreal24278 has knowledge on this? Not saying you’re wrong just looking for more info because I see it a lot.

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Welcome back to RR’s 100mg once a week to 50mg twice a week T journey. Heading to the end of Week 3.

Thurs 6/13/2019 - Getting out of bed was much easier today. Woke up in a good mood with positive energy and motivation. Libido even showing up a little. What a difference from a day ago. I’ve found over the course of my T replacement that certain days when I seem to feel like absolute crap for no reason (which I assume at the time is hormonal), very often I bounce back the next day and feel very good. I’d say this qualifies as one of those.

Fri 6/14/2019 - Again, easy wakeup, good energy, super positive mood. Shot day in morning. Last shot of Week 3. I have a lot of stress going on right now but it’s almost like a buffer for all that. Usually this sort of stress would bring me way the hell down, but I feel good. Big mountain air arrived very fast. Like two hours after my shot. Sleepy again in evening.

Sat 6/15/2019 - Pretty much a carbon copy of the last two days. Great energy, good frame of mind, tons of motivation, sleepy in evening. Libido sort of orbiting now. It could be there now but I feel like I’d be forcing it? I don’t know if that makes sense. Like if the right opportunity presented itself, I feel like things would happen.

One thing I haven’t mentioned on the good days is anxiety. And that’s because it just hasn’t been there. I always had an anxious disposition before I started T, especially the previous few years when I was really low. The stress going on right now would in the past have made me very jumpy and anxious. But I feel noticeably calm and together.

Approaching Week 4 now. Three very positive days in a row feels good, especially with how the middle of the week was for me. I was pretty miserable on Tuesday and Wednesday. This protocol change has definitely been a roller coaster, but I’d say not as much of a roller coaster as I feared. If I hadn’t already been through the ups and downs of T Replacement, I’d say it would have really messed me up. It’s not quite the kiddie roller coaster, but it’s not Superman or Batman or whatever the big one is, either. Probably dating myself with that reference.

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Sun 6/16/2019 - Sunday was another feelgood day. Great energy, great motivation, good mood. Libido basically still nowheresville. I thought it was coming back, but no. Limited anxiety. Only thing is I got very depressed in the evening which is quite out of the ordinary these days. I did have a tough week at work coming up with some real stress surrounding it, but I can’t discount something hormonal. It didn’t feel real.

Mon 6/17/2019 - Beginning of Week 4! Another tough wakeup. Is that just because it’s Monday? I dunno. Wifey says she’s not had this much trouble getting me out of bed in a while, so I don’t think it’s a Monday thing. Tough day. Long wait it seemed for my evening shot. Anxiety was up. Just irritable and annoyed. Like I could feel I needed my shot. Between 10:30am and 12:00pm I was literally dozing off. Again not remotely normal for me, especially not since beginning injections a year ago. I did the shot at 5:00pm and could feel it “kick in” properly around 8:00.

Tues 6/18/2019 - Overall not a terrible day at all. BUT… my confusion is back. “Back?”, you say? You haven’t heard about my confusion.

I haven’t had any days with confusion since probably November 2018. It was a common occurrence when I was low from 2015 through 2018. My memory went from practically photographic - being able to memorize lists and times and schedules and baseball scores from 20 years ago - to not being able to turn my head without forgetting what I was just looking at. Seriously. That’s how it was when I was low. Many days I really wondered WTF was going on with my brain. But of course the houdini sex drive is what alerted me it was low T. If I had been educated properly about low T I would have recognized it sooner. But it seems no one wants us to know.

I honestly had no clue about the other symptoms. My mental sharpness had declined so badly I didn’t even understand how I was supposed to keep getting older like this. It was weird. At times I thought it was some real early onset shit.

Then within a half hour of donning the Androderm patch in May of 2018, the whole world came into focus. Literally it was like going from blurry to sharp. I just got sharper and sharper from there. I’m not like I was when I was young, but I’ve got my clarity back. It continued on the injections after I had skin reactions to the patch.

Then over the course of the first six months of my injections or so, I would get a few days where my confusion seemed to rear its head again. And that’s what I call it because no other word really describes it. Forgetfulness? It feels like more than that. I can’t really explain it. It’s like my thoughts lose their balance for 30 seconds or so.

I got an email today. I read it. It was short and sweet. The request was simple. I turned my head away for a second and suddenly had no idea what I had just read. I knew it was an email but I couldn’t have recalled it if there was a million dollars up for grabs. I thought “That’s weird. That’s like my confusion.” Six more times today it happened. All a little different but all definitely confusion.

It’s not just forgetfulness. There’s a feeling that comes with it like I don’t even know what I was just thinking. But at least I know that I don’t know. So there’s that. I am expecting this to possibly continue the next few days. Hopefully no longer than that. And I know damn well it’s hormonal and related to my protocol change. And the roller coaster ride continues…

UPDATE: I just spent three minutes looking around for tomorrow’s lunch.

Which it turns out I brought to work this morning.

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