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

Pharma TRT
101

Hi. I know you can’t catch up with such a long thread but the bottom line is I responded really well to TRT but I have not been able to dial in the dose because of wastage from various syringe types and sizes. Extremely frustrating.

June 2018 to May 2019: 80mg once a week (felt pretty good but once a week was causing me to feel like crap toward the end of most weeks)
June 2019 to September 2019: 40mg split into two 20mg doses per week (once settled felt amazing most of time, and mentally sharp and confident, but with some libido and fatigue issues)
September 2019 to November 2019: 76mg split into two 38mg doses per week (felt pretty good once settled but had problems with workout starved muscles, memory and confidence problems, and rapid resting heart rate)

I figured this all out by finally measuring how much T was coming out of my various syringes at each dose. It was a real eye opener. I strongly contend that the reason a certain percentage of men have trouble dialing in is because of the differences in how much oil comes out of the syringes. Oil does not behave anything like thinner suspensions, making measurements between syringe types unreliable.

I couldn’t hardly believe I was doing so well (though not perfect) on only 40mg a week, so I am now trying a stint on 56mg per week. I will drop down further if this doesnt work after a good eight weeks.

102

It seems that if 80mg/week was working until the end of the week that you’d want that or a little more to me?

Perhaps you’re an oddball like some others here that do better on less?

103

I must be. Because 80mg, although seemingly not enough once each week, split into two doses was clearly too much for me.

The reason I discovered all this was because one 46mg injection a few weeks ago sent me into an anxiety hell. Similar to when I did one 90mg injection when I was on 80mg once a week. Made me into a paranoid lunatic for about half a day. Could not stand the feeling when it hit the peak. It was awful.

So I couldnt increase my dose even if I wanted to. That’s what caused me to do my little science experiment and see how much T I was really getting with each past injection type.

I’m lucky I had some of my older 3ml syringes around. I couldn’t believe so little was coming out of them each injection back in August when I was on top of the world.

Hope you’re doing okay, brother.

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104

Testosterone usually peaks between 24-48 hours. What time of day do you inject? Is it IM or sub-q?

Are you able to buy insulin syringes?

105

I haven’t been able to find more one piece syringes but am now accounting for the waste in the ones I am using. If you know a good place to get them in the US I would appreciate a link.

My peak was at 41 hours. I clocked it twice. I inject Monday evening and Friday morning.

106

You can get them on Amazon

107

@rwr410 I got my last batch from https://westendmedicalsupplies.com/

Screenshot_20191210-132240
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Hassle free, worked well.

I fill a 3ml, 22 gauge needles from a 1ml (200mg/ml) vial and back fill each insulin syringe.

Take the plunger out, stick the big needle into the back of the insulin syringe where the plunger came from, 23 drops and I have 22mg (11 on the syringe marks).

Replace the plunger, invert and let the oil run to the bottom. Give it a couple of flicks and push the oil up and the excess air out. Pretty easy and I never take the cap off the insulin syringe, so the needle is sharp.

108

Thanks. I use a 1 inch needle and 25 or 27 gauge, maybe that’s why I can’t find them.

109

Are you sub q or IM?

I’ve only injected sub q. These bloods are from 42mg EOD. Top testosterone number is FT and bottom is TT -

Screenshot_20191209-144555
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Edit - forgot to mention my sensitive E2 is 49

110

IM. I won’t screw around with sub Q at this point because it’s different and I don’t need anything different right now. I do a different sub Q shot for something else (unrelated) so it’s not fear.

And I have zero labs. It’s all trial and error but with a few trials under my belt, I certainly have a good idea what’s going to work for me. It’s just been a matter of knowing how much I’m actually doing. It’s a pisser but I can’t complain since I definitely am responding. This has just been a way longer process than it should have been. At the same time, I would have NEVER tried 40mg a week for so long on purpose. That seems like a useless dose yet I pretty much felt amazing. 80mg a week 1x did put me at around 1200 total T. So I can see why the lower dose is good for me.

I wish I didn’t wait a year to switch to twice a week but a lot of that was just having patience and not wanting to mess around.

I probably employed too much patience but then again I didn’t know I would respond so well to 2x.

111

If you are in a state where you can order your own, it’s probably a good idea to get some baseline numbers to know what your working with at a given dose. You are sorta flying blind when it comes to pairing symptoms to the levels of important hormonal biomarkers.

112

Hello! I am on Week 4 of my latest protocol change. For reference I will be comparing my current change (2x40mg to 2x30mg) to my initial change at the beginning of this log, when I went from 80mg once weekly, to 40mg split into two shots (2x20mg). At the beginning of this log, I thought I was on 100mg once a week and making the move to 2x50mg per week. Boy is my face red, and boy did I have some shitty syringes. That said those shitty syringes may have been a blessing in disguise.

During my third week last time, I started to get some serious depression and malaise symptoms. Makes perfect sense as I had unwittingly dropped my dose very steeply.

This time the drop isn’t as severe and that tracks extremely well with my symptoms. I got symptoms last week (Week 3) that were very similar to my symptoms in Week 2 of the initial change. This makes mathematical sense, with a much less steep drop in dose. Equally, so far I have not suffered from the malaise, depression and confusion I had three and four weeks in last time.

Oddly enough I did get the tiniest amount of hormonal depression creeping in a couple hours before my shot yesterday. On the original protocol change, I was getting some fairly crippling depression a full day before. This went away after each shot, and then eventually stopped coming back altogether.

Overall: I feel quite alright at the moment. I do sense I have a ways to go before I “settle” on this dose.

Anxiety: The awful anxiety of the last couple months has waned to the point where I haven’t been thinking about it. At my best on TRT, I just go with the flow for most things and I have never been much of a flow person.

Brain Function: My mind is sharpening back up bigtime. I had this issue both Low T (and High T) where I wouldn’t be able to remember many things that happened 10 or 15 seconds earlier. This would typically be something like “putting something down”, etc. Very frightening for someone with a formerly photographic recall. For now I notice that my mind is now accurately filling in those former memory gaps. The gaps are still happening, but only few and far between. Most of the time I am remembering what I need to remember with little trouble.

Libido: Libido is kicking nicely but I kind of expect that with any protocol change. One of my issues for the entire TRT journey has been not getting libido right. On 80mg once a week it was predictably good for the first half of the week and predictably bad for the second half. Some weeks I had it all the way through. On twice a week it has never been predictable but it has been pretty intense at times.

Energy: Pretty good - I had a full day of driving yesterday with no sleepiness, and still had energy when I got to my destination. Still fluctuating. The sleepiness has been a big deal. It would be nice if I could get that to go away.

Mood: Good, not great. But good. I have a confident T calmness happening, but even that isn’t at its peak. No real sunshine or happiness at the moment but at least it’s not a bad mood.

In summary, at week 10 on 40mg a week I had practically everything going except libido (I pretty much felt like Superman constantly), and my energy levels were good but not what I would call right. I’m only on Week 4 of this switch so I am employing much needed patience.

113

End of Week 4 of my protocol change from 80mg a week to 60mg a week.

This is the most promising energy week I have had in a very long time. No tiredness during the day between Monday and Friday and no sleepiness in the evening. The sleepiness was around before I started TRT and for the 18 months since. Even when I was feeling my absolute best (40mg per week) I was still inexplicably sleepy most evenings but plenty energetic the rest of the time.

My mood is fantastic today. Almost buzzing. Doesn’t hurt that it’s Friday but that’s not the reason.

I did Shot #2 this morning and definitely felt Monday’s Shot #1 “wearing off” over the course of the 12 hours previous. Woke up feeling pretty much like a giant ball of shit but that wore off within an hour or so of my shot. I was anxious last night and this morning and that wore off too.

Every other day this week I have woke with high energy and relatively good mood. No anxiety or depression.

Libido still remains to be seen but it’s surely there. If I could feel like I do today the majority of the time, I would be a very happy man indeed.

114

Quick update on my memory function.

Six weeks ago I was on too much T and it caused one or two Low T symptoms, most notably a brutally deficient memory. Six weeks ago, I had gone to the grocery store to pick up four items for my wife, which I told her she’d better text to me so I remember them because I knew I was struggling. One of the four items was one I discovered, right before leaving, that we were low on - bananas. She’s the one who eats them. I told her to please include it in the text.

Got to the store, looked at my text, and was walking around a few minutes later with two of the items in my cart. To test myself, because I was pretty certain something wasn’t fucking right with me, I tried to see if I could remember the other two items I hadn’t got yet. I could only remember one of them.

I tried for about a minute and realized that without the text, I would have no idea what the other one was. Gun to my head, no idea. I would have to come home without it. Even more disconcerting was when I looked at my text and saw that it was in fact, bananas. Fuck!

Mind you, this is someone who formerly could easily recount the events of any number of baseball games in the previous month, year, decade. No problem. Pitch counts, players. Location of the fucking ball when it landed. Who was on base. Who the umpire was.

Yeah, it sucks. And yeah, it was (initially) due to Low T. I suffered with it for about 3 years before my ding-dong stopped working and I put 2 and 2 together.

The reason I am writing this is because today I went to the grocery story to pick up about 20 items. Now I’m already aware my mind is better on this new lower dose. I can tell. I’m not saying I could remember all 20 things but I didn’t have much trouble recalling them, and did use the list as a backup.

Anyway, so I get home and begin emptying the bags. There was maybe 8 bags because obviously some bags had multiples. Emptied them one by one, and put things where they needed to go. When there was one bag left, I played this little game with myself. I decided to see if I knew what was in that bag without looking. What hadn’t I emptied? Would you believe I named all five things? Holy shit, now THAT’S a memory test.

And that’s the difference lowering my dose by 20mg a week has already made.

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115

So the last time I checked in about my overall well-being was last Friday when I was on top of the world. Then Saturday, Sunday and Monday I felt like absolute horrifying shit. And there’s no reason for it, so I recognize it as the hormonal roller coaster it is. I am now on Week 5 of my latest change and am not used to feeling quite this bad so late in the game. That said, it’s only Week 5.

This last couple days has been as bad as being Low T. Malaise, depression, and very little energy, zero libido. I napped a lot on Saturday and Sunday. Have felt totally fed up. It’s been really rough. On the bright side, today was shot day and this evening’s shot definitely lifted me.

Because I’ve been logging each protocol change, it’s pretty obvious that each one is very different. What I mean is I can’t really predict how I’m going to be one day or week to the next. There is no set pattern that I can see other than it generally getting better over time, and (at least for me) past Week 8, I do stabilize and then continually improve thereafter.

This is why people have to stick to their protocols and not fuck with them every few weeks or even months. If I didn’t know any better right now, I’d say I’m on the wrong dose and I have to make a change or add something, or take something away, and my whole world is coming to an end because it will never be right. Which would reset the clock, put my body’s hormone cocktail on puree, and leave me in no man’s land.

But I do know better and I’m not worried about it other than feeling like hell and generally being annoyed with life right at the moment. That said, based on how I have rebounded six hours after my shot, I do think tomorrow will be much better. I hope.

116

Beginning of Week 6 of my dose reduction from 80mg to 60mg a week. Still early days in the protocol change but as seems to be the norm for my TRT journey, some things are really starting to fire and others are lagging behind.

The biggest improvement with this so far is libido and related. Sensitivity has returned and I’m feeling things I haven’t felt in quite a while. Possibly years? So big thumbs up (among other things) there.

Motivation has been usual per any switch I have made. Some days up some days down. Some days way up, other days way down. I’m just rolling with it as I generally don’t get the full effect of a switch until at least Week 8.

Memory and sharpness have returned in a big way. It’s not even so much the sharpness, it’s the actual physical working memory. I had lost the ability to reliably recall things that happened between 5 and 30 seconds earlier. Not completely, but for the most part. It was very scary. It got really bad when my T dose was too high (80mg a week split into two shots). I would say almost comparable to what I went through when I was Low T. That went on until about 2-3 weeks ago and has only improved from there.

Memory has been very reliable since, and I’m still not used to it. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle that’s been filled in. No other way to describe it. I’m sure as fuck not taking it for granted.

Energy has been strange. Definitely up and down. I thought it was going super high for a while and now it’s actually on the low side (for TRT). I’m not fatigued or anything, but I do get this sleepiness in the evenings and sometimes even the daytime.

Heart rate which had really spiked terribly on 80mg a week has been pretty well under control, with the exception of a few middle of the night episodes.

Mood has been malaised for several weeks. Not depressed for the most part. I also haven’t had the bright happiness that I had on 40mg a week but that may come back in due time.

117

Beginning of Week 7. I made it!

Well, not quite. Usually I don’t feel stable until after week 8. But it still feels good to have completed 6 weeks on my new reduced protocol.

Mood has been very bright the last few days. Did not feel too bad leading up to today’s shot, either. I have been waiting for a bright mood to kick in after a long period of some malaise and general anxiety.

As mentioned before, heart rate seems to do this spike thing whenever my blood levels are in a certain place. I have a chart to generally track my levels (based on half life and current dose) and it always seems to happen around the same level. This is currently about 3/4th of the way to the next shot. Not every single shot but at least once a week. I have never experienced anything like this on TRT. Not so predictably anyway. Just rolling with it to see if this stops on its own. It is not worth changing my dose over right now, that’s for sure.

Libido and general sexual health seems to finally be improving. Even with decent libido, things weren’t firing correctly and now I am finally seeing definitive improvements on this dose. Improvements which did not occur on either 40mg split 2x or 80mg split 2x. I am now on 60mg split 2x and like magic, things are rounding into form and actually getting better each week. This is stuff that suddenly stopped working nearly a year ago when I was still on 80mg 1x. It feels almost miraculous but I don’t want to count my chickens.

Overall things are going well and I feel reasonably predictable from day to day, except for motivation which seems to still be fluctuating, though the last few days have been good.

118

Another update. I honestly hope this stuff is interesting for people. I know I get pretty detailed (some may say “boring”) with it, but I do find it helps to know the ins and outs of people’s various TRT stories.

As I stated at the very beginning of this thing, my intention in doing it was genuinely to share because I had learned so much from those who had done the same, whether in writing or video. Talking about myself is not my favorite thing. But this sort of log answers questions that people might never ask, or even think to ask. At least that’s been my experience.

So today is a real Red Letter Day for my journey. Huge.

I am now past six weeks on my latest protocol (60mg week 30x2) and about two hours ago I found that for the first time in four years I am able to easily do math in my head again!

I was born able to quickly do basic math in my head… one of only a few outstanding skills of mine… until one day I wasn’t. Ever since becoming Low T, and for a year and a half of TRT treatment, doing math in my head has felt like swimming with cement boots on. It’s been horrible.

I guess this falls under the category of “mental fog” but to me it seems a bit deeper and more specific than that. With some exceptions, I have been out of my so-called “fog” since virtually Day 1 of starting TRT. But doing math in my head, since around 2015, has been like trying to shit marbles uphill.

I can’t describe it. I went from being able to juggle 6 numbers in my mind to my heart’s content, to struggling to find or create relationships between any 2. I guess my best analogy would be - you have to walk to go get your car keys from across the room (a simple enough task), but the room is filled from floor to ceiling with water. Unless you’ve experienced it, it’s impossible to truly get. And it’s fucking scary as shit. And you just think, “okay, so I guess that’s it then?”

And then suddenly like that, today… my math ability is back. Wife shouts to me “what’s 20 divided by 50” and I answer immediately… I mean… without even a moment’s hesitation… “40 cents”. Then I had to ask her to confirm it because I was shocked it had even come out, and how quickly.

Look… I know that’s not an incredibly difficult math problem. But the difficulty isn’t the point. For years, I had been finding it tough to multiply or divide single digit numbers without feeling like my skull was full of Jell-O. I tested myself with some more in-my-head math problems, and yeah… I’m back.

I just hope it’s not for one day.

119

Hi again! I am now 7 weeks and 2 days into my protocol change (80mg split x2 to 60mg split x 2) and I feel completely and utterly amazing. Probably better than I did when I was on 40mg split x2 which felt stunning a lot of the time, but not perfect.

Anyone having trouble on TRT or discouraged about how they feel at the beginning of a dose or frequency change, take heart. I was suffering only a couple weeks back. I also urge you to measure very carefully, space your shots out evenly, and stick to the same damn syringes if possible. Get a stash of them. A syringe switch fucked me up for over three months and I still would have been lost had I not figured it out.

Incredibly it was actually the OLD syringes that were wasting a ton of T and keeping my on 40mg when I thought I was closer to 90mg. And those ended up being a blessing because the school of thought seems to rarely be to lower one’s dose and I never would have thought I could feel better on 40 than 80 or 100.

I had my doubts I would ever feel this good again. I am practically buzzing. It goes on all day long. Maybe for eight straight days? My days are easy. I have never been able to just coast through a day and take whatever comes at me. But the right dose of T does that for me and it’s such a freaking blessing.

Libido is good. Energy is starting to really kick in, and my motivation is good too. Concentration is easy, my math ability came back out of nowhere. Have not had any middle of the night heart speed-up episodes for about maybe 10 days. These seem to happen during dose switches.

So for now it’s all good news. I almost don’t want to report it because it feels A. like I’m bragging and B. like I’m tempting fate. I’m also aware that maybe if I stay on this dose a long time, some negative changes may occur.

As usual patience is key. I will check in periodically if nothing drastic happens. For now, after 19 months and a lot of hair-pulling, anxiety and frustration, it seems like I have finally made a three point landing. I wish you luck!

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120

Well I keep preaching patience and all that but I’m about to lower my dose again.

I seem to have settled into this place where I feel absolutely amazing with everything going just right, almost constantly… and along with it has come some side effects I sincerely cannot take.

The sudden intense hunger, not always accompanied by a weak feeling with low glucose, and this fast heartbeat which is now still around more often than not, is slowly wrecking my shit.

I had weird side effects (including the heart rate, which was worse) on my last higher dose. They subsided when I switched. So here I am again.

I did my regular shot today (60 a week) but I’m probably going down to 45. I was on 40 for 15 weeks and felt amazing but not perfect. I don’t think my heart rate was an issue on that dose. And this hunger is brand new.

I will take “not perfect” over this. There’s no guarantee the hunger is hormonal but I’ve been checked by the doctor and I’m 99% sure it is.