Note : skip the first two paragraphs if not interested in the background. My blood panel and protocols at the end. Please suggest any modification as you see fit.
I am from India and will be starting my TRT journey tomorrow. I believe I’ve been having low t symptoms for at least 4 years now. General brain fog, decreasing libido and strength loss, I am 33 now and have been physically active with daily exercises since 2013 (25 age). I use to work out in gym till 2015 and shifted to playing tennis since 2015 as gym was too painful and lack of motivation. Have been taking supplements like vitamin D, Vitamin b12, Omega 3 fatty acids. Reduced alcohol by 90% since 2019 ( was thinking that alcohol was the root of my problem).
Visited an Endo today before I start my journey tomorrow, just to get a 2nd opinion. As expected, he said everything is normal and no need to take TRT. As to my symptoms, he said that too many things needs to be eliminated before finalizing on TRT so came back empty handed. I have to say some of his statements puzzled me. Doctor said, he’ll not start the therapy himself but if anybody is already taking it; like bodybuilders, he’ll prescribe to them so they avoid buying underground drugs which are not good quality and mentioned something like “do no harm” is his primary motive and gave me a 5 minutes lecture on the side effects of TRT. I am not sure if it meant, he can’t risk putting me on TRT but will support me if I take this route on my own. not sure. I somewhat liked him. I didn’t expect much anyways. There is no TRT specialized doctor available here.
****************************Below are my blood panel and protocol
Total T = 370 (drawn at 7am july 17th, ref : 260 to 1000, using
Totat T= 190 ( Drawn at 11am on August 5th, ref : 169 to 753)
I have attached the full screenshot below. My hematocrit and hemoglobin are already at the high end of the normal. Hope it’s ok. Also my shbg is low.
Dosage : Testoviron 1ml Ampoules ( All 10 ml vials I am seeing here looks underground. Testovirons is from a reputed pharmaceutical company and my pharmacists is selling to me without prescription. 2 USD per Ampoule. In india you don’t really need prescription for anything except anxiety/sleeping pills). Each 1ml Ampoule contains 110mg Test E and 25mg Test propionate.
I will divide the ampoule to two syringes and take once shot every 3.5 days subcutaneously i.e 135 mg /week ( I guess i’ll loose 30-35mg in wastage, so it’d really be around 100 MG per week).
Going to start without any AI or HCG to see how I respond and will run a blood assay after 8 weeks. Although I am not worried about fertility or testicle size, I am concerned about the testicle pain as some users have reported. So planning to add HCG after my initial test run.
Welcome to the board.
It looks to me like your pituitary is the issue since LH is out of range low and fsh is bottom of the range. You could have an MRI done of it and see if it looks normal. You’re right though, docs look at the ranges and if it’s within the range printed on the labs, then your normal. Though they’re not wrong about wanting to investigate other stuff first. Some quick things, poor sleep and stress can really mess with your test levels. How well do you sleep and do you snore? It might be worth having a sleep study done if you’re not sleeping well.
Why waste any T? Just preload the rest in another syringe and use it. I often preload a week out. Personally, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to just use a ampuole for the week the do labs in 8 weeks or so and see how those are compared to how you feel, I up the dose so theirs no waste
Not everyone gets testicular pain/discomfort and it’s a transitory thing if you do. So guys don’t feel good using hcg, it just doesn’t agree with them. I really recommend trying without the hcg, then if something feels off you can attribute it to the teatosterone. Makes troubleshooting easier, fewer moving pieces.
I can’t believe none of your doctors took issue with your extremely low LH alongside a low FSH value. It’s clear none of your doctors know anything about the male reproductive system.
You can transfer the test into sterle vials for use later.
A sleep study should be mandatory for anyone being considered for TRT, especially for someone with hematocrit on the higher end or above range.
I would not add HCG if I were you, it mostly causes problems. While my testicles had a minor aching initially, it subsided after a short period of time.
Much of what you read here is from a group of men mostly having problems and doesn’t represent the majority of men on TRT.
@wolf359, I don’t have any symptoms associated with pituitary tumour like head ache, nausea, vision problem. Doctor did mention that the lh/fsh/testo are pulsatile harmone and said it could be because the blood drawn at 11am as opposed in the morning. He didn’t seem too concerned about lh/fsh.
As to the sleep, I sleep well when I regularly excercise ( tennis play) and have problem falling asleep when I am sedentary so I always try to exercise daily however recently started having issue with heal pain( plantar fasciitis) and had to take a break from tennis. I use cannabis ( top shelf, organic) as a sleep aid for now . I vape it using dynavap. One of the major reason I want to start TRT is because of my injuries and healing time. Have been suffering heel pain for 10 months now and I am hoping TRT somehow will help with the recovery. Once I fall asleep, I generally stay asleep however very rarely might wake up after about 5 or 6 hours. Despite all these, I am living a happy and stress-free life. Proud father of a one year old, supportive and beautiful wife and super loving parents, sisters and friends, no major financial or career stress. Not to mention the lovely internet society/forums where people discuss and help each other altruistically. What more could a Man want ? I’ve had so many problem which have been fixed with the help of strangers who are half way around the world. I sometimes feel maybe this is heaven. There is no greater goodness than this reality…I earn very well and work for only about 3 to 4 hours a day. I meditate when I can and do daily yoga stretches ( to avoid further injuries)
I am planning to try without HCG for about 6 months and see how it goes and then add HCG. Of-course I’ll stop hcg if it’s having negative impact. I’ll consider your recommendation on ampoule usage. thank you.
PS : I also developed Psoriasis on palms 4 years ago and never seem to go away. I recently read an uncontrolled study where TRT therapy had cleared psoriasis in all of the 16 patients, so little bit excited on that front as well.
Try to get your hands on a single ester testosterone rather than what you have now. Test prop should be injected daily, lest you have some wild fluctuations in your levels. You’re best bet is to avoid that.
@systemlord , may I know what is expected out of the sleep study?
About 1 year back, during a short day time sleep, I woke up gasping for breath and was a bit scared to back to sleep and was surprised as well because it was clear my body forgot to breath and only later realized it was called sleep apnea. I have never experience it since or before and it has never happened during night time sleep. Is it safe to say I don’t have sleep apnea? because I generally don’t sleep on my back and when this episode happened I was sleeping on back and it was day time.
I am committed to phlebotomy every 3 months if required to keep the hematocrit level under control. My wife tells I snore sometimes but not heavily or continuously.
Now that I am not exercising due to heal pain, I use cannabis as sleep aid. I am not sure if hospital will allow me to go stoned for sleep study.
Can I skip this or is it a must?
I take your recommendation for HCG. Thanks for your input.
Edit : Did a bit of reading. I am thinking I’ll start with TRT for now and then schedule a sleep study and see how it goes.
@iron_yuppie , I could only get my hands on Testoviron for now. I rejected this initially but after reading about both esters, it makes sense why combining these two is better from half-life point of view (I agree if something doesn’t take well, it’ll be difficult to troubleshoot which ester is the cause, but I’ll change the ester if I encounter any problem).
From the half-life point of view, Test E will only peak after about 36 hours wherein Test P has a shorter half life and will peak much before that; thus enabling lower troughs and more stable serum concentration. Could someone correct me if it’s not right?
Here’s what you look like over the course of 10 weeks on the current blend twice a week:
That is a very high peak and a very low trough. That’s exactly what you want to avoid. Honestly, test prop has no place in a trt program unless the patient is injecting daily, and almost nobody needs to be doing that.
@iron_yuppie , thanks much. You are right. I just pulled up the graph for testoviron ( I hadn’t checked before until I saw your post) and yes, it doesn’t looks good if you do 3.5 days. May be EOD it might work but not good for 3.5d. My pharmacist didn’t have anything else apart from
I found this from one of the dealer. What do you think? Also this is 250mg/ml 10ml vial so that means I should pull out like .25 ml for every injection. Will it be problem to inject such low amount?
No, the total volume is not an issue. Although if you’re injecting smaller amounts then I would recommend using insulin syringes as they do not waste any of the oil vs a typical Luer Lock style that wastes .08-.10ml per shot.
