T Nation Article: Your TRT is a Steroid Cycle

[unreal24278]

Well… BF may play a role, but other factors are afoul here too. One study if I recall found mean T in adolescents has dropped substantially over the past few decades, even after BMI/lifestyle was taken into account

[unreal24278]

@mnben87

The range for labcorp testosterone used to stop ~1100 ng/dL (based off of older population statistics). I don’t care that the new guidelines only go to ~900 ng/dL. I care about what can be done safely.

This was based off changes regarding method of assay used. However it is true that generally many ref ranges for T aren’t clinically significant, nor do they take into account the current harmonised studies used to differentiate normality (define “normal”) and hypogonadism.

Got into an argument with Johann about this. He may be far more educated than I, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look up details pertaining to each labs method of assay, and still note wide variability between labs using the same method of testing TT/FT.

some labs now state 50ng/dl is normal for a man… I don’t give a fuck what you’re method of testing for blood androgen concentration is… 50ng/dl isn’t normal. Assay variation typically accounts for what should be say a 10-20% variability, not 300-400% between upper/lower cutoff values.

[hardartery]

Technically, it is doing steroids. Just at a therapeutic dose.

[tareload]

Lmao. What rock have i been under that i missed this thread.

Nice job @Christian_Thibaudeau

I will just leave this here…

What is TRT and What is NOT TRT

Another item I wanted to check. Here’s a real world provider set from @highpull that we discussed some time ago. I’ve put those data on the graph I shared above to see how they match up. Since almost all the data he shared are trough TT values (I culled the few non-trough values as per comments in his table.), here’s the key to convert trough values to mean values (AUC mean) assuming 5 day elimination half life: mean/trough ratio q7d 1.6 q3.5d 1.21 qod 1.09 qed 1.03 And dru…

Please feel free to take any and all of this work for your articles to help educate men (and women).

What is TRT and What is NOT TRT

Ok, I modified these graphs a little bit to help people understand why the 200 mg/week Test ester protocol right off the bat is seldomly the correct place to start if you want to target even high end of the reference range for TRT/TRT+ The reference I adapted this from used 20-39 year olds: [image] 200 mg/week of Test ester is going to put majority of these young guys above range: [image] There’s another few references I will eventually use to show plots for the older guys who will run…

What is TRT and What is NOT TRT

And even more data from Bhasin’s work in the 2000s: [image] [image] The ordinate (y-axis) is mean (AUC/delta t) TT level which I calculated as ~1.6*TT(trough) from the papers. Understanding serum mean TT level (mean calculated as AUC/delta t) allows one to very quickly conclude 200 mg/week TC dosage (or even 150 mg/week) brings an older guy way above reference range. Feel free to take over to Facebook groups to help educate.

[tareload]

A replacement dose should therefore fall between 40 and 70 mg. a week. Up to roughly 90 mg. would still be within the realm of normalcy. How much an individual man would need, though, depends on many factors, including levels of steroid hormone binding globulin (SHBG), albumin, and aromatase, but by and large, the ranges listed apply to the vast majority of men.

Where have i read this previously? Entirely too reasonable, logical and science based. See the actual dose response tables above if you want concrete quantitative info on mean serum levels vs weekly dosage.

Again well done is all i can say @Christian_Thibaudeau. You care about guys health.