KSman, I appreciate the feedback. Your prose leaves me wondering if you are direct or just unnecessarily argumentative “Labcore or Labcorp?” I mention it only because I assume you want to help. My initial instinct to you comment as whole is to ignore, which would be a mistake as you share some good advice.
You are taking 500mg T per week and the only thing that differentiates you from the body building and steroid forums is that you are doing lab work.
–As I mentioned, I am aware that I am venturing out of TRT and moving into something new. I have found a new doc and I am excited to see his influence over this ‘treatment’. Right now I am exploring.
–I have seen you on this forum for years so I’ll take your judgment on where this thread belongs. To me it seems like semantics.
Your lab company’s ranges are becoming useless. Change who does your labs or stop testing things that are >range. You also need a lab that resolves lower E2 levels and does not <range
–Agreed. My new doc has put in a request for them to evaluate in real terms.
You have not tested E2 on your 500mg protocol. So much for staying on top of the situation.
–Good catch! I did test for it and I erred by not including it. The edit will be made.
Body fat is also greatly influenced by thyroid function. See last paragraph in this post to eval.
–I am not sure I take your meaning.
Please read the stickies found here: About the T Replacement Category - #2 by KSman
advice for new guys
things that damage your hormones
protocol for injections
finding a TRT doc
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.
You need to be testing AST/ALT to see that liver is OK with all of this.
–I appreciate the advice and will do. Ill dig through my recent labs to see if this was measured. I believe it was. I take in one tsp of iodized salt a day, so I am not worried about my iodine intake.
Before starting TRT: Did you test LH/FSH and prolactin to try to find the cause of low-T?
–Yes. LH/FSH and prolactin were normal. Attributed to long term high stress.
“Anastrozole”!
–“Thanks”!
"Anasterzol: 1/4mg Sat and as needed "
That drug needs to be dosed at least twice a week and consistently. Making short term changes based on how you feel is wrong. With your current injections twice a week, you should dose anastrozole at time of injections.
–I understand the confusion, I think. I did not initially include my second E2 Value which was 20.2. There was no change of dosing of Anastrozole from 1st to second protocol. I have been dosing at 1/4mg for a year now with no issues in my E2. Could you explain the necessity of fixing what isn’t broken? If its for balance, I could split my dose and do twice a week. Is this what you mean? Perhaps this would reduce the times that I feel my E out of balance.
When you were injecting 250mg once a week, your levels were crashing. Were those lab results after 7 days? It is really impossible to manage E2 levels properly when injecting once a week.
–Agreed. Yes they were after 7 days.