Nothing of great significance to note. As far as libido and erections go, i usually get a hard during sleep when i’m close to waking up but thats about it. Is it a positive? Who knows, i’m just taking it in stride.
I’ve added L-Arginine & AL CAR back into my supplement stack. Before i stopped the AL CAR, I had a small up tick in energy and performance which i could use. If it turns out to be a placebo or the effects wane, i’ll just discontinue.
I’ve been meditating for 11 days straight. The longest streak i’ve had to date. I hope meditation will have some positive effect on dopamine and other neurotransmitters. Abstaining from porn more diligently and once again leaving cannabis behind. Even at micro doses, i feel mentally spent after the come down. Not worth it.
On the TOT facebook group there was somebody who was in a similar predicament after using roids and test not working the same quite yet, although he did a lot more than i did. I asked the doctors of the group the chime in and if there’s anything that can be done. Dr. Gil suggested pregnenolone or nandrolone as something he would use for his patients. Nandrolone is the last resort after my last resort however.
In the end, we’re 1/4 through our initial 12 weeks of 70mg E3D. I hope it’s as simple as a few months go by and i feel better. However only time will tell.
Questions about once weekly injections: hopefully @highpull and those alike can chime in.
How much does your peak matter. I personally am a high responder to test and may have a larger peak if i did once weekly injections.
If i’m peaking at low 2000s but at the end of the week going down towards 1000-900, would that still be considered healthy long term? Provided that i don’t experience any hormonal side effects from the fluctuations of course.
I’m just wonder just in case i plan to give once a week a try. I’m approaching week 5 this sunday of E3D so i still have a long ways to go before deciding to change anything.
Day 39 on 70mg E3D. I had a stretch this past week, maybe that plus a few days more, where i felt decent in terms of energy. That has substantial subsides during the past several days. I’ve been feeling really drained as of late and idk why.
I watched some porn a couple of days ago to masturbate, been feeling oddly asexual. I did the did and had a semi decent session. Afterwards a day or 2 later there was an after effect where i had a little more juice for sex. I woke up pretty horny about 2 days and i feel like if i wanted to have decent sex i could. That feeling though has subsided.
It does get me thinking that this may be a dopamine problem, however there’s no real way to fix it if it were the case. I may have messed with my neurotransmitter system but nothing i can do to really fix it except hope it corrects itself.
I just feel like I’m in a rock and a hard place. I know how i’m supposed to feel, but I feel so far away from actually getting there.
It’s incredibly hard to think, at this pace, 5 1/2 weeks in, that week 8 things are magically going to get better.
Then after 8 weeks begs the question, do i give it more time. Do i increase my dosages, change protocols?
I have blood work coming up with just test levels, but i might look to add in thyroid as well.
Week 8 will officially be Monday, June 1st. I plan to take my last 70mg shot at the beginning of week 9 (June 7th) before i officially switch protocols.
I may take a page out of @dextermorgan and go high. I’m flirting with trying 125mg E3.5D once again. I’m interested in seeing if the results i got the first time can be replicated. I’m a little weary and feel a tad nervous about it, i don’t like the idea of taking my levels into the 1600+, but i have to see if this provides similar results.
This will also be my last attempt at trying the twice weekly split. I’ve been trying to avoid 3x weekly and daily, but if it comes to it, I’ll willing oblige
Cream is also heavily on the table. However i wanted to see if i can make injections work. I feel like cream has a few inconveniences and i’d like to avoid them if possible.
Everything is up in the air and on the table. However this next set of bloods will be very telling.
Unfortunately 70mg E3D didn’t produce the results i desired. i thought it would be promising weeks 3-4, possibly increasing the dose a bit as time went on, but i flatlined around week 5 and things never really got great from then on.
I’ve decided to take my problems to a mens clinic. One of the doctors in Danny Bossas TOT facebook group lives the next state over in NJ. I’ll be working with him and officially signing documents once bloodwork results arrive.
I was going to do 250mg 3.5D and test it out again, however since i’ll be working with a clinic, i don’t think jumping up will be the best idea.
Instead i’ll give 3.5 one last try before i capitulate and try 3x a week, daily, etc. 3.5 was never a problem when i cycled so i’m hoping i can figure it out as TRT as well.
I’ve decided on 85mg E3.5D. I wanted to increase my dose while simultaneously avoiding jumping up too high if that makes sense. I know going from 163-170mg a week isnt a big jump, but increasing the overall dose on injection day should make a good difference i hope.
I also have masteron left over and will be adding 150mg weekly, 3x a week. Hoping i can give a jolt with the added DHT.
It was also recommended by my soon-to-be physician that i try adding a bit of cream to my injections. Although don’t enjoy the idea of doing both at the same time, i’m more than willing to try anything. Plus if it works, i can always try to ween myself off and see if my body can go on with injections only. Most importantly, i just want it to work.
1 thing you never want to hear is your doctor being baffled as to why you feel the way you do. it was then that i knew that I’m in this grind myself. Man, testosterone only cycle somehow gave me the worst case scenario when dealing with steroid use.
70mg E3D brought my trough to 1332. Damn do i respond well to testosterone, but my can’t my body feel it?
Of course i can still tinker with injection frequency, there is still cream that i can utilize, but for now, I’m taking my focus off testosterone.
There feels like something dampening my response, like something is in the way.
Obviously i’ll lower my dose. What’s weird is that my SHBG was still relatively high at 32 with such a high level of testosterone. With that being said i may still need some larger more spaced out shots.
I’m going to switch to 75mg E4D. It averages out to 131 weekly and should keep SHBG at bay so my free test can still roam. I’m going to be on this protocol for about 4 months minimum while i do other things to help my body.
1 of those things being the carnivore diet. There seems to be a lot of great things about it and using it as an elimination diet and slowly adding things back in can possibly help greatly.
i also saw that my HBa1c is 5.7% which is just within the diabetic range. I need to be careful and i didn’t know my diet had such high sugar content.
If i cut out all dopamine activity including sugar which robs the body of it, maybe i can get somewhere.
I don’t know, but it’s time i start thinking outside the box of testosterone. I’ll let my test be while the search for other solutions begin.
Cannabis is horrible for sleep quality. It badly interferes with all stages of sleep, and especially so with REM. It can also take a while to return to normal sleep efficiency after a long period of heavy use.
I’ve used it seldom and in micro hits honestly. When i do that, it doesn’t interfere with my REM sleep. When i smoked every night a couple of years back, i’d really feel sluggish in the mornings.
I forgot to post my labs so i thought i’d do a little retcon.
06/04/2020
Total T: 1332 [264 ng/dL-916 ng/dL]
Free T: 35.9 [9.3 pg/mL-26.5 pg/mL]
DHEA 240 [138.5 ug/dL-475.2 ug/dL]
IGF-1 320 H [98 ng/mL-282 ng/mL]
Vit D 37 [30 ng/dL-100 ng/dL]
Ferritin 88 [30n g/dL-400 ng/mL]
Vit b12 524 [232 pg/mL-1245 pg/mL]
SHBG 32
ALT 16 [0 IU/L-44 IU/L]
AST 20 [0 IU/L-40 IU/L]
WBC 3.1 L [x10E3/uL 3.4-10.8]
RBC 6.32 H [x10E6/uL 4.14-5.80]
Just following up and recapping some of my last post:
Lowering my dose
Does anybody here do daily injections with higher SHBG? It seems to be stubbornly high. I’m not saying it’s high here, but i do see that even with my levels pretty damn high, an SHBG of 32 is still rather high. Could this be something I look deeper into? After thinking really hard about it and posting labs in the facebook groups, maybe 80mg E4D would be best. The doctor did mention that increasing frequency could lower Free T because of my personal SHBG. I believe it to be possible, but i do also wonder if a daily application keeps it low since i’m technically always at peak levels?
Supplements
Can’t seem to take off from Vit D without it getting in the 30s. This will be the second time i have to use ferritin as well. I’ve added uridine to my stack from nootropic depot. I’ll be experimenting with 1 dopamine assisting supp 1 at a time. I’m currently taking:
Pregnenolone 30mg
Vit D
Uridine
Taurine
Alpha Liopic Acid
Al Car
Next Steps
honestly i’m going to have a look at thyroid. My numbers from my last test were okay, okay being the best i’ve ever had in my life. My numbers were worse off TRT but now i have to think. How much better can i get them naturally. Also on a stable protocol, how do they look like? If they aren’t impressive and my TSH comes back around 1.8 again, I’m going to push for a T4 or armour trial. How many guys have okay testosterone and never feel great, why can’t it be the same for thyroid?
I was going carnivore but i decided to go high fat, low carb instead. I know carnivore isn’t personally sustainable but i can definitely keep 100g of carbs per day while loading up on the ghee.
There’s gotta be an outside out there, or more accurately put, within.