You should take advantage of the T replacement forum.
TRT shuts down the HPTA, HPOA in your case and E2 levels will be from T–>E2 aromatization in peripheral tissues. You will need E2 labs and can modulate E2 levels with low dose anastrozole/Arimidex. This will affect your libido, fat patterns, fat amounts, mood and energy for the better. In your case, because your brain was wired with estrogens, you may find that the suggested TRT target of E2=22pg/ml is too low for you. So you may have to work some of that out by observing you you feel.
Because your HPOA will be shutdown, LH/FSH–>zero, so no point in testing. If you order a female panel, lab ranges will be wrong. If you order a male panel, PSA would be of no use, so you can avoid the cost of that.
Fat or ability to loose fat is greatly influenced by thyroid function. Also affects energy levels. See the last paragraph to self-eval thyroid function. You need to be using iodized salt to support your thyroid.
Get T cyp 200mg/ml and inject smaller volumes.
Inject 50mg twice a week, SC/SQ, not IM, with #29 1/2" 0.5ml insulin syringes
Dose anastrozole at time of injections.
With 100mg T per week, most guys need 1.0 mg anastrozole per week to maintain favorable E2 levels. You might react the same. When you do labs while using anastrozole, the E2 results can be used to easily calculate a corrected dose. If you get E2=28pg/ml and want to get to 22pg/ml, simply modify dose by factor of 28/22. The same approach will reduce the dose as well if E2<22pg/ml. A few guys are anastrozole over-responders who need to reduce expected doses to a 4th of what others need. So if E2 crashes, stop anastrozole for 5-6 days and resume at the lower dose.
Do AM cortisol labs, at 8AM or 1 hour after waking up. In the adrenals progesterone–>cortisol. Your progesterone levels levels will be greatly reduced. You should also test DHEA-S to see if that adrenal hormone is good.
Please read the stickies found here: About the T Replacement Category - #2 by KSman
- advice for new guys - has the terminology you need to understand
- things that damage your hormones - will be a few things there for you
- 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.