TRT Newbi question on labs and response

Pharma
1

All,
I am 43 years old and new to TRT and had a few questions. i have my initial labs and then my follow-up labs after being on TRT for a little over a month. The diference in the 2 sets of lab is little changed with testosterone levels being lower after 5 weeks worth of injections than before i started. This doesn’t seem normal to me, but I will give you guys the facts and see what you come up with.

Age : 43
Height: 6’0"
Weight: 185 lbs
No existing health conditions work out 3 to 4 days per week and lead a healthy lifestyle and diet.

Dose: .5 mL once per week intramuscular (Tuesday is the day I chose)
Medication: Testosterone Cypionate

Initial Labs on 02/01/24
Estradiol - 18 pg/ml
Testosterone Total, MS - 367 ng/dl
Testosterone Free - 59.6 pg/ml
FSH - 11.8 mIu/ml
LH - 5.9 mIu/ml
Prolactin - 2.6 ng/dl
PSA Total - .59 ng/dl

Follow-up Labs on 03/19/24 before my Tuesday injection after 5 injections
Estradiol - 25 pg/ml
Testosterone Total MS - 351 ng/dl
Testosterone Free - 60.9 pg/ml
White Blood Cell - 5.2 Thousand / uL
Red Blood Cell - 5.02 Million/uL
Hemoglobin - 15.8 g/Dl
Hematocrit - 46.4 %
MCV - 92.4 fL
MCH - 31.5 pg
MCHL - 34.1 g/dL
RDW - 11.9 %
Platelet Count - 187 Thousand/uL
MPV - 9.4 fL

I’m not sure why some of the stuff was different from one to the ther as far as what he tested for. Also not sure why no real change of note other that Estradiol seemed to go up quite a bit. Am I aromataseing it out? Is there such a thing as a non responder to TRT? Also as you can see, I went to get bloodwork at the very end of my week just before a fresh injection, this was by design as I wanted to see my results at the lowest; but expected at least some improvement. Any help and or advice is appreciated. I have an appointment on 04/01 to go over these results with the doctor, it would be nice to go in a somewhat educated state to speak with him.

2

You started TRT with a mix of natural produced T and exogenous T, basically stacking the two and once your natural production got shut down, now you’re left with only exogenous T.

You’re going to have to learn how to communicate your TRT protocol. You need to calculate the strength of the vial (common 100mg or 200mg) against the mL to determine the dosage.

So 100 mg/10 mL vial at .5 mL per week is 50 mg, insane!

The majority of men require 100-150 mg per week.

I would message your doctor and ask if you can inject 100 mg per week. If this were my doctor, I’d find another one asap!

3

The vial says 2,000mg/10mL or 200mg/mL

4

With these numbers wouldn’t I be at 100mg/week @ a .5ml injection? So does that mean based on my labs I would be more like a proper dose of 20mg/week?

5

You’re on 100 mg weekly. You’re not a good responder to exogenous T. You’ll probably need closer to 200 mg per week.