I’ve been on self-administered TRT since August of this year. My dosages have ranged from 125-160mg/wk, with the vast majority of this time spent at ~150mg/wk. I was doing M, W, F, but have switched to EOD shallow IM.
I’ve got bloods a couple of times throughout, once prior to starting. The labs I used though don’t seem super accurate as it had me at 2000ng/dl total T and 129pg/dl estradiol. Needless to say, I don’t have any nipple sensitivity and I don’t believe I’m holding much water. My sleep has been fairly good. TBH, my mood and everything are pretty much the same as it was before I started testosterone. I can’t say I really “feel” very different. I’d like to start titrating my dosage upwards into more bodybuilding/cycle territory, however I’m apprehensive regarding estradiol levels. I do have some arimidex (30count x 1mg), that I have on hand just in case…haven’t used any.
I understand this is highly individual, and your upper dose is likely different than my theoretical upper dose, however:
-I’m curious as to what dosage of testosterone you guys get away with before needing to include an AI?
-Outside of bloodwork numbers, what are real-world effects that prompt you to bring in an AI?
-Following the above, where do you start your AI dosage? For example, if you are including arimidex, do you just use an absolute minimum…something like 0.25mg 2x/wk or something?
It’s all individual man. You can survey 100 guys and you won’t find a lot of correlation. 160mg split twice a week puts me at top of range ~1000ng/dl and I take .125mg Arimadex with each shot. I never used it for years but started getting high E2 symptoms eventually. AI can cause lower your HDL and cause joint pain even with moderate doses.
I have no idea how I’m at 2000ng/dl at 150mg/wk. My best guess is since the lab I had done was ELISA-based, which uses a standard curve and absorbance…if you are even slightly outside the high standard concentration, there is much less resolution regarding accuracy. For example, the top standard may be 1200ng/dl, and my total may have been 1300ng/dl…however the low resolution/extrapolation outside of the standard range may give a value that’s much higher (i.e., 2000ng/dl in my case).
Alternatively, 150mg/wk actually does put my total test that high. I’m sure there are outliers, hyper-responders etc.
Have gone all the way up to 600+ without any estrogen issues, but i have issues with “lower” e2.. However, symptoms i have “felt” that were transient, that would immediately grab my attention, in order of importance:
Nipple Sensetivity
ED issues
Excessive bloating
Other than that, i wouldn’t even mess with E2 unless you just know something feels off and have labs to prove it. High test = High e2, and needs it.
Meds are only required to be at dosage for the entire pill. It’s not as uniform within the tab as one might think due to how it’s compounded. On 1/8th of a tab, you may be getting 50% of the tab’s total active ingredient.
The .125 dose is the most convenient thing. That was worth defy to me alone. It’s bizarre I’ve only seen sold as 1mg before that. And my 1mg were even hard to pull apart for some reason.