Hey guys newbie here.
I’m 41 I have chemo induced Hypogonadism my pre-treatment level was 280. I have been on testosterone cypionate 200mg weekly for the past month. I divide this into two shots a weeks at days 3 and 4; repeat. I know there is no science to this but what range of serum testosterone should I expect at my next doctor visits?
why would you inject on days 3 and 4 instead of days 1 and 4, 2 and 5, 3 and 6, etc? That is silly
Nobody can answer your question since we don’t know how big you are and thus about how much blood volume you have…it also depends on when you do your labwork in relation to your last shot…it will be eaiser to guess if you have a sensical protocol
I am not sure where I came up with days 3 and 4… What I meant was I did a 200 mg dose to start with on day 1 then 3 days later I did 100 mg and 4 days later another 100 mg. I have continued the 100 mg every 3 to 4 days. Sorry for the confusion but thanks for the reply. My stats are:
6’0 190lbs… I will test the morning before I inject 6-8 weeks into HRT.
Oh and did I mention I’m a NEWBIE and thanks for your patients…
200mg is a very high dose. so I would expect levels over 1000 possibily even 1500… levels that high will strain your other systems (Adrenals and thyroid) and since you are or were on chemo those system are probably already strained.
have you read through all of the stickies?
did you doctor say why he wanted to start you at such a high initial dose? most start lower then build up if needed based on symptoms and blood tests.
Thanks PureChance for the feedback. Yeah I’ve been making my way through the stickies… It’s a lot of information but I am slowly starting to understand most of it.
To answer your question of why he started me on a high dose; I here again left out a bit of information… I am sorry ( I have residual chemo fog). I have been off chemo for 6 months. The rat piss (chemo) burned up my thyroid up so I am already on Synthyroid and have just gotten my levels almost stable.
He started me on Androgel about 2 months ago but because of the hypothyroidism my skin didn’t absorbable the stuff, in fact my T levels fell. He felt because of my symptoms, starting me on a big dose and lowing as needed would save me suffering from many symptoms of low T while my dose is sorted out… I feel great now…I mean I feel better than I did pre chemo. I have a new outlook on life in general…
I just didn’t know if there was a formula of something that I could use to get a rough guess-stimate of where my levels may be. He says we will address any E2 or DHT issues as they arise based on my symptoms more then my labs. I am seeing a friend of mine, which is something I never do, and I just didn’t want to harass him with questions that I may be able to find on my own.
Thanks so much for any and all help
Kenny
There’s no real formula, but at your size, you are taking a very large dose…you aren’t a geriatric 140 pound man, but you aren’t godzilla either…I would think 150 mg or so would put you at the top of the range based on my not at all scientific opinion…the fact that you are testing at your absolute trough will make it lower than the weekly average too, so keep that in mind…
The problem with starting too high and going lower is you will always be chasing that high when you drop down into “range”…but personally, I would dose off of symptom alleviation anyway and make the labwork secondary (as long as no scary issues with liver, hematology, or aromatization/prostate issues manifest themselves)…
Edit
with your thyroid issues, PLEASE go read 18 Summaries of Things We Have Learned - Stop The Thyroid Madness
You may be just fine on T4 medications, but a large number of people do not get to ideal levels on Synthyroid.
if you are on T4 medication and large doses of T, you really need to be testing your cortisol levels regularly as well as Reverse T3 levels.
Thanks everybody for the feedback… I am reading everything that I can to self educate…