Recent content by Cataceous

I have some fresh lab work along with various thoughts: The TS protocol is the same as above, nominally 1.5 mg three times a day, with the actual dose seeming to be 40-50% lower than that. In this case I targeted lab work at 45 minutes post-injection to catch a possible higher peak in serum...

I did do a course of subQ BPC-157 injections several years ago and didn't seem to experience any benefit. Apparently there was a small, uncontrolled study with intra-articular injections in humans. The results were favorable, suggesting more research should be done. In theory though, if an...

Another update: I have complicated the protocol with ancillaries to the point that causality may become blurred. Nonetheless, I think that FGF-18 is and will remain the main actor, and it has the most supporting research. After the previous series of three FGF-18 injections I...

This is a stretch, as there are several caveats: It's a fairly small study, N=36, all but possibly four were college-educated, none was on exogenous testosterone. The cross-sectional design of the study means that it does not prove causality. Higher natural testosterone could be a byproduct of...

Not low. The original dose is close to 6 mg of testosterone a day, similar to average healthy production in young men. Even the lower dose is still 5 mg T/day, which is perfectly respectable compared to natural production. Need to escape the reality distortion field around TRT. The potential...

For a starting point I'd just use the high-end AI estimate for serum level variation with pure testosterone acetate of 60% above and below the mean. As expected, this is larger than the 50% figure I usually use with propionate. The target variation is 25% above and below the mean. Solving the...

If this were the case then you would not expect these opposite results seen in this study. With N=234 it is pretty well-powered. It's even more surprising because you expect lower troughs with IM vs SC. @FunkOdyssey, do you see any confounders in this research? While IM-TC and SCTE-AI provide a...

Here is the reasoning: At steady state DHT is being cleared at the same rate it is being produced. If we can assume that clearance is proportional to the free hormone concentration then at steady state the free levels are always driven directly and proportionately by the production rate...

In steady-state conditions Proviron should not have much influence on free DHT unless it is significantly affecting 5ar activity. But I would expect a reduction, if anything, due to possible negative feedback of higher DHT-like activity. Otherwise Proviron is just adding on to existing DHT...

There's not going to be one fixed number. It depends on individual susceptibility. Also see the data tareload/readalot posted here, along with reasons why higher levels are problematic...

I have the usual quibbles: Low SHBG does not mean more free testosterone is available, on average. Free testosterone is determined by the production rate, or the dose rate when under TRT. The grain of truth in the statement is that the reduced buffering capacity of low SHBG means transients in...

Welcome, and thank you for your effort to increase our knowledge. In my ten years of frequenting the forums I have seen only a few reports of such symptoms. Perhaps this is due in part to the greater emphasis on taking divided doses. It's becoming less common to see men injecting 200 mg of...

Those are the gold-standard tests. Did you happen to have SHBG measured prior to TRT? If it used to be higher then it's another sign that this testosterone dosing is high for you, as androgens drive down SHBG. However, it's also possible that you are genetically predisposed to low SHBG. Such...

What do your tests show? Lowering SHBG, either the actual levels, or virtually by tying it up with Proviron, does not affect free testosterone after stabilization, assuming an unchanged TRT dose. The original article should be updated to reflect this. It's covered in detail here...

As I recall, the nightly dose was added to a PG-free Minoxidil Max product, while the morning dose was in ethyl alcohol and cyclomethicone.