I have been running pretty steady on 60mg T. Cyp. E3.5D (120mg/week) for a while now - no AI or HCG. I like that protocol, it seems to keep my levels at or above the top of the range near trough, and that seems to be where I feel the subjective benefits of TRT.
However, I kept reading stories from guys who claimed that more frequent injections made them feel better. Also, since my E2 was relatively high on the E3.5D protocol and some guys claim smaller more frequent injections lowers E2, I decided to give it a whirl. Often it seems that people lower their total weekly dose when going to a more frequent injection schedule, which always makes me wonder whether the subjective improvement they claim to feel is due to the overall descreased dosage, or the smaller, more frequent injections. So I decided to do a straight apples to apples comparison and keep the same overall weekly dosage, and went with 34mg EOD (which is actually 119mg/week, but that's as close as I could get).
SHBG: 23
HCT: varies between 47 and 52
Labs on 60mg E3.5D (120mg/week). Labs drawn a few hours before Thursday PM injection (not true trough):
TT: 1031 (264-916)
FT: 32 (6.8-21.5)
E2: 46 (8-35)
Labs on 34mg EOD (119/week). 7 weeks into protocol change. Inject at 7am on injection days. Labs drawn at 2pm day after injection (because I don't consider basement level trough levels to be meaningful on this protocol):
TT: 680 (264-916)
FT: 23.3 (6.8-21.5)
E2: 37 (8-35)
Note that I did not test HCT on the EOD protocol because I've had enough variation with HCT on the same exact 60mg E3.5D protocol that a snapshot wasn't important to me. I suspect it had gone down a little though.
In my case, the more frequent injections did make a difference in lowering my E2. Did I feel it? Not at all.
Subjectively, I would say that overall I didn't feel much different on this protocol. If anything, I believe I felt better on E3.5D. Weirdly, the "ocean balls" were worse on EOD - I'm not talking about nut shrinkage, but the tight sack effect. On E3.5D I get that for a day or so, but then things go back to hanging normally. On EOD, the "ocean balls" never really went away. Acne, which I'm somewhat prone to, was also slightly worse on EOD. Combine all of that with the added inconvenience of injecting EOD and yes, I'll be going back to my E3.5D protocol.
As an aside, my doctor full on called this result almost to the number. I remember asking him about switching to EOD, mentioning that lots of the guys on the forums seem to say it was a great way to lower E2. He said, "Just switching to EOD and keeping your dose might drop your E2 about 10 points or so, but I don't think that will really make a meaningful difference to you. Now if we drop your overall dose AND switch to EOD, we can get your E2 a lot lower. But since you're feeling good at these levels, I'm not sure that we should do that".
He was exactly right, but I'm curious and stubborn and had to find out for myself.
Anyway, I was often looking for apples to apples comparisons from guys with an SHBG similar to mine who switched from E3.5D to EOD and kept their overall dosage, and didn't find much. So I figured I'd share my little experiment with you guys.
However, I kept reading stories from guys who claimed that more frequent injections made them feel better. Also, since my E2 was relatively high on the E3.5D protocol and some guys claim smaller more frequent injections lowers E2, I decided to give it a whirl. Often it seems that people lower their total weekly dose when going to a more frequent injection schedule, which always makes me wonder whether the subjective improvement they claim to feel is due to the overall descreased dosage, or the smaller, more frequent injections. So I decided to do a straight apples to apples comparison and keep the same overall weekly dosage, and went with 34mg EOD (which is actually 119mg/week, but that's as close as I could get).
SHBG: 23
HCT: varies between 47 and 52
Labs on 60mg E3.5D (120mg/week). Labs drawn a few hours before Thursday PM injection (not true trough):
TT: 1031 (264-916)
FT: 32 (6.8-21.5)
E2: 46 (8-35)
Labs on 34mg EOD (119/week). 7 weeks into protocol change. Inject at 7am on injection days. Labs drawn at 2pm day after injection (because I don't consider basement level trough levels to be meaningful on this protocol):
TT: 680 (264-916)
FT: 23.3 (6.8-21.5)
E2: 37 (8-35)
Note that I did not test HCT on the EOD protocol because I've had enough variation with HCT on the same exact 60mg E3.5D protocol that a snapshot wasn't important to me. I suspect it had gone down a little though.
In my case, the more frequent injections did make a difference in lowering my E2. Did I feel it? Not at all.
Subjectively, I would say that overall I didn't feel much different on this protocol. If anything, I believe I felt better on E3.5D. Weirdly, the "ocean balls" were worse on EOD - I'm not talking about nut shrinkage, but the tight sack effect. On E3.5D I get that for a day or so, but then things go back to hanging normally. On EOD, the "ocean balls" never really went away. Acne, which I'm somewhat prone to, was also slightly worse on EOD. Combine all of that with the added inconvenience of injecting EOD and yes, I'll be going back to my E3.5D protocol.
As an aside, my doctor full on called this result almost to the number. I remember asking him about switching to EOD, mentioning that lots of the guys on the forums seem to say it was a great way to lower E2. He said, "Just switching to EOD and keeping your dose might drop your E2 about 10 points or so, but I don't think that will really make a meaningful difference to you. Now if we drop your overall dose AND switch to EOD, we can get your E2 a lot lower. But since you're feeling good at these levels, I'm not sure that we should do that".
He was exactly right, but I'm curious and stubborn and had to find out for myself.
Anyway, I was often looking for apples to apples comparisons from guys with an SHBG similar to mine who switched from E3.5D to EOD and kept their overall dosage, and didn't find much. So I figured I'd share my little experiment with you guys.
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