First ever ED issues....1900 total test

[Isaiah]

Hello all. I’ve been reading this forum and I know this has been talked about and I don’t mean to annoy any regulars here, but I’ll risk it. I’ve been on trt for almost a year. Just in the last month I’ve started having erection issues. As in difficult to get going and or it just fades away before I can finish. My base line before starting trt:
Total T : 486 (range 250-1100)
Free T : 71 (range 35-155)
Estradiol : 14 /ml
Shbg: 31 (range 10-50)

My protocol is
200 mg test cyp/ week (inject twice a week)
25 “units” hcg twice a week
Anastrozole 1 mg tablet 3/week

Last labs, which are the first since starting trt...
Total T : 1914
Free T : 436.4
Estradiol : 17
Shbg: 27


I called my trt doctor and told him what was going on... he said “your estradiol is a little low”. “Don’t take the AI for a couple weeks, then take half a pill twice a week.”

Girlfriend of 6 months is telling me I have sleep apnea.

Personally, I see no reason to be 1914 tt and that was 4 days after injection, so it was in my “trough”. Especially if it causes this!

I didn’t start trt for any reason other than after getting my t levels checked and finding a low normal, thought maybe I could feel better, perform better, etc.. I’ve never had any issues in bed until now.
I’m 50 years old, 5’10” 175 lbs, can see my abs(don’t know bf%), I’m on no meds for anything, I eat clean, and workout 5-6 days/week.
If you need to know more of my labs maybe I can figure out what you’re asking for and type it out for you. The format of them on my phone isn’t suited well for posting them. Unless I posted about a dozen screenshots.
At this point I’d rather be back at 486. Felt ok, everything worked ok.
Funny thing is...test level of 1900+ doesn’t really feel any different to me.
So....what would you do?

 

[fifty]

You win the award for the highest dosages on here.

I think the doctor’s advice of reducing anastrozole is a good idea.

 

[Vince]

How did you feel at your original baseline, before trt.

 

[Isaiah]

Vince;
I didn’t feel bad, wasn’t symptomatic in any way. I mean I wasn’t the animal in bed that I was as a kid but at least everything worked. As I said, thought I could feel even better. And I actually don’t “feel” bad physically now either. But mentally this problem sucks!!

 

[Isaiah]

Fifty;
My dosage is high?? Seems I’ve read a hundred similar protocols to mine on here.? Do you mean my levels?

 

[fifty]

200mg of test w 750(?)iu of hcg and 3mg of anastrozole is a lot for trt. Especially to start.

It’s like going to starbucks and telling them you’re tired and they give you a coldbrew with 10 shots of espresso.

 

[Isaiah]

Yeah well he’s the doctor
So do I continue to follow doctors orders?
Do I ask for a process/protocol of going off completely?
what would you all do? What’s the quickest route to getting the little buddy working right again?

 

[fifty]

I would do what he says.

 

[Isaiah]

Do I say “hey, I don’t know why I need to be 1900. Can we dial it back and see if everything clears up?” Which is what I was expecting to hear from him after the results came back. In his defense though he did ask how I felt and at the time everything was fine. This happened pretty suddenly.

 

[Fernando Almaguer]

Do I say “hey, I don’t know why I need to be 1900. Can we dial it back and see if everything clears up?” Which is what I was expecting to hear from him after the results came back. In his defense though he did ask how I felt and at the time everything was fine. This happened pretty suddenly.

Hey man,

I had the same deal but decided to dial it back from 200mg / week to 120 - 130 mg per week myself. I asked if i could keep the same script in case i wanted to go back up. I use way less AI less often and get less sides. Test levels don't need to be that high to get the benefits. Unless your a bodybuilder of course. Hope this helps.

 

[Vince]

Hello all. I’ve been reading this forum and I know this has been talked about and I don’t mean to annoy any regulars here, but I’ll risk it. I’ve been on trt for almost a year. Just in the last month I’ve started having erection issues. As in difficult to get going and or it just fades away before I can finish. My base line before starting trt:
Total T : 486 (range 250-1100)
Free T : 71 (range 35-155)
Estradiol : 14 /ml
Shbg: 31 (range 10-50)

My protocol is
200 mg test cyp/ week (inject twice a week)
25 “units” hcg twice a week
Anastrozole 1 mg tablet 3/week

Last labs, which are the first since starting trt...
Total T : 1914
Free T : 436.4
Estradiol : 17
Shbg: 27


I called my trt doctor and told him what was going on... he said “your estradiol is a little low”. “Don’t take the AI for a couple weeks, then take half a pill twice a week.”

Girlfriend of 6 months is telling me I have sleep apnea.

Personally, I see no reason to be 1914 tt and that was 4 days after injection, so it was in my “trough”. Especially if it causes this!

I didn’t start trt for any reason other than after getting my t levels checked and finding a low normal, thought maybe I could feel better, perform better, etc.. I’ve never had any issues in bed until now.
I’m 50 years old, 5’10” 175 lbs, can see my abs(don’t know bf%), I’m on no meds for anything, I eat clean, and workout 5-6 days/week.
If you need to know more of my labs maybe I can figure out what you’re asking for and type it out for you. The format of them on my phone isn’t suited well for posting them. Unless I posted about a dozen screenshots.
At this point I’d rather be back at 486. Felt ok, everything worked ok.
Funny thing is...test level of 1900+ doesn’t really feel any different to me.
So....what would you do?

Did you have Labs on injection day before you injected?

 

[Isaiah]

Yes. Every 3.5 days, Sunday night and Thursday morning. I skipped the Thursday morning, had labs that evening, then went home and injected.
Why?

 

[wondering]

I'd cut back on the T and the AI.

 

[Vince]

Yes. Every 3.5 days, Sunday night and Thursday morning. I skipped the Thursday morning, had labs that evening, then went home and injected.
Why?

Just checking. You did do labs at the right time. Because of your high level of T, I was just wondering.

 

[Isaiah]

I’m going to tell doc to dial me back, to whatever point he thinks I won’t need an AI. What do you think?
When my labs came back, the only “bad” things were hematocrit and hemoglobin were at a high normal. So he said “go give blood”. And I did.

 

[Golfboy307]

There is no reason to be up at 1900 especially if you were asymptomatic before TRT! If you lower your dosage, see how 900-1000 feels. My guess is you wont need an AI, and E2 levels will be in acceptable range. If your doctor wont listen to that logic, find a new one.

 

[slicktop]

Yeah well he’s the doctor
So do I continue to follow doctors orders?
Do I ask for a process/protocol of going off completely?
what would you all do? What’s the quickest route to getting the little buddy working right again?

I'd kinda do something in between. If it were me, I'd drop to 140mg a week of test and drop the AI completely until the flag is flying at full mast again. Three 1mg tabs of anastrozole is a HUGE amount, and your symptoms and test results indicate that's way too much for you! Anecdotally, when I was just starting TRT and over responding and had high E2 symptoms, I was taking a total of 1.5 MG and that brought me down from an E2 of over 90 to the mid 20's, and my SHBG was almost identical to yours. Your initial, pre-TRT numbers weren't bad at all for 50. It's actually hard to believe you were started on 200mg a week at those levels.

There's kind of a split here on EM- those that find E2:SHBG to be the ratio that best reflects their ideal TRT "sweet spot", and those that look at testosterone to estradiol. You might be in the latter looking at your pre-TRT numbers, whereas I'm solidly in the former.

Lastly, and not to use chick language but, empower yourself to be the master of your health. A doctor isn't a god- you do NOT have to do everything he says. If you want to lower your weekly dosage, that is YOUR RIGHT to do so, especially in the presence of negative side effects!

 

[Isaiah]

So you all think the estradiol is the culprit and the AI is responsible for that. Correct? The HCG tends to raise estradiol similar to the test? Is anyone on test only?

 

[S1W]

I didn’t start trt for any reason other than after getting my t levels checked and finding a low normal, thought maybe I could feel better, perform better, etc.. I’ve never had any issues in bed until now.

It sounds as if you went on TRT in the absence of any low T symptoms based solely on numbers on a piece of paper - which were decent numbers for a guy your age. May not have been the best choice.

If you are one of those guys that went on "TRT" for the gym benefits, know that there are trade offs to that and you may be experiencing some of those now. If that is not the case - if I were you, I'd stop everything completely and try to get back to where you were before starting.

 

[wondering]

It sounds as if you went on TRT in the absence of any low T symptoms based solely on numbers on a piece of paper - which were decent numbers for a guy your age. May not have been the best choice.

If you are one of those guys that went on "TRT" for the gym benefits, know that there are trade offs to that and you may be experiencing some of those now. If that is not the case - if I were you, I'd stop everything completely and try to get back to where you were before starting.

Yeah, why did you start TRT to begin with?