Lowering trt dose/ increasing frequency of injections question

[kelj358]

Just out of curiosity, is there a rough estimate on how much your T would change by lowering dosage by roughly 20% and moving to EOD vs 2x a week? I'm not going forward with this until next labs to see exactly where I am, but curious as to the avg difference. Been toying with the idea. Seems like increasing frequency you would need to inject less T? Am I on the right track with that line of thinking or no?

 

[Seagal]

Just out of curiosity, is there a rough estimate on how much your T would change by lowering dosage by roughly 20% and moving to EOD vs 2x a week? I'm not going forward with this until next labs to see exactly where I am, but curious as to the avg difference. Been toying with the idea. Seems like increasing frequency you would need to inject less T? Am I on the right track with that line of thinking or no?

If you keep the weekly T dose constant and increase the injection frequency, it will flatten the curve, i.e. it will reduce the peak and increase the trough T levels.

 

[kelj358]

That, I understand. But is it typical practice to slightly lower the dosage when increasing the frequency? Say going from 100 a week to 80 or 90 a week?

 

[Seagal]

That, I understand. But is it typical practice to slightly lower the dosage when increasing the frequency? Say going from 100 a week to 80 or 90 a week?

To me it makes no sense. Maybe some looking only at the trough level and chase a magic number.

 

[radman]

That, I understand. But is it typical practice to slightly lower the dosage when increasing the frequency? Say going from 100 a week to 80 or 90 a week?

I don't think that dose is normally reduced when increasing frequency. If you are doing 100 mg once a week, it would be 50 mg twice a week, for example. The main benefit of doing this is that your peaks and troughs are less pronounced. This appears to be most beneficial with side effects such as polycythemia (increased hematocrit) and estrogenic effects (like breast/nipple tenderness, emotional lability, etc.). In fact, dividing into 3 days per week injections may be optimal, but becomes difficult.

 

[kelj358]

Thank you. Sorry if that's a dumb question. Super good at asking those.

 

[radman]

Thank you. Sorry if that's a dumb question. Super good at asking those.

Not dumb at all.

 

[Cataceous]

Just out of curiosity, is there a rough estimate on how much your T would change by lowering dosage by roughly 20% and moving to EOD vs 2x a week? I'm not going forward with this until next labs to see exactly where I am, but curious as to the avg difference. Been toying with the idea. Seems like increasing frequency you would need to inject less T? Am I on the right track with that line of thinking or no?

Some very rough numbers: Twice-weekly injections might give a 50% drop from peak to trough. EOD probably cuts that to 5-10%. Average serum testosterone levels stay about the same at the same dose. For example: suppose with twice weekly injections total testosterone is dropping from a peak of 1000 ng/dL to a trough of 500 ng/dL. After a switch to EOD you might end up with peaks around 790 ng/dL dropping to troughs around 710. A dose decrease of 20% then yields peaks around 630 ng/dL dropping to troughs around 570.

The dose reduction does make sense, particularly if you are trying to reduce side effects of elevated testosterone. The more frequent injections raise the troughs, as mentioned above, such that you can reduce the overall dose without becoming hypogonadal. In the example above the trough with the lower EOD dosing pattern is still higher than with the higher twice-weekly pattern.

 

[kelj358]

Some very rough numbers: Twice-weekly injections might give a 50% drop from peak to trough. EOD probably cuts that to 5-10%. Average serum testosterone levels stay about the same at the same dose. For example: suppose with twice weekly injections total testosterone is dropping from a peak of 1000 ng/dL to a trough of 500 ng/dL. After a switch to EOD you might end up with peaks around 790 ng/dL dropping to troughs around 710. A dose decrease of 20% then yields peaks around 630 ng/dL dropping to troughs around 570.

The dose reduction does make sense, particularly if you are trying to reduce side effects of elevated testosterone. The more frequent injections raise the troughs, as mentioned above, such that you can reduce the overall dose without becoming hypogonadal. In the example above the trough with the lower EOD dosing pattern is still higher than with the higher twice-weekly pattern.

Perfect. That's what I was looking for. My through is at 800 with twice a week. 50x2, 100 total for the week. Figuring the peak would be pretty high, 1200ish from other guesstimates. No real side effects at the moment other than just kinda not really "feeling" it. Libido is ok, nothing crazy and not having the energy that I felt the first 6 months on TRT. Maybe...maybe a little more emotional feeling that normal, but again nothing crazy. Just thinking maybe it might make sense to drop the dosage slightly, pending next round of panels. Thinking out loud more that anything here...but thank you for the info.