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I wonder if this is why it lowers blood pressure in some people: Potent antihypertensive action of dietary flaxseed in hypertensive patients. - PubMed - NCBI I just bought some ground flaxseed today after reading about its health benefits. No idea if they pan out or not, but I always like...

I think you’d need to know its binding affinity to SHBG to be able to guess at that. E.g. if it had very high SHBG affinity (much more than estradiol), then it’s less likely to have more free molecules. I wasn’t able to figure it out with a quick search.

I take cheap NOW brand magnesium citrate. I was taking 400mg a day (divided into three doses during the day), but I now may try raising that as I’ve read athletes need more magnesium. I also take magnesium bicarbonate water which I make from milk of magnesia and carboned water. It’s super cheap...

I don’t have any immediate advice, but it’s worth noting that using the tru-t.org calculator, your current free T and your pre-TRT free T is more or less identical. I know you say your levels are considerably lower than before, but that might not be the case. It looks like it could be within...

I was reading about DHT’s effect on estrogen / estrogen receptors and I discovered something extremely interesting. DHT has a metabolite, 3β-androstanediol, which may be how testosterone suppresses the hypothalamus. It does not look like testosterone itself suppresses the hypothalamus, but I am...

Could you post your labs from when you were on the higher dose and now on the lower dose? Not sure anyone can give specific feedback without them. Weight loss could be muscle or water weight. If your strength in the gym isn’t really going down then it’s unlikely to be muscle protein, but I’d...

For me, one major problem would be travel. HCG is difficult to travel with, and would mean it would be very difficult to travel for several weeks at a time around the world. So I never considered HCG monotherapy.

Bystolic is more cardio selective than other beta blockers, meaning (hopefully) less side effects. I have read that it’s less cardio selective in higher doses, and some men require high doses to reduce BP. What is your BP right now? I know Dr. Thomas O’Connor is a fan of it for some men on...

I'm not sure if it's applicable to your situation, but another option may be the mostly-cardio-selective beta blockers such as Bystolic (Nebivolol). I have read great things about them for certain types of hypertension. They don't have the side effects of the usual class of beta blocker medications.

Do you know how your MCV, MCH, and MCHC changed? E.g. what were they when you were at 50, and what are they at 46? That's the question I have above :)

This is very interesting! Does anyone have their own historical data on their MCV, MCH, and MCHC over time as they 'stabilized' their hematocrit on TRT? What kind of trend would we expect? Would the MCH and MCHC go up - so the red blood cells would 'carry' more hemoglobin?

I've been trying to see if I can reduce my hematocrit / hemoglobin without a blood donation, so I wanted to see if my 'experiment' had succeeded at all. Pre-TRT, my hematocrit was 45.2, hemoglobin 15.3. On my ~6 month TRT lab check, my hematocrit was 50.7 and hemoglobin 17.2. In labs I had...

Everything negative you’ve read about compounding pharmacies applies to 503A pharmacies. Empower Pharmacy, which Defy uses, is a 503B compounding pharmacy and is directly regulated by the FDA. I too use Empower and have nothing but good experiences with them.

Based on your TT and SHBG, your free T is 37.59 ng/dL using the tru-t.org calculator. The "theraputic range" is 16-31 ng/dl, so you may have room to lower your dosage and/or injection frequency to see the effect. Testosterone affects the sympathetic nervous system, so it makes sense some heart...

Were you on HCG? If not that could prolong your recovery, as the testicles may need more time to start back up again. But there aren’t good studies on this kind of thing so it’s mostly anecdotal.

I don’t think Defy is effected. They use Empower which is a 503B compounding pharmacy. Patients who are getting meds from 503A pharmacies will surely be effected though. Some comments are here: Are 503A compounding pharmacies about to end?

I believe testosterone may elevate RHR by increasing norepinephrine or changing the body’s response to it somehow. See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7723220/ “These results suggest that androgen may contribute to the development of hypertension in SHR via sustained enhancement of TH...

RE the non sensitive test being reliable: I only have non-sensitive E2 from prior to TRT. Can I measure my non-sensitive E2 now and use it as a point of comparison? Like is it “reliably inaccurate?”

One of the articles made it seem like the major problem will be the pharmacies won’t be able to ship across state lines anymore. I suspect this would stop a lot of business.

Reading the website, there is this quote: "There are several differences between the 503A and 503B operations.503B outsourcing facilities are entities that can produce a large volume of sterile compounded medications and are under the direct regulation of the FDA.Save My Compounds is most...

There is another thread on this over here: Are 503A compounding pharmacies about to end? If anyone knows more about this, please speak up!

I signed the letter. Does anyone know if this would apply to Empower Pharmacy, which is a 503B pharmacy?

CBS news seems to be doing a deep dive into HRT, with no effort to show the positive side of the practice at all. Here’s one of their latest pieces: A clinic treated a fatigued 41-year-old with testosterone. A month later he had a stroke.

I guess my question is: why are all of the TRT clinics and telemedicine clinics using compounded products? There must be a reason. Do they make more money that way? Is it because non-compounded testosterone is too expensive? I know compounded HCG is much less expensive compared to...

The website says “Comments to NASEM should be sent before September 30th.“ I wonder if it’s now too late to give feedback? One thing I wonder is: Is it some kind of legal requirement that the telemedicine HRT clinics must use compounding pharmacies to send controlled substances? If compounded...

While women have much lower levels of testosteone, they also have estrogen and progesterone which I'm sure help them in other ways..

If you haven't already, you might want to look into booking a consultation with Dr. Thomas O'Connor (https://www.testosteronology.com). He has a lot of experience dealing with complicated cases like yours. For instance, this case report makes me think of your complicated situation.

Have you tried HCG? I know it increases my libido. I’m not sure why yet. I know Nelson says that without HCG he doesn’t have a strong libido. Many other men report similarly.

The sensitive E2 test is only $43 on discountedlabs: https://www.discountedlabs.com/estradiol-sensitive-lc-ms-ms

Also, not to get too into the weeds, but RE: that article: The reference to E2 raising CRP is, IMO, off base. It references a journal reply that cites the HERS data. All of the data I've looked at has said that E2 lowers CRP, see e.g. "Estradiol inhibits vascular endothelial cells...

I don't think it's just lipids. I worry about the direct effect that an aromatase inhibitor could have on endothelial function. In some studies on women with aromatase inhibitors, lipids are not necessarily impacted, but in all studies endothelial function is affected. If you google...