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As @madman suggests, cypionate alone is less likely to be a good solution; you'll end up with fairly constant serum testosterone. There is some support for the idea that side effects can be reduced without loss of benefits if peak testosterone is preserved in the healthy normal range while...

I tend to be more conservative with respect to ideas about dosing, but I think we align on general principles.

To further explain, "more-is-better thinking" encompasses treating testosterone differently than any other hormone. In general we recognize that having hormones outside of their normal ranges is problematic, with U-shaped curves for mortality, etc. In contrast, testosterone seems to get a free...

No, the overall protocol is more complex, and includes things like gonadorelin, enclomiphene, DHEA, and progesterone. The former two in particular stimulate some endogenous LH and FSH production. A normal interpretation of this is that you'd be taking a dose that yields normal testosterone for...

When I say 4.4 mg per day I am referring to pure testosterone. The equivalent in testosterone cypionate is 44 mg per week. However, my testosterone comes as daily injections of a blend of testosterone propionate and testosterone enanthate. The resulting diurnal variation in testosterone probably...

I would argue against this. The 8 mg of testosterone per day represents more than a very large majority of men would make naturally at their best. For someone like me who does well on 4.4 mg per day, taking double this is nothing but trouble. @MikeDaly1970, Do you recall what your Nebido...

That's the important context for the guy who thinks that the 100 mg TC/week he's on is a low starting dose.

Let me fill in the nuances. The problem with more-is-better thinking is that it leads to high starting doses and going up from there when there are problems. The victims of this mentality never get a chance to experience a range of physiological testosterone levels. I have argued that there are...

As @Systemlord suggests, shorter-acting testosterone might be the way to go, whether it's testosterone nasal gel, oral testosterone, or even daily use of a propionate blend. I have long speculated that some of testosterone's benefits are tied to daily peak levels, while some of the sides effects...

You'll be an outlier if you have non-negligible LH with this TRT dosing. If this fails then you could test my cistanche hypothesis.

No, it's not as though there's a sharp cutoff below which there's no danger. Being at top-of-range may well harm some individuals in the long run. Until there are routine measurements of blood viscosity and a better understanding of the risks it's not unreasonable for a doctor to object to these...

You've had the benefit of all the research provided by @readlot/@tareload and yet absorbed none of it? What about Dr. Saya's cautionary statements on the subject? Symptoms may not appear until it's too late. Elevated HCT/Hgb can lead to excessive blood viscosity, to the extent that long-term...

In fact it is the dose rate or production rate of testosterone that directly drives free testosterone levels; free testosterone is pretty independent of SHBG. SHBG is actually driving total testosterone, because it serves as a holding reservoir for T. Nonetheless, it's been hypothesized that low...

The main advantage of Natesto is that when used alone it doesn't cause too much HPTA suppression. If you stack it with another form of TRT then you lose this benefit. I think it's likely there's some advantage in mimicking the diurnal variation in serum testosterone seen in healthy young men...

It's an interesting question. Assuming Wikipedia is up-to-date—not always a given—not much is known about how inhibin works. Speculation is that it involves "competing with activin for binding to activin receptors and/or binding to inhibin-specific receptors." If it's the former then blocking...

If your free testosterone measurement is reasonably accurate then the implication is that the high androgen load has driven your SHBG to a low level. This in turn has reduced testosterone storage capacity, and thus total testosterone. Under these conditions total testosterone in isolation has...

Your free testosterone is 180% of the top of the reference range and you want to reduce by only 20%? A dose that mimics healthy natural levels is going to be more like 40-60 mg TC/week in your case. More is not better unless building muscle trumps all other health concerns. The forums provide...

It looks as though your free testosterone was calculated with the Vermeulen method, which is good. However, I think their normal range is a bit optimistic. Your level is about where I would put the cutoff for normal and healthy, so I think it is possible to have issues there. That said, I would...

You didn't get an answer to the question. Maybe you phrased it differently? When I asked it refused to give a percentage. Instead of a percentage, here’s a more nuanced understanding: Incomplete Utilization: It’s safe to say that some percentage of injected testosterone cypionate will be...

While superficially it is a plausible hypothesis, you could make the same argument for injections and topical testosterone. Especially with IM injections, you could suggest greater release during activity. The skin acts as a testosterone reservoir for topical testosterone. Mightn't increased...

There is a possible intermediate step before dropping TRT altogether: You could run a trial for a few months with a testosterone nasal gel, such as Natesto. Over time this will allow your HPTA to recover. It will provide robust daily peak testosterone, while lowering average levels, which might...

Summarized nicely by @FunkOdyssey: "I would rank pellets dead last among all possible TRT modalities. The 'locked in for months at a gradually waning dose with zero control over my experience' concept is a showstopper." They can be expensive. The implantation can be painful. You can develop scar...

I'm not alone in considering pellets to be one of the worst forms of TRT. Mainly they are a good income source for the doctors implanting them. An average of 1.25 mg testosterone per day is much too small. The average natural production for healthy young men is 6-7 mg/day. When you were...

In this case it means that when a sufficient amount is available then it will be used preferentially. Contrary to your implication, glucose is so important that ketosis is maintained through evolution to prevent excessive depletion of glucose. Ketosis is an emergency backup system, not the...

Anastrozole is much less soluble in water (0.5 mg/mL at room temp), and unless you add some other preservative you'd probably want to refrigerate it to slow microbial growth. This would further reduce the solubility. With vodka you can safely store it at room temperature for long periods.

Each XYOSTED autoinjector contains 50 mg, 75 mg, or 100 mg of testosterone enanthate dissolved in 0.5 mL of sesame oil providing three product strengths of 50 mg/0.5 mL, 75 mg/0.5 mL, and 100 mg/0.5 mL. [R]

It is absolutely debatable, and you are overstating things. Under normal physiological conditions the brain primarily utilizes glucose for ATP generation. However, in situations where glucose is sparse, e.g., during prolonged fasting, ketone bodies become an important energy source for the...

It's possible, since it will reduce estrogenic feedback at the pituitary. Of course changing multiple variables will complicate interpretation of results. That's the key question here. I haven't come across any reports from RMC users where we might learn about other parameters. Is testicular...

Yes, you need to measure around 30-60 minutes post-injection to catch the LH/FSH pulses. At least this delay worked for me with subcutaneous injections. Some research data showing the timing of endogenous pulses: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/lecture3-30853796/30853796

While it's tempting to say yes, your isolated large doses are more in line with what Royal Medical Center was (is?) doing, and their published results suggest that significant—but probably single and isolated—LH pulses can be seen post-injection, even without SERM use. However, at least some...

The perineum (pl.: perineums or perinea) in placental mammals is the space between the anus and the genitals. The human perineum is between the anus and scrotum in the male or between the anus and vulva in the female.[2] The perineum is the region of the body between the pubic symphysis (pubic...