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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...