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Hematocrit can normalize over time. Mine has gone from highs of 56 down to a steady 53 or so over the past 2 years. I was at 51 BEFORE I started TRT, because I live at high altitude (6500 feet). So I would say yes, it's possible it will normalize, but I can't say how likely it is.

When I mentioned to Dr. Saya that I had switched from shoulders to quads, and asked if that would make a difference on my blood work, he said it wouldn't.

Not that you asked me, but I thought I'd put in a word for a brand I've been using and am very happy with. They just came out with a stronger formulation too (250mg vs. 200mg per pill). It's from Smoky Mountain Naturals...

Smart, very smart. Empower is incredibly good, and they're even better now that they're in the new facilities.

Definitely ask for Empower. That's one reason I don't like Hallandale...I've tracked bottles from them and always ended up with fewer injections per bottle than even the pharmacist there agreed I should be getting. So now I ALWAYS request Empower. I'm tracking theirs too and so far I'm getting...

I've used many compounders via Defy, and much prefer Empower...they're amazing. A good second would be APS. But never Hallandale. Go for Empower, they're just the best all around and they're even better now that they're in their new facility. Can't go wrong with them.

I had a significant drop in mine, but I'd attribute it to a combo of diet, TRT and the high dose cinnamon supplement I take daily.

I'm pretty sure I didn't get that wrong. I'm not saying contamination isn't also a factor, but I'm positive there's an FDA issue with them issuing the exact same formulations of drugs already on the mass market. Maybe someone from Empower will chime in.

The big reason they're going with 5's is because Big Pharma already does 10's and in order to keep it legitimate with the FDA, compound pharmacies can't be offering the same things that are already available on the market.

Yep, I made that mistake and got sent a letter telling me because of some antibody that others MAY react to, I cannot donate. I hate to be all cynical, but I wondered if my talk about TRT got me blacklisted (which would be crazy, since I am the universal donor type.

I was asked by Dr. Saya to take 3-4gms of high quality fish oil as well, because of my high hematocrit.

I started in March 2015. Switched doctors a few times, all while tweaking my protocol with each one, then finally landed with Defy and Dr. Saya about a year later. It's taken some time to dial it in still, but I think I'm finally dialed in and I've been on this protocol for about 4 months now...

Awesome news, this should help us EOD injectors.

I'm an every other day injector, so the overfill is required to account for waste or I run short.

I would never let Hallandale refill my test script again. I ask for APS or anyone else. Hallandale underfills their bottles (all compound pharmacy's supposedly overfill their 10ml bottles of test by 1ml to make up for wastage, but I've tracked theirs closely and they do not).

Can you get Test Cyp where you are? Maybe that's part of it?

Insulin syringes have no dead space. The only ones that do are the removable tips. But don't draw any more than your dose, since the wasted portion is already accounted for in the measurement. It's just waste, not shorting you anything on your dose.

Do you live at high elevation? My hematocrit was 51 before I even started TRT, but I live at altitude so that's baseline for me. But no need to worry...you just need to donate blood in order to keep it at a reasonable level.

I feel that. I too spend quite a bit in supplements, many of them related to my TRT treatment. I didn't find this one too bad though, it basically comes out to about $13/month.

It immediately impacted my blood tests. I had been testing at anywhere from 85-110 the previous two months, after I started the cinnamon (and some moderate changes to sugar intake at that point) tests went down to 65-ish. Coincidence? Maybe. But I continue to take 1200mg of a high quality...

The number one thing I did is cut out as much sugar from my diet as comfortable (I still could cut some). And I also supplement with cinnamon, which I've read does great things for your insulin response (seems to coincide with lower blood tests with me). I also lost about 20lbs. So, a number of...

My case is obviously anecdotal, but I started with low SHBG pre-TRT (17), and it has slowly increased since then. I was pre-diabetic, but I have that under better control now, and my SHBG last test was 36.

We made two small changes to my protocol. The goal being to get T levels back up to where they were in May (approx. 1100 total and 25 free) while hopefully not seeing much of a change in E2 since I lost 20 lbs and there should be less conversion. So we upped my T dose to .25 EOD (from .23) and...

You can always use Discounted Labs to get your E2 (sensitive) test done and skip him entirely on that. Then you can take it back to show him later and hopefully get better care from him going forward.

I do it all the time. I inject in my glutes EOD, so it often falls on leg day, and I've never noticed any issue.

Well, of course there is such a thing as too deep (I mean, a 6" needle is probably a bad idea). As for where that is in your quads, I couldn't say. But I'm sure 1" would be fine, not sure 1.5" would work in a quad for everyone.

I too feel that deep IM injections give me a better response with zero injection site issues. I use 25g 1" in my glutes. I'm not sure going .5" deeper, especially on a quad, would really add much?

Not as long as you might think. I'm .23ml EOD and I only got 16 injections out of my last bottle. That's only about 4 weeks.

Very interesting. When I began TRT I had been taking 10k IU daily for a number of years and my initial SHBG before treatment started was 17-18. I dropped the D to 5-6k daily for the past 8-12 months and now my SHBG is testing at 36. I'm sure it's not down to just one factor, since a lot has...

Glad it's not just me having issues. Initially I was being told "sorry, but you're early and you have to wait 3-4 weeks to fill" even though I was going to be completely out in less than a week. I knew something was wrong as the last bottle had run short too by about a week, but I had another...

They always send two 5ml bottles. I've never gotten a 10 from them (though I used to from Empower and APS...I'm sure they're changing their policies too).