4 weeks into TRT, feeling worse/mood crashes.

[mobear]

Hey folks,

I’ve been on 100mg Test-C 1x/wk for 4 weeks now. For the first 2-3 weeks I was feeling great overall, sense of wellbeing was way up, energetic, more motivated in the gym... just really doing well.
The last couple of days have been... not that.

I take my Test-C Thursday evening or Friday morning, and today is Wednesday. I feel like crap. No two ways about it. Could barely get an erection or feel aroused at all for the last two days, and I’m usually a very sexually active person. I feel sad, angry, and low-energy.

Is this the “honeymoon period” being over? I.e. my body is no longer producing endogenous testosterone, so I’m stuck with just what I’m getting from the Test-C shots? Could it be something else? I recently (last few days) started adding more egg whites to my diet... is that anything?

Labs from when I started TRT:
Free test: 98pg/mL, range 47-244
Total test: 457ng/dL, range 300-1080
SHBG: 27nmol/L, range 11-80
Estradiol: 29.6pg/mL, range 10-42
Estrone: 26.5pg/mL, range 9-36
Total Estrogens: 56.1pg/mL, range 19-69
DHEA: 3.31ng/mL, range 1.33-7.78
DHEA-S: 436ug/dL, range 280-640

24y/o male, 5’10” 215lbs.

 

[calmcalmcalm]

Pretty sure because of your once a week injection frequency,
Try EOD or MWF injection.

 

[mobear]

Sadly, my clinic gave me prefilled syringes... I’ve got 2 weeks until I go back in for new labs and a refill.

I’ll try to stick it out until then and ask if I can get vials so I can inject twice a week. Is there a way to get the test out of the syringe into another syringe so I can inject 2x/wk?

 

[calmcalmcalm]

Sadly, my clinic gave me prefilled syringes... I’ve got 2 weeks until I go back in for new labs and a refill.

I’ll try to stick it out until then and ask if I can get vials so I can inject twice a week. Is there a way to get the test out of the syringe into another syringe so I can inject 2x/wk?

Can you take a picture of your prefilled syringe?
You can try to backfill the testosterone to another empty syringe.

 

[mobear]

Can you take a picture of your prefilled syringe?
You can try to backfill the testosterone to another empty syringe.

 

[calmcalmcalm]

View attachment 10223

Oh you definitely can backfill that, take another empty syringe and pull the plunger.
Inject half of the amount to the syringe and reinsert the plunger. You can find videos on youtube if you want. Just search "backfilling syringe"

 

[mobear]

Oh you definitely can backfill that, take another empty syringe and pull the plunger.
Inject half of the amount to the syringe and reinsert the plunger. You can find videos on youtube if you want. Just search "backfilling syringe"

Awesome. That worked. A little bit dripped out of the end of the new syringe while I was reinserting the plunger, but I still got just a tiny bit less than half a dose. Hopefully that will make the next two weeks more manageable.

 

[calmcalmcalm]

Awesome. That worked. A little bit dripped out of the end of the new syringe while I was reinserting the plunger, but I still got just a tiny bit less than half a dose. Hopefully that will make the next two weeks more manageable.

Glad I could help, Hopefully it will fix your symptoms

 

[Rhino 2.0]

Hey folks,

I’ve been on 100mg Test-C 1x/wk for 4 weeks now. For the first 2-3 weeks I was feeling great overall, sense of wellbeing was way up, energetic, more motivated in the gym... just really doing well.
The last couple of days have been... not that.

I take my Test-C Thursday evening or Friday morning, and today is Wednesday. I feel like crap. No two ways about it. Could barely get an erection or feel aroused at all for the last two days, and I’m usually a very sexually active person. I feel sad, angry, and low-energy.

Is this the “honeymoon period” being over? I.e. my body is no longer producing endogenous testosterone, so I’m stuck with just what I’m getting from the Test-C shots? Could it be something else? I recently (last few days) started adding more egg whites to my diet... is that anything?

Labs from when I started TRT:
Free test: 98pg/mL, range 47-244
Total test: 457ng/dL, range 300-1080
SHBG: 27nmol/L, range 11-80
Estradiol: 29.6pg/mL, range 10-42
Estrone: 26.5pg/mL, range 9-36
Total Estrogens: 56.1pg/mL, range 19-69
DHEA: 3.31ng/mL, range 1.33-7.78
DHEA-S: 436ug/dL, range 280-640

24y/o male, 5’10” 215lbs.

Were those your levels before you started TRT? Your free T is not really all that low on those labs. What were your Low T symptoms Before starting TRT? My guess is your E2 might of went up , not sure though until you get some labs done

 

[scoobydont]

Your estradiol could be up, but it's strange because you are not on that high of a dose. I'm a little surprised honestly that you are on TRT, because none of your numbers are bad, and the dose you're on is a real replacement dose. Meaning you might not much higher, if at all, than before you started TRT. You mentioned the gym...are you taking any other supplements, medications, SARMS or steroids?

 

[Rabbit91476]

Is that syringe even labeled. With some sort of proof it’s dr prescribed.

 

[DannyP]

View attachment 10223

Looks like 50mg. I inject that amount sub-q 2xwk on Wed and Sunday.

 

[madman]

Pretty sure because of your once a week injection frequency,
Try EOD or MWF injection.

Pointless to switch injection protocol now.

When one is starting trt or tweaking their protocol (increasing/decreasing dose) hormones will be in FLUX leading up until blood levels stabilize at 4-6 weeks.

Top it off with the fact that when first starting we are increasing T levels with the use of exogenous testosterone while at the same time natural endogenous production will eventually cease due to the shutdown of the hpta which can take 2-6 weeks depending on the dose of T injected.

As you should know once blood levels stabilize (4-6 weeks) blood work needs to be done at 6 weeks to see how said protocol (dose T/injection frequency) effects TT/FT/e2/DHT levels let alone RBCs/hemoglobin/hematocrit among other health markers.

Switching dose/injection frequency at 4 weeks is a bad move as he has not had blood work done yet to see where his hormones sit.

Pointless to do such otherwise if he did take your advice than he will need to wait another 6 weeks on the new protocol (dose T/injection frequency) to truly know where his hormones end up at the trough.

Following a CONSISTENT protocol is key otherwise you will never truly know how said dose of T effects blood markers.

We can dish out all the advice we want as to why he feels bad but we are just guessing here without blood work.

The OP needs to tough it out and stick to the prescribed protocol for 6 weeks.

Unfortunately looks like he took your advice which will now skew his upcoming bloodwork in 2 weeks.

 

[madman]

Awesome. That worked. A little bit dripped out of the end of the new syringe while I was reinserting the plunger, but I still got just a tiny bit less than half a dose. Hopefully that will make the next two weeks more manageable.

Seeing as you decided to switch up your protocol (100mg once weekly--->50mg every 3.5 days) 4 weeks in then you will have no idea where your TROUGH TT/FT/e2 levels truly sit at 6 weeks when you have bloodwork done.

 

[madman]

Is that syringe even labeled. With some sort of proof it’s dr prescribed.

Looks like a pre-filled syringe from one of those run of the mill trt clinics, 3ml (3cc) 22 gauge 1.5" syringe harpoons (BUM DARTS).

Mind you at least they did not start him off on the cookiecutter approach of 200mg/week with that oh so commonly prescribed high dosed AI.

It is filled to the .5ml mark (100mg of Tcyp 200mg/ml strength)

 

[Systemlord]

Sadly, my clinic gave me prefilled syringes... I’ve got 2 weeks until I go back in for new labs and a refill.

A very strange practice of providing pre-filled syringes then requiring frequent visits, compared with other reputable clinics that allow 6 months worth of vials/syringes and protocol management.

It would be much easier to manage ones protocol and make changes if vials were in your possession.

 

[Deleted member 16042]

Looks like a pre-filled syringe from one of those run of the mill trt clinics, 3ml (3cc) 22 gauge 1.5" syringe harpoons (BUM DARTS).

Incredible that doctors/clinics still provide these harpoons. red flag to me regarding how up to date your provider is with T protocols.

Poor guy. Get ye some insulin syringes. There are about a hundred threads on this forum about buying and using them. Most use 1/2" length, some of us go SubQ with even smaller.

 

[Deleted member 16042]

Mind you at least they did not start him off on the cookiecutter approach of 200mg/week with that oh so commonly prescribed high dosed AI.

See his other introductory post. That's what they wanted to do.

There are red flags here about your provider. A few thoughts off the top of my head about potential red flags indicating your provider is not up to date with managing TRT:

-Dosing based solely on total T, free T not assessed or considered
-no baseline SHBG blood test, or no consideration for SHBG to determine dosage frequency (the worst is idiocy like dosing every 2 weeks!)
-no estradiol blood test, or wrong type. You need LC/MS/MS, NOT Roche ECLIA
-Also starts you on anastrozole(arimidex) in 0.25mg doses or more from the start.
-1.5" deep IM harpoons for your injections
-dependency on clinic to administer injections or fill syringes unless you specifically want that

 

[TucsonJJ]

Incredible that doctors/clinics still provide these harpoons. red flag to me regarding how up to date your provider is with T protocols.

Poor guy. Get ye some insulin syringes. There are about a hundred threads on this forum about buying and using them. Most use 1/2" length, some of us go SubQ with even smaller.

Agree... I get mine at Healthwarehouse.com, Easy touch, 27ga 1/2" 1CC... Insulin syringe, 100 count, inexpensive. I warm my test a little before drawing/injecting... it helps.