Thank you both for your advice and support! I agree that my first Endo's switch to mid-point testing was bogus and essentially cheating. She really didn't seem to know what she was doing and she made mistakes on nearly every Rx she wrote for me--these needed correction before the pharmacy would fill them.
I'm not in a hurry, so taking my time to find the right dose is fine with me. I certainly don't want to overshoot the proper dose and have to titrate downward. I think the doctor mentioned his intent to saturate my high SHBG. Not sure what benefit that would achieve--or even what that means.
Phil, I'm not clear on why you recommend IM injections. I've read as much medical literature as I could find on this topic and I got the impression that sub-Q injections were just as effective in delivering testosterone--plus they are less painful and produce less scar tissue over time. A good article from the JournaI of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism that I found in PubMed (PMC9006970) summarizes several other articles and provides context. Testosterone Therapy With Subcutaneous Injections: A Safe, Practical, and Reasonable Option - PMC
Madman correctly spotted an error in my listing of Free-T levels for one of the labs. Sorry about that. My Endo refused to order most of these labs. Once treatment started, she only ordered FT, hemoglobin and hematocrit. I wanted more data so I could track E-2 and other measures, so I paid out of pocket and got my own labs through Quest and LabCorp. Kind of pissed about that.
You've provided several links to articles and posts--I've not reviewed them yet, but I will...I want to educate myself and take more control of my treatment. I think I'm going to start with 50mg Test E3.5D. After 4 to 6 weeks I could make an assessment of my symptoms and get some labs. Then ramp up to 60mg twice weekly and try that. Going up step-wise this way should ensure that I won't skip over the proper dose. I'll wait until I have the proper T-dose figured out before starting HCG. I've already started taking some DHEA (currently 15mg/daily). I also test low on Pregnenolone: 12 ng/dl (22-237). Should I supplement that too? Its available OTC.
Question: Assuming I stick with HCG doses of roughly 700 to 1,000mg/week (split into 2 or 3 doses), how much extra endogenous testosterone would my testes likely produce? For example, if I find that my perfect Test-dose is 120mg/week, would subsequent activation of my testes with HCG cause my internal testosterone (injected + endogenous) to jump to, say, 140mg/week?
Thanks again for your help. It matters.
