Are the creams less likely to raise hematocrit?

SkyWarn · Tuesday at 11:34 PM

I have been daily injecting for years. Last year I had to cut my daily dose in half from 6mg test cyp to 3mg daily. At the higher dose my HCT starts to rise and so does my blood pressure. My HCT was at 56 and BP 155/95
When my HCT is under 50 my BP is usually 120/70
So I have an appoint with Dr, Saya coming up to see what can be done. 3mg of test cyp daily is not cutting it for me. I was going to ask him for the scrotal cream. Anyone see HCT improvement of the creams?

mooseman109 · 2025-06-11T02:31:59-0500

I was in your boat a few years back and switched to compounded cream fro Empower. i can not say
I noticed ant difference in my hct. It did create a bit of E2 issues I never had before. 4 years later. I d o nor f eel real well on the creams and just switched back to injections

Cataceous · 2025-06-11T09:15:35-0500

The problem with HCT is still going to be primarily a function of dose. If you absorb a similar amount of testosterone via cream and serum levels are fairly steady then the results probably won't be much different. There is some complexity with respect to the pattern in serum testosterone. Based on results seen with Natesto, it's a reasonable hypothesis that many of the benefits of testosterone stem from daily peak levels, while problems may be more a function of higher average and/or trough levels. You'd be a prime candidate to try a propionate blend. Unfortunately Defy is no longer offering propionate, and their blends have too little propionate. Barring other options, you could pick up some UGL propionate to blend with your prescription cypionate. The point of this exercise is to lower your dose of testosterone while preserving the peak level you had with 6 mg of cypionate daily. I've estimated that a cut of at least 20% is possible when switching to a blend. Thus your dose of 4.2 mg testosterone from cypionate would be reduced to 3.4 mg. A reasonable starting point for a blend is getting half of the testosterone from propionate and half from the longer ester. This means you'd be aiming to start with about 2 mg of testosterone propionate and 2.5 mg of testosterone cypionate daily.

See also:

D

Thread 'Daily Low Dose T cyp/prop results'

Oct 10, 2022

The formula, courtesy of @Cataceous

4:3 ratio of T cyp to T prop.

6mg/day testosterone, about 8mg combined with ester weights

7 parts

4/7 *6mg=3.43mg/.7= 4.9mg cypionate @ 200mg/ml = .025ml

3/7 *6mg=2.57mg/.837= 3.07mg proprionate @ 100mg/ml = .031ml

Total dose .056ml or 5.6 units U100

Quest Labs at about 8 weeks:

Trough, 8 am before daily shot:

SEX HORMONE BINDING GLOBULIN 87 H 22-77 nmol/L
TESTOSTERONE, TOTAL, LC/MS 719 250-1100 ng/dL
TESTOSTERONE, FREE Z3E (DIALYSIS) 49.9 35.0-155.0 pg/mL...

AndrewP · 2025-06-11T13:59:06-0500

SkyWarn said:
I have been daily injecting for years. Last year I had to cut my daily dose in half from 6mg test cyp to 3mg daily. At the higher dose my HCT starts to rise and so does my blood pressure. My HCT was at 56 and BP 155/95
When my HCT is under 50 my BP is usually 120/70
So I have an appoint with Dr, Saya coming up to see what can be done. 3mg of test cyp daily is not cutting it for me. I was going to ask him for the scrotal cream. Anyone see HCT improvement of the creams?

It's very difficult to pull down HCT with dose reduction. It can take up to a year for your levels to normalize. You won't know if the change you make is working for at least 6 months.

Creams can work because the total T under the curve (average) is typically much lower due to the cream weakening over the course of the day. However, if you match T levels via cream, you will have accomplished nothing. Scrotal cream is probably not a good answer. The rapid rise in DHT is likely to have a much more dramatic effect on your BP than T with a normal (1:1) DHT split. I would avoid that at all costs as DHT, not T itself is found in research to be the cause of most of the cardiovascular and all of the prostate issues associated with TRT.

The three ways to dodge this problem include Kyzatrex (or another oral testosterone), Natesto (nasal gel), cutting your dose and waiting, or stopping TRT. There are other less conventional methods that are largely untested (grapefruit diet, blood pressure medication). I would avoid those in favor of one's first mentioned. I use Natesto and although it's a PITA and expensive it alleviates the HCT problem completely, I mean completely.

SkyWarn · 2025-06-11T19:13:52-0500

AndrewP said:
It's very difficult to pull down HCT with dose reduction. It can take up to a year for your levels to normalize. You won't know if the change you make is working for at least 6 months.

I disagree, because whenever my HCT is high (54-55) and I make large dose reduction, or stop altogether, in just a months time my HCT normalizes. Also, when my HCT gets above 54 my bilirubin slightly elevates. I hypothesize this may be due to the excess red cells converting to bilirubin.

SkyWarn · 2025-06-11T19:14:50-0500

AndrewP said:
It's very difficult to pull down HCT with dose reduction. It can take up to a year for your levels to normalize. You won't know if the change you make is working for at least 6 months.

Creams can work because the total T under the curve (average) is typically much lower due to the cream weakening over the course of the day. However, if you match T levels via cream, you will have accomplished nothing. Scrotal cream is probably not a good answer. The rapid rise in DHT is likely to have a much more dramatic effect on your BP than T with a normal (1:1) DHT split. I would avoid that at all costs as DHT, not T itself is found in research to be the cause of most of the cardiovascular and all of the prostate issues associated with TRT.

The three ways to dodge this problem include Kyzatrex (or another oral testosterone), Natesto (nasal gel), cutting your dose and waiting, or stopping TRT. There are other less conventional methods that are largely untested (grapefruit diet, blood pressure medication). I would avoid those in favor of one's first mentioned. I use Natesto and although it's a PITA and expensive it alleviates the HCT problem completely, I mean completely.

I thought I read something somewhere about Natesto (nasal gel) being hard on the liver. Anyone know if this is true?