Controlling hematocrit. Lower dosage?

[0331FTW]

I’ve been on TRT for about four years now. Started with the Test Cyp for the first few years. Recently my compounding pharmacy has only offered a test cyp/prop 160/40 blend. I’ve been on 80mg/2x week with .25mg anastrozole/2x week and have been noticing my hematocrit levels starting to creep up into the 50s. I’ve been donating blood every 90 days since 2018 to try and lower it which was working up until recently. I had blood labs drawn last week and my hematocrit was at 53.4%, RBC 6.23%, and hemoglobin 17.6%. I’ve never seen those levels that high before. Total Test was 828 and estradiol 22. My BUN/creatinine ratio was 11.9. I donated blood 60 days before taking those blood labs. My plan is to taper my dose down to 60mg/2x week and run HCG alongside. I haven’t taken HCG in over a year.

Has anyone noticed their hematocrit climb higher from using a cyp/prop blend?

Is it possible that donating to often has caused my body to overcompensate by producing more hematocrit and RBC?

Will tapering down my dose of test help lower the hematocrit enough or should I taper off completely until I’m back in normal range? Will the HCG affect the hematocrit as much as the test?

 

[Cataceous]

I'd be a little suspicious of the cypionate/propionate blend. In my opinion, anything with propionate is best injected daily. The propionate is going to raise your testosterone peaks and lower your troughs. Even on cypionate your peak could have been as high as 1,400 ng/dL. If hematocrit is more sensitive to peak testosterone than average then this could explain your situation. Unfortunately I haven't found any research on this question.

The effect of hCG is going to be hard to predict. It probably depends only on how much endogenous testosterone it stimulates. This varies greatly depending on the guy and the dose.

 

[captain]

Check for sleep apnea.

 

[Systemlord]

I found injecting smaller daily doses I needed significantly less T to get similar Total T and Free T levels as before while HCT is lower.

Captain is correct, sleep apnea will see the body overproduce hematocrit.

 

[0331FTW]

Thank you I have never looked into sleep apnea but I will talk to my doctor about it at my next appointment