As I stated it is more sensible to start low and wait 6 weeks before having blood work done to see how all of your blood markers are effected by that specific dose and of course gauging how you feel overall throughout the 6 weeks regarding if you notice any improvements or lack there of in your energy/libido/erections/mood/drive.
Avoiding the use of an aromatase inhibitor is much more sensible when starting a trt protocol to see how that specific dose of testosterone truly effects your total t/free t/estradiol(sensitive assay)/dht/shbg as only than will you know if you need to add an aromatase inhibitor to your protocol.
It is much better to see how your respond to a lower dose of testosterone than you can truly gauge whether you need to increase your test dose to improve your levels or add the (a.i.) if your were experiencing high e2 symptoms and your estradiol(sensitive assay) came back high.
Some never need to add the (a.i.) and if you use one from the get go regardless of dose you may very well crash your estradiol which will bring along a whole host of
other negative issues.
If you had high e2 symptoms pre-trt and labs to confirm elevated e2(sensitive assay) than of course it would make sense to start out on the (a.i.).
The estradiol sensitive is meant for men and is far more accurate as oppose to the standard which is meant for women and tends to blurr the true estradiol reading in men. I as many others on here would prefer the accuracy of such a critical hormone to ones protocol. Sure the standard assay may give one an idea but it is a guessing game that I would not prefer to rely on especially when contemplating adding in the (a.i.).
I would not say low shbg is worse it just needs to be manged differently mainly with ones injection frequency as a minimum of injecting 3.5 days would be needed and even than most do better with lower doses of testosterone injected M/W/F or EOD or even daily which many low shbg guys benefit from.
Shbg is a protein produced by the liver which binds tightly to the hormones testosterone/dht/estradiol and is responsible for transporting these hormones in the blood. it also has a buffering effect on overall testosterone levels and helps prevent hepatic(liver) clearance of testosterone.
When one has low shbg testosterone is burned through/excreted quicker so it tends not to stay around too long so injecting more frequently is a way too counteract this. Also having low shbg one will have a higher free testosterone as more is in the free (active) state along with higher estradiol as well.
I would leave the hcg dose as is until you stay on a specific dose for 6 weeks than decide if you need to increase dose.
Seeing as you are low shbg injecting every 3.5 days is a good protocol for now and after 6 weeks at a specific testosterone dose and having blood work done you can assess whether you need to increase injection frequency (spread out weekly testosterone dose).
I definitely think if anything 120 mg/week (60mg every 3.5 days or 140mg/week (70mg every 3.5 days) would be a good starting trt dose and give it 6 weeks at that dose with only hcg use and no (a.i.). Worst case scenario you may start to notice increased e2 sides but 6 weeks of dealing with that is not the end of the world unless they really needed to be addressed right away due to severity.
