Smart move cleaning up your diet as your blood markers were not stellar!
You are missing the most important blood marker here which would be free testosterone.
Always need to include critical blood markers RBCs, hemoglobin, hematocrit and ferritin/iron!
Run it by me again where your RBCs, H/H sit and have you ever tested ferritin/iron?
No need to test LH/FSH as your hpta will be shutdown when using exogenous T.
Ultra short-acting nasal T-gel (Natesto) is the only T formulation which would have the least impact on the suppression of the hpta.
Although TT is important to know FT is what truly matters as it is the active unbound fraction of T responsible for the positive effects.
Luckily you posted your SHBG and Albumin so we can easily calculate your FT using the go to linear law-of-mass action Vermeulen (cFTV) which will give a good approximation.
In order to know where your FT truly sits you would need to have it tested using the most accurate assay the gold standard Equilibrium Dialysis especially in cases of altered SHBG.
If you live outside of the US and most likely will not have access to such then you would need to use/rely upon the calculated FTV.
The direct immunoassay is inaccurate and should never be used/relied upon.
If we calculate your FT and plug in your dismal trough TT 348.9 nmol/L, lowish SHBG 22.4 nmol/L and Albumin 4.6 g/dL then your trough FT 8.25 ng/dL would be close to the bottom end of the reference range.
View attachment 53170
Yes your peak TT/FT would be higher but still subpar!
Most healthy young males would be hitting a cFTV 13-15 ng/dL and this would be a short-lived daily peak to boot.
Always need to be mindful of your injection frequency/where trough FT sits.
FT <5 ng/dL would be considerd low.
FT 5-9 ng/dL would be considered the grey zone where some men may experience symptoms of low-T.
FT 10-15 ng/dL would be healthy.
FT 20-25 ng/dL would be high-end/high!
The majority of men will do well with a trough FT 15-25 ng/dL depending on the injection frequency.
Need to keep in mind that there is a big difference between one running a high-end/high trough FT 20-25 ng/dL injecting daily vs twice-weekly vs once weekly.
Also going to be a big difference in peak--->trough on said protocol.
Just to put this in perspective most healthy young males would be hitting a cFTV 13-15 ng/dL or 10-12 ng/dL tested using the most accurate assay the gold standard Equilibrium Dialysis and this is a short-lived daily peak to boot!
Even if you take those natty outliers in the 95th percentile hitting a high FT 25 ng/dL again this is a short-lived daily peak to boot!
Clear as day looking over the results from your most recent protocol 78.75 mg TE/week (22.5 mg EOD) that your trough TT 348.9 nmol/L and more importantly trough FT 8.25 ng/dL is too low.
Looking over your results from June when you were injecting 100 mg TE/week (50 mg every 3.5 days) you would have been hitting a descent trough FT 14 ng/dL and you would still have room to increase it further if need be.
Again your peak TT and more importantly FT would be much higher.
If we calculate your FT and plug in your descent TT 500.3 ng/dL, lowish SHBG 16.30 nmol/L and Albumin 4.6 g/dL then your trough FT 14 ng/dL would be considered healthy.
Again you would still have room to increase it if need be.
View attachment 53171
Looking over the results when you were on the protocol 90 mg T/week split (30 mg 3x weekly) you only posted your trough TT and estradiol.
You never posted SHBG or Albumin but chances are your SHBG was still lowish and your Albumin hovered around the same as previously.
You were hitting a robust trough TT 666.2 ng/dL so if your SHBG was still lowish 16-22 nmol/L and Albumin hovered around 4.6 g/dL then your trough cFTV 17-19 ng/dL would have been hitting the higher-end and well in the healthy range.
Again your peak TT and more importantly FT would have been higher.
You need to increase your weekly dose of T and get your trough FT higher!
