Lab work back on 100mgs of test a week... help.

[Giovanni73]

I have been on TRT for 8 weeks (100 mgs of testosterone a week) Very strange and concerning results...

Total testosterone: 367 (less than when I started TRT???)

Free testosterone: 66.8 pg/ml RANGE is 46 - 224 pg/mL (The same as pre TRT???)

Bio-available testosterone: 144.5 ng/dl RANGE is 110 -575 ng/dL (Same as pre TRT???)

SHBG: 20 nmol/L RANGE: 10 - 50 nmol/L (Same as pre TRT???)

Albumin: 4.6 g/dl RANGE: 3.6 - 5.1 g/dl.

Estrogen Total Serum: 192.5 pg/mL RANGE: 60 - 190 pg/mL (This is high. I believe this should have been for estradiol instead)

DHEA: 132 mcg/dL RANGE: 70 - 495 mcg/dL (This has lowered from 201 at pre TRT)

PSA: .09 ng/mL RANGE: 0 - 4.0 ng/mL ( This has went up from .07 pre TRT levels. Worried about this.

FSH: 0.7 RANGE 1.8 - 8.0 (Lower from 3.9 pre TRT levels)

Should I be worried about the PSA and how the heck is my testosterone free and total the same as pre-TRT??? Thanks for all your help...

 

[Gman86]

Your SHBG is low, which means your body uses and excretes testosterone at a rapid rate. So quick spike, and quick decline of testosterone levels. My guess is you're injecting once per week, and this is your levels at trough right before your injection.

Your FSH and LH are going to be either zero, or very close to zero on testosterone. This is completely normal and expected. Also, I wouldn't be worried about a 0.02 increase in PSA even a little bit. Honestly, you have nothing to worry about in regards to your PSA.

 

[Giovanni73]

Thank you so much in your reply. Yes, I had labs done 7 days after injection. I have only been on trt for 8 weeks and to see my Test levels the same as pre TRT was worrisome. I seen the PSA increase and felt so worried. I see my Dr on the 15th, should I ask for maybe 200 mgs a week split in two doses? Also, I have not used an AI and was wondering how and what does to use? I could inject 100 on Mon/fri and add .50 to each injection day? Thanks you.

 

[Vince Carter]

Your SHBG is low, which means your body uses and excretes testosterone at a rapid rate. So quick spike, and quick decline of testosterone levels. My guess is you're injecting once per week, and this is your levels at trough right before your injection.

Your FSH and LH are going to be either zero, or very close to zero on testosterone. This is completely normal and expected. Also, I wouldn't be worried about a 0.02 increase in PSA even a little bit. Honestly, you have nothing to worry about in regards to your PSA.

A+, great post!

 

[Vince Carter]

Thank you so much in your reply. Yes, I had labs done 7 days after injection. I have only been on trt for 8 weeks and to see my Test levels the same as pre TRT was worrisome. I seen the PSA increase and felt so worried. I see my Dr on the 15th, should I ask for maybe 200 mgs a week split in two doses? Also, I have not used an AI and was wondering how and what does to use? I could inject 100 on Mon/fri and add .50 to each injection day? Thanks you.

No you dont' double your T dose...split that 100mg in to 50 and inject mon AM and Thurs PM. Retest in 6 weeks. You can't introduce an AI at this point, would be foolish when you're on a ppor protocol and using the wrong Estradiol testing any way. Much is wrong with what you're "Dr" is doing here.

 

[Giovanni73]

No you dont' double your T dose...split that 100mg in to 50 and inject mon AM and Thurs PM. Retest in 6 weeks. You can't introduce an AI at this point, would be foolish when you're on a ppor protocol and using the wrong Estradiol testing any way. Much is wrong with what you're "Dr" is doing here.

Cool, thank you. So, I did my labs 7 days after my injection and it was 367 (lower than my Pre-trt levels) And you feel sticking with 100 and splitting dose will raise my Total test? I tried 200 on my last injection, just to see how I felt... ugh... that was rough. 200 is no joke.

What about going to 150 and injecting 50 on mon/wed/fri?

Thank you.

 

[CoastWatcher]

Cool, thank you. So, I did my labs 7 days after my injection and it was 367 (lower than my Pre-trt levels) And you feel sticking with 100 and splitting dose will raise my Total test? I tried 200 on my last injection, just to see how I felt... ugh... that was rough. 200 is no joke.

What about going to 150 and injecting 50 on mon/wed/fri?

Thank you.

You have to impose some discipline and patience in regard to your protocol if you want to see success. As you will find from studying the material here in the Forum, and as your doctor should know, frequent, smaller injections of testosterone will nearly always achieve robust levels (unless you are dealing with elevated SHBG). Fifty to sixty milligrams every 3.5 days, pick one or the other, is an excellent, initial protocol to determine multi-dose response. Throwing 200mg as a one-time try is...not wise.

Adopt a protocol, make no changes, test in six weeks.

 

[Vince Carter]

Cool, thank you. So, I did my labs 7 days after my injection and it was 367 (lower than my Pre-trt levels) And you feel sticking with 100 and splitting dose will raise my Total test? I tried 200 on my last injection, just to see how I felt... ugh... that was rough. 200 is no joke.

What about going to 150 and injecting 50 on mon/wed/fri?

Thank you.

How much anxiety do you suffer with? Diagnosed or not? You def show some signs of not listening to people or atleast having some OCD tendencies tied in to some generalized anxiety; PSA. People arent going to keep repeating themselves for you to just keeping pinging the same questions, etc etc

 

[Giovanni73]

How much anxiety do you suffer with? Diagnosed or not? You def show some signs of not listening to people or atleast having some OCD tendencies tied in to some generalized anxiety; PSA. People arent going to keep repeating themselves for you to just keeping pinging the same questions, etc etc

Not sure what you mean? I'm asking a simple question. How is that OCD? Not listening to people??? I'm working on finding the right protocol on TRT. This is a TRT forum, so what's the problem? 100 mgs a week did nothing for me, so I was just curious how splitting that dose up will make a difference. That's a question, not OCD.

 

[Giovanni73]

You have to impose some discipline and patience in regard to your protocol if you want to see success. As you will find from studying the material here in the Forum, and as your doctor should know, frequent, smaller injections of testosterone will nearly always achieve robust levels (unless you are dealing with elevated SHBG). Fifty to sixty milligrams every 3.5 days, pick one or the other, is an excellent, initial protocol to determine multi-dose response. Throwing 200mg as a one-time try is...not wise.

Adopt a protocol, make no changes, test in six weeks.

How exactly does splitting a dose, elevate total t? It seems that if 100 did nothing (actually lowered my total t) why would spitting it up make a difference? Thanks.

 

[CoastWatcher]

How exactly does splitting a dose, elevate total t? It seems that if 100 did nothing (actually lowered my total t) why would spitting it up make a difference? Thanks.

With a low SHBG, some members post lower, but yours is certainly low, a large, single dose of testosterone is essentially useless. You inject it, and with little SHBG in the game, you lose it almost at once. Come time to inject again, all you have accomplished is (almost certainly) raised your estradiol level. Double that dose to 200mg and your e2 will typically climb higher, but you'll remain as frustrated with total and free testosterone values as you are now. Your protocol is undermining your efforts.

A smaller dose, injected more frequently maintains a reasonable testosterone serum level, you aren't losing it, it's renewed every few days. It minimizes the roller-coaster spike of testosterone your SHBG imposes on you, works to minimize estradiol elevation, and is likely to bring you success. It's a standard protocol design: low SHBG, smaller, more frequent, multiple injections. I'm confident in saying that most of us here at EM are using some variation of this approach (unless we're working with high SHBG). In my own case, I have injected 16mg of enanthate every morning for three years and have a total testosterone over 1000.

 

[Giovanni73]

With a low SHBG, some members post lower, but yours is certainly low, a large, single dose of testosterone is essentially useless. You inject it, and with little SHBG in the game, you lose it almost at once. Come time to inject again, all you have accomplished is (almost certainly) raised your estradiol level. Double that dose to 200mg and your e2 will typically climb higher, but you'll remain as frustrated with total and free testosterone values as you are now. Your protocol is undermining your efforts.

A smaller dose, injected more frequently maintains a reasonable testosterone serum level, you aren't losing it, it's renewed every few days. It minimizes the roller-coaster spike of testosterone your SHBG imposes on you, works to minimize estradiol elevation, and is likely to bring you success. It's a standard protocol design: low SHBG, smaller, more frequent, multiple injections. I'm confident in saying that most of us here at EM are using some variation of this approach (unless we're working with high SHBG). In my own case, I have injected 16mg of enanthate every morning for three years and have a total testosterone over 1000.

Thank you. That makes so much sense. I would feel good for the first 2 days then crash. I will take the great advice I got on here and split my 100 mg dose to 50 twice a week... Thank you everyone for helping me out

 

[CoastWatcher]

Thank you. That makes so much sense. I would feel good for the first 2 days then crash. I will take the great advice I got on here and split my 100 mg dose to 50 twice a week... Thank you everyone for helping me out

You aren't the first, and sadly, you won't be the last, undone by a poor protocol that was designed by a doctor who didn't know how to play this game. Keep us posted.