Hi ExcelMale community,
Can you please provide some feedback and thoughts on this? I’ve been on TRT for about 9 years. Four months ago, I decided to switch from my long-standing protocol of 20 mg subcutaneous injections every other day to testosterone cream, in an effort to manage my blood pressure.
The cream didn’t work for me. I experienced too many ups and downs, it was very difficult to dial in. My testosterone levels would spike above 1700 ng/dL, then drop below 70 ng/dL within 24 hours, leaving me with significant low-T symptoms. I’m assuming this instability may have also ramped up my hematocrit (HCT) and further depleted my ferritin?
Over the past 7 months, I’ve donated blood four times (last time I donated was 2 months ago). Also, two months ago, I switched back to injections, but this time changed my protocol to 10 mg daily subcutaneous injections(instead of the EOD schedule I had used for years).
Here are my latest lab results (drawn yesterday):
Thanks in advance for your time and input.
Can you please provide some feedback and thoughts on this? I’ve been on TRT for about 9 years. Four months ago, I decided to switch from my long-standing protocol of 20 mg subcutaneous injections every other day to testosterone cream, in an effort to manage my blood pressure.
The cream didn’t work for me. I experienced too many ups and downs, it was very difficult to dial in. My testosterone levels would spike above 1700 ng/dL, then drop below 70 ng/dL within 24 hours, leaving me with significant low-T symptoms. I’m assuming this instability may have also ramped up my hematocrit (HCT) and further depleted my ferritin?
Over the past 7 months, I’ve donated blood four times (last time I donated was 2 months ago). Also, two months ago, I switched back to injections, but this time changed my protocol to 10 mg daily subcutaneous injections(instead of the EOD schedule I had used for years).
Here are my latest lab results (drawn yesterday):
- Iron, Total: 61
- Iron Binding Capacity: 358
- % Saturation: 17
- Ferritin: 13
- Hematocrit: 51.2 (note: I’ve donated blood 4 times in the past 7 months)
- Total Testosterone: 778
- Free Testosterone: 188
- Bioavailable Testosterone: 412.8
- Albumin: 4.8
- SHBG: 16
- Can hematocrit (HCT) come down naturally without further blood donations to help prevent ferritin from crashing even more?
- Would reducing my daily dose from 10 mg to 8 mg help prevent HCT from increasing further?
- Would supplementing with vitamin C to aid iron absorption be helpful, or could it potentially raise HCT further?
Thanks in advance for your time and input.
