BUBearsFan
New Member
This is a bit wordy but I want to share what is working for me take get estrogen under control. I've been on TRT for over 6 years and estrogen has been my challenge. If you have battled this issue while on TRT, maybe this will work for you. And maybe I'm a slow learner and most of solving the problem in this way far faster than me. If so, I wish I talked to you long ago.
Doctors started me at 180-200mg test, taken once per week. My estrogen was up and down and up and down. So was my test. For too long I got myself into taking the AI at 1-3 mg a week. No way to live!! Several years ago I switched to daily sub-q injections. Now I'm at 6 days/week. I have continued to drop my test dose down and down and down. At times I have repeated blood tests up to 2 times/month to stay on top of this and make it better. I never wait more than 2 months to get a blood test. Maybe one day when I hit my level of near perfection I will do that. 2 months ago I felt better than I have in 25 years or maybe in my lifetime. That lasted a month and then faded but not as bad as in the past.
I go get my blood test and again my estrogen was too high (for me). It was only 5% above the upper end of the normal range. At that point my test was at 100 mg/week and hcg at 1500 iu. I was having the typical emotional and low sex drive issue but not as bad as in the past as I've been in this routine of lowering my test dose over time to better manage estrogen and with less and less AI. I skipped the test for a couple days and took an AI to drop the estrogen. I dropped the test to 95 mg and increased hcg to 1750 iu (for sex drive). Of course I knew this would increase estrogen but I want to improve the sex drive issues in concert with the estrogen. My estrogen jumped by 44%. This confirmed what I've been learning for the past 6 years of tracking these figures with blood tests spaced out no more than 2 months apart. Increase of HCG increases estrogen far more than increase in test. I took 2 mg AI and skipped test injections for 10 days.
At this point I'm at 82.5mg test/week and 1750 iu hcg. This is my lowest test dose ever and it is incredible that the dose if this low considering one doctor had me at 200mg a week a few years ago. The lower dose is making me feel far better. And the lower I can tolerate it the longer time passes when my estrogen starts to run out of control. I want to hit the mark where the estrogen always stays below the upper end of the normal range, but with no AI. I'm aware that at some point my test levels will drop to a point that causes more problems than a higher estrogen level but this hasn't happened for me yet. And this makes sense as the truth about test and estrogen is that your body is working to maintain an optimal ratio.
Here's what I'm doing and MY lessons learned that come to mind in no particular order:
- 1 test injection per week is not good because of the up and down.
- High estrogen cancels out any benefit of higher free test or even worse.
- HCG is great for sex issues but it pushes estrogen up more than test; if you increase hcg then decrease test dose.
- More test is not better - not at all!!! I want the lowest test dose possible to maintain my estrogen below the upper level of the normal range.
- I now watch my estrogen level far more than I'm watching test levels.
- If my estrogen rises too high, I will continue to decrease the dose of test.
- If you see your estrogen is too high in a blood test, it is important to skip your test dose for a number of days; if you only slightly decrease the test dose with no skipping it will still take forever for your estrogen to drop. Of course you can take an AI but if you don't skip the test for some days, the estrogen levels will quickly take off again because your test is too high.
- If you are having a problem, drop your weekly test dose by 20mg. Don't make my mistake of only dropping it by like 2.5mg at a time. It's easier to increase the dose than spending months decreasing and decreasing the dose to a point where you feel good or to recognize you dropped it too low and need to increase the dose again. You want to avoid the need to increase and decrease and increase and decrease.
- Don't just get blood tests when you feel bad; also get them when you feel good so you can better isolate your target free test, estrogen, and other important levels. Again, for me I'm paying 90% attention to estrogen because this has been my biggest problem.
I would never have achieved my current satisfaction level making adjustments every 3 or 6 months based on what a doctor tells me. Three different doctors can tell you 3 different things and you can spend years spinning your wheels. They also don't know how you feel and they don't know your levers to pull any more than you can learn them. I have been playing with this while religiously tracking the results in a spreadsheet for over 6 years. I have learned what works and what doesn't work for me. I believe I am nearly reaching my optimal levels to maintain a balance. I wish someone would have told me these things when I started. Of course it may not work for everyone. But it doesn't hurt to try it.
In my most recent meeting with the doctor who had me at 200mg/week, I told his what I'm doing. He says, yes this is the best way. I wish that was the advice 6 years ago. I'm curious to learn if others have taken this approach and what happened for you - good and bad.
Doctors started me at 180-200mg test, taken once per week. My estrogen was up and down and up and down. So was my test. For too long I got myself into taking the AI at 1-3 mg a week. No way to live!! Several years ago I switched to daily sub-q injections. Now I'm at 6 days/week. I have continued to drop my test dose down and down and down. At times I have repeated blood tests up to 2 times/month to stay on top of this and make it better. I never wait more than 2 months to get a blood test. Maybe one day when I hit my level of near perfection I will do that. 2 months ago I felt better than I have in 25 years or maybe in my lifetime. That lasted a month and then faded but not as bad as in the past.
I go get my blood test and again my estrogen was too high (for me). It was only 5% above the upper end of the normal range. At that point my test was at 100 mg/week and hcg at 1500 iu. I was having the typical emotional and low sex drive issue but not as bad as in the past as I've been in this routine of lowering my test dose over time to better manage estrogen and with less and less AI. I skipped the test for a couple days and took an AI to drop the estrogen. I dropped the test to 95 mg and increased hcg to 1750 iu (for sex drive). Of course I knew this would increase estrogen but I want to improve the sex drive issues in concert with the estrogen. My estrogen jumped by 44%. This confirmed what I've been learning for the past 6 years of tracking these figures with blood tests spaced out no more than 2 months apart. Increase of HCG increases estrogen far more than increase in test. I took 2 mg AI and skipped test injections for 10 days.
At this point I'm at 82.5mg test/week and 1750 iu hcg. This is my lowest test dose ever and it is incredible that the dose if this low considering one doctor had me at 200mg a week a few years ago. The lower dose is making me feel far better. And the lower I can tolerate it the longer time passes when my estrogen starts to run out of control. I want to hit the mark where the estrogen always stays below the upper end of the normal range, but with no AI. I'm aware that at some point my test levels will drop to a point that causes more problems than a higher estrogen level but this hasn't happened for me yet. And this makes sense as the truth about test and estrogen is that your body is working to maintain an optimal ratio.
Here's what I'm doing and MY lessons learned that come to mind in no particular order:
- 1 test injection per week is not good because of the up and down.
- High estrogen cancels out any benefit of higher free test or even worse.
- HCG is great for sex issues but it pushes estrogen up more than test; if you increase hcg then decrease test dose.
- More test is not better - not at all!!! I want the lowest test dose possible to maintain my estrogen below the upper level of the normal range.
- I now watch my estrogen level far more than I'm watching test levels.
- If my estrogen rises too high, I will continue to decrease the dose of test.
- If you see your estrogen is too high in a blood test, it is important to skip your test dose for a number of days; if you only slightly decrease the test dose with no skipping it will still take forever for your estrogen to drop. Of course you can take an AI but if you don't skip the test for some days, the estrogen levels will quickly take off again because your test is too high.
- If you are having a problem, drop your weekly test dose by 20mg. Don't make my mistake of only dropping it by like 2.5mg at a time. It's easier to increase the dose than spending months decreasing and decreasing the dose to a point where you feel good or to recognize you dropped it too low and need to increase the dose again. You want to avoid the need to increase and decrease and increase and decrease.
- Don't just get blood tests when you feel bad; also get them when you feel good so you can better isolate your target free test, estrogen, and other important levels. Again, for me I'm paying 90% attention to estrogen because this has been my biggest problem.
I would never have achieved my current satisfaction level making adjustments every 3 or 6 months based on what a doctor tells me. Three different doctors can tell you 3 different things and you can spend years spinning your wheels. They also don't know how you feel and they don't know your levers to pull any more than you can learn them. I have been playing with this while religiously tracking the results in a spreadsheet for over 6 years. I have learned what works and what doesn't work for me. I believe I am nearly reaching my optimal levels to maintain a balance. I wish someone would have told me these things when I started. Of course it may not work for everyone. But it doesn't hurt to try it.
In my most recent meeting with the doctor who had me at 200mg/week, I told his what I'm doing. He says, yes this is the best way. I wish that was the advice 6 years ago. I'm curious to learn if others have taken this approach and what happened for you - good and bad.
