Need advise on lowering my Test dose

[Gianluca]

I'm considering to lower my dose due to elevated H&H, generally running around 18 and 53.6% with this protocol, FT is not that high, I feel fine here, but I want to see that H&H lower.

Current dose is 126mg weekly divided in daily 18mg IM injections along with 125IU HCG. I was thinking to try to lower my dose to 14mg daily tot 98mg weekly and perhaps increase my HCG to 250IU EOD 2 weeks in or so if I need to.

Do you guys think I have enough room to lower this much? is lowering 28mg at time perhaps a little excessive based on my FT? @Cataceous @madman @FunkOdyssey would be great to hear from you guys.

TT: (LC-MS) 620 ng/dl (264 - 916)
FT: (Equilibrium dialysis) 248 pg/ml (52–280) Vermeulen calculated 18.3 ng/dl
E2 sensitive 35.6 pg/ml
SHBG 12.1


I used to tolerate bigger test dose with no big increase in H&H, I have a mild sleep apnea which I have been treating with CPAP, but did not make any difference.

 

[madman]

I'm considering to lower my dose due to elevated H&H, generally running around 18 and 53.6% with this protocol, FT is not that high, I feel fine here, but I want to see that H&H lower.

Current dose is 126mg weekly divided in daily 18mg IM injections along with 125IU HCG. I was thinking to try to lower my dose to 14mg daily tot 98mg weekly and perhaps increase my HCG to 250IU EOD 2 weeks in or so if I need to.

Do you guys think I have enough room to lower this much? is lowering 28mg at time perhaps a little excessive based on my FT? @Cataceous @madman @FunkOdyssey would be great to hear from you guys.

TT: (LC-MS) 620 ng/dl (264 - 916)
FT: (Equilibrium dialysis) 248 pg/ml (52–280) Vermeulen calculated 18.3 ng/dl
E2 sensitive 35.6 pg/ml
SHBG 12.1


I used to tolerate bigger test dose with no big increase in H&H, I have a mild sleep apnea which I have been treating with CPAP, but did not make any difference.

Your FT 24.8 ng/dL is not absurdly high but is still high-end and can easily drive up. hematocrit even when injecting daily.

Would put more weight behind your FT result tested using the gold standard ED assay.

On your daily protocol injecting 18 mg T (126 mg/week) you are hitting a robust TT 620 ng/dL and more importantly high-end FT 24.8 ng/dL tested using what would be considered the most accurate assay gold standard Equilibrium Dialysiis.

As you can see even though your TT low 600s is not that high your FT is high-end as your SHBG 12.1 nmol/L is low.

Your hemoglobin and hematocrit are high and hematocrit is sitting just below the cut-off 54%.

Yes OSA can easily drive up the hematocrit but not common in mild cases.

You easily have some room to bring down your FT but need to be mindful as driving it too low can backfire on you.

The goal here would be running the lowest effective FT that will allow one to minimize/avoid any sides while at the same time maintaining all the benefits of having a healthy FT.

Easier said than done.

The majority of men will do well with trough FT 15-30 ng/dL with ease.

If anything I would not go any lower than 15 ng/dL especially on dailies.

When injecting daily many can get away with running a higher FT vs injecting twice-weekly vs once weekly as a daily protocol would have a big impact on clipping the peak--->trough and blood levels will. be much more stable throughout the week.

Others may struggle when running a high-end/high FT on dailies.

Trial and error is key here.

Even then as you would know when tweaking a protocol (increasing/decreasing dose) the first 6 weeks means nothing when looking at the bigger picture here as hormones will be in flux during the weeks leading up until blood levels stabilize and it is common for one to experience ups/downs along the way as the body is trying to adjust to the increase or decrease in hormones testosterone and its metabolites estradiol/DHT.

Once blood levels stabilize you will still need to give the protocol a few more months to allow your body to adapt to its new set-point and this is the critical time period when one needs to gauge how they truly feel overall.

Patience is key.

Seeing as you are lowering your weekly dose be prepared for a bumpy ride as you may experience more downs along the way until everything settles.

Sensible move when decreasing the dose is 20 mg.

I would just go with 15 mg T daily (105 mg/week).