Need to Lower Hematocrit without Donating Blood

[jonboy]

So here is my story;
I am 52
I have been on T injections for about 4 years. For the first 3 years I was on 70 Mg of Test C. The first few years I had to donate blood every 2 months to keep Hct normal, but ended up with low ferritin. The 3rd year I was fine, my Hct remained normal (around 49-50) with no blood donations. Then like an idiot I had to mess it up and and increased to 90mg every week (actually 50mg every 4 days which equals 90mg a week)
Yesterday the doc calls me with labs.
HCT= 52.6
Hemoglobin 17.7
Ferritin 14 (still low because I donated blood 3 months ago
Total T is 800 (3 days after injection so its prob near 1000 day after injection)
I want to taper back down, with no side effects, but as fast as possible to get the HCT back to normal values.
Should I just stop all T for a week to crash the levels, then resume at a much lower dose? Stop T for a longer period, maybe until I feel so crappy I have to resume, then resume at the lower dose?
I just want to drop my HCT as fast as possible.
I know I should donate to quickly lower the HCT, but my Iron will crash to 5< and I just donated 3 months ago, so I am trying to avoid donations.
BTW I think my libido was better when my total T was in the 500 to 600 range. Its actually worse now, and I gained weight at the higher levels.

 

[gallan]

Load up on iron rich food like red meat, take an iron supplement and keep donating. I got my ferritin levels up in a couple months doing this after it being crashed and donating every 6 weeks. I'm still donating every 6 weeks and ferritin keeps rising. I do monthly labs to confirm it.

 

[jonboy]

At one point when I was donating, my Ferritin dropped to 0! I feel wiped out for a couple weeks post donation. I am trying to avoid if I can

 

[gallan]

Pretty sure some good ole fashioned bloodletting is the only thing that's going to reliably get you there.

 

[Vince Carter]

So here is my story;
I am 52
I have been on T injections for about 4 years. For the first 3 years I was on 70 Mg of Test C. The first few years I had to donate blood every 2 months to keep Hct normal, but ended up with low ferritin. The 3rd year I was fine, my Hct remained normal (around 49-50) with no blood donations. Then like an idiot I had to mess it up and and increased to 90mg every week (actually 50mg every 4 days which equals 90mg a week)
Yesterday the doc calls me with labs.
HCT= 52.6
Hemoglobin 17.7
Ferritin 14 (still low because I donated blood 3 months ago
Total T is 800 (3 days after injection so its prob near 1000 day after injection)
I want to taper back down, with no side effects, but as fast as possible to get the HCT back to normal values.
Should I just stop all T for a week to crash the levels, then resume at a much lower dose? Stop T for a longer period, maybe until I feel so crappy I have to resume, then resume at the lower dose?
I just want to drop my HCT as fast as possible.
I know I should donate to quickly lower the HCT, but my Iron will crash to 5< and I just donated 3 months ago, so I am trying to avoid donations.
BTW I think my libido was better when my total T was in the 500 to 600 range. Its actually worse now, and I gained weight at the higher levels.

Upset everything you're doing because you don't want to take some iron? It's as simple as that, as said about, red meat, other iron rich foods, there's nothing to worry about and contrary to some of the feelings, high HCT isn't some critical health emergency. It needs dealt with but you're overreacting IMHO>

 

[jonboy]

Upset everything you're doing because you don't want to take some iron? It's as simple as that, as said about, red meat, other iron rich foods, there's nothing to worry about and contrary to some of the feelings, high HCT isn't some critical health emergency. It needs dealt with but you're overreacting IMHO>

Do you think my T levels of +800 are too high for a 52 year old?

 

[jonboy]

And its not because I don't want to take iron, its the blood donations. They wipe me out big time. I get light headed and short of breath during and immediately following the donations. I wish they could take half a pint instead. I was thinking about doing the double red because I was reading thats easier to recover from since the blood volume isn't depleted, but with my low ferritin it may not be a good idea

 

[CoastWatcher]

Do you think my T levels of +800 are too high for a 52 year old?

Not in isolation. But a number is only one variable.

 

[maxadvance]

I'm going to say just chill. 52.6 Hematocrit is a little high but nothing to freak out over like you're doing now. Up to 53 is considered high normal in some circles.

 

[Vince Carter]

And its not because I don't want to take iron, its the blood donations. They wipe me out big time. I get light headed and short of breath during and immediately following the donations. I wish they could take half a pint instead. I was thinking about doing the double red because I was reading thats easier to recover from since the blood volume isn't depleted, but with my low ferritin it may not be a good idea

Sounds like a little anxiety combined with the physical effect of losing 1 pint. Just to cover it...are you eating well, hydrating, etc etc prior to your donations?

 

[Vince]

And its not because I don't want to take iron, its the blood donations. They wipe me out big time. I get light headed and short of breath during and immediately following the donations. I wish they could take half a pint instead. I was thinking about doing the double red because I was reading thats easier to recover from since the blood volume isn't depleted, but with my low ferritin it may not be a good idea

I wonder why you feel wiped out? Like Vince Carter said, are you drinking enough water. I drink a lot of coffee (black) diuretic, but I make up for that by drinking a lot of water. After I donate blood, I'm able to workout.

 

[jonboy]

Ok I did it. There was a blood drive 10 minutes from my home. This time the experience was relatively symptom free. I attribute that to my high BP going in. It was 160/98 but I was VERY anxious. Usually its 120/85. My HCT on the handheld was 57! Cant be right since last week at a real lab it was 52.6

 

[gallan]

My real labs are always lower than the finger prick at blood drive but not that much.

 

[PAUL-E]

Ok I did it. There was a blood drive 10 minutes from my home. This time the experience was relatively symptom free. I attribute that to my high BP going in. It was 160/98 but I was VERY anxious. Usually its 120/85. My HCT on the handheld was 57! Cant be right since last week at a real lab it was 52.6

I don't think the finger prick test is very accurate my hematocrit came out to be close to 60 but a week later when I had it checked CBC it was like 48. also I read grapefruit can help lower hematocrit but I don't thing it would be a significant amount.

 

[bako]

I get a phlebotomy once a month for the last 8 years....just take iron supplements u will be fine.