New to Excel Male

[Mountbaldy]

Hi,

I have been on TRT now for about 3 years. I have a lengthy health history. I had Hodgkin's Lymphoma in my teens and have been in remission for over 20 years. As part of my treatment I had Bleomycin. I was also born with undecended testes (both). I did not have corrective surgery for this until I was 12. Up until I my early 30's, things seemed just fine. I had an active sex life and didn't have any issues in the bedroom at all. When I turned 35, my wife and I tried to have kids. After many months of trying, I decided to have a semen analysis done. This came back with zero sperm found. At that time, I had chalked things up to the results of chemotherapy. Also, at that time, I had really noticed a downturn in sex drive. Finally, at one of my annual doctors visits, I asked my doctor to check my hormone levels. What she found was very low T. She instantly put me on oral trouches... My numbers increased slightly, my energy levels improved, but my numbers didn't really come up much. After many months of increasing my dosage, she finally sent me to an endocrinologist. At that same time, a good friend sent me to Excel Male after his own personal experience with TRT.

Fast forward to today... I have been on injectibles now since this past August. My doctor put me on 1ML every 2 weeks of Testosterone cypionate. My good friend from here said to cut that in half and pin once a week (but that twice a week is better). I have been on this schedule since about the first week of September.

Here is a summary of my bloodwork that I recently got back from DiscountedLabs... I am 39 y/o.

Hemocrit - 45.2
Testoterone Free+Total LC/MS -- 375.0
Free Testosterone -- 7.7
TSH -- 1.580 (I'm on Synthroid for this)
Estradiol Sensitive -- 19.5
Sex Horm Binding Glob, Serum -- 23.4

What role does the Sex Horm. Binding Glob play and how does that impact treatment? Should I inject more or less based on these numbers?

Thanks!

Joe

 

[Sean Mosher]

You are on the lower end so injecting every 3.5 days would probably be a good place to start and go from there.

And 200mg once every 2 weeks is pretty ridiculous.
Of course talk with your doc, but pinning 50-60mg twice per week would be a lot better for you and would get your numbers up (free T and total T).

Those numbers could easily pass for pre-TRT labs to be honest.

 

[Mountbaldy]

Thanks for the input! My buddy had said he thought twice a week 50mg was more like where I needed to be also.

 

[Systemlord]

We see a lot of men coming in here who were put on these ancient every 2 week protocols doctors were using way back during the clinical trials, your body never fully achieve balance on this every 2 week protocol and I wouldn't even call what you've been doing TRT.

SHBG dictates the type of TRT protocol that will work for you, it tells us how well you hold onto testosterone. You are on the lower end so injecting more frequently than once weekly is needed.

You may even need injections EOD if twice weekly doesn't provide good results. There is a 12 year old study that shows an every 2 week protocol doesn't keep levels in the therapeutic ranges. Adding HCG and FSH to a TRT protocol can increase fertility.

More often than not if you doctor takes insurance he/she will be TRT ignorant, all my endocrinologist were useless and didn't know anything about TRT, if you want to be working with a competent doctor you will need to go private.

You'll be amazed at the level of care you can receive going private, it's not even in the same league.

 

[Mountbaldy]

Systemlord,

Thanks for the input! I heard similar things from my buddy. He isn't using insurance for his care. He said it's night and day difference. To be honest with you, I have high deductible insurance anyhow, so it doesn't do me much good to stick with my current endo if, as it sounds, he isn't up to speed with current protocols.

Thanks for your advice!

Cheers!