New to forum. New to testosterone 10 weeks in . Have a ton of questions. Currently on 210mg a week. Just wanted to introduce my self. Ooen to any feed back. Looking for options and opions. Had blood work 8 weeks in test 1500 free 331 esg 103. Shbg 42.4. Ferrtin dropped to 20. Not sure if i should lower dose. Not feeling bad. But not feeling great either. Sub q daily.. wondering if im spit 3×weekly would be beneficial
The weekly starting dose is absurd.
Common starting dose is 100 mg T/week or 50 mg split twice-weekly.
Most men are injecting 100-200 mg T/week whether once weekly or split into more frequent in injections.
The majority of men can easily hit a healthy/high FT injecting 100-150 mg T especially when split into more frequent injections.
Far from common anyone would even need 200 mg T/week
Yes you could be one of those outliers that may have needed the higher-end dose but even then there was no need to jump in head first here.
Never even gave your body a chance to see if you would have faired well on a lower weekly dose.
Although TT is important to know FT is what truly matters as it is the active unbound fraction of T responsible for the positive effects.
What testing method was used for free testosterone (ED, UF, direct IA, calculated)?
Post the testing method/refernce range.
Keep in mind the only way to know where your FT truly sits would be testing it using the most accurate assay the gold standard Equilibrium Dialysis especially in cases of altered SHBG.
If you do not have access to. the gold standard ED assay which is not commonly available outside of the US you will need to use/rely on the go to calculated linear law-of-mass-action Vermeulen (cFTV) which will give a good approximation although it tends to slightly overestimate FT.
As you can see you have highish SHBG 42.4 nmol/L and are hitting a very high TT 1500 mg/dL and more importantly FT very high FT 33.1 ng/dL.
IIf we calculate your FT using the go to. cFTV with a very high TT 1500 ng/dL, highish SHBG 42.4 nmol/L and Albumin (default) 4.3 g/dL then your cFTV 35.5 ng/dL is very high as the refernce range for cFTV is 6.5-25 ng/dL.
Seeing as you are injecting daily and strictly sub-q to boot your peak--->trough would be minimal and your blood levels will be very stable throughout the week.
Although your FT 33.1 ng/dL is very high this is on a daily protocol which is a big difference from on hitting a FT 33.1 ng/dL injecting twice-weekly or once weekly.
If you felt well overall and were not experiencing any sides and overall blood markers were healthy I would see no issue here running a very high FT on dailies.
Unfortunately this is not the case and your ferritin is too low which can easily have a negative impact on the effectiveness of a T protocol especially when it comes to thyroid.
Even then you left out critical blood markers RBCs, hemoglobin and hematocrit which will easily be driven up when using exogenous T especially when running a protocol (dose T/injection frequency) that has your trough/steady-state FT too high.
This can still happen even when on is injecting daily clipping the peak---->trough resulting in more stable blood levels throughout the week as it is not just the supra-physiologic peaks that play a role here when it comes to driving up the hematocrit.
What was your baseline RBcs, hemoglobin and hematocrit and where do they sit as of noe?
Keep in mind hematocrit will start increasing within the first month of starting therapy and the biggest increase will be seen at the 3-6 month marks where levels will tend to stabilize for many whereas others may still see an increase 9-12 months in before levels. settle.
Where your hematocrit sits 10 weeks in is not where it will end up 3-6 months in especially if you maintain your high FT level.
Although TT is important to know FT is what truly matters as it is the active unbound fraction of T responsible for the positive effects.
