I’m 47 and low T, low energy and no gym gains. I’ve had issue with ED and my libido at the moment is nonexistent right now. 2 months ago my TEST was 160 and my free T was 11 pg/ml! My PA started me on 1 pump per day alternating shoulders and then bumped me to 2 pumps per day (one pump each shoulder). I have seen not one bit improvement in any areas. He tells me to be patient and it takes time. I’m frustrated and annoyed.
First off you need labs!
Blood work should have been done 2 weeks in.
We have no clue where such a dose has your TT, FT, estradiol, and DHT levels.
Even then highly unlikely that you were hitting a robust T level on one (22.25 mg T) let alone 2 pumps (40.5 mg) of the T-gel (1.62%).
You will most likely need the higher-end dose and it is not a given that you will respond well.
If anything you would be far better off using 3-4 pumps (60.75 - 81 mg T).
2-3 days to reach steady-state.
Blood work should be done 2 weeks after starting therapy or a dose adjustment.
Even when using big pharma AndroGel®, Fortesta®, Testim®, or Vogelxo® the strength is only 1-2% so a fair amount of gel needs to be applied.
Keep in mind that absorption using standard transdermal T application whether gel/cream is anywhere from 9-14%.
AndroGel® is available in 1.0% and 1.62% concentrations (packet/pump).
A common starting dose for Androgel 1% was 50mg T/day (5 g of gel/1 packet) which would be roughly 5 mg T/day and in most cases, men would only hit a mid-normal T level at best.
Most men would need the higher-end dose of 100 mg T/day (10 g of gel) which would be roughly 10 mg T/day to achieve a high-end or in some cases very high T level.
Some men are poor responders when using transdermal T as they have issues with absorption.
In some cases switching over to a higher concentration compounded T cream is all that may be needed.
Many end up using compounded transdermal T creams as the strength is much higher 5-20%.
Much less needs to be applied let alone the overall cost of the medication is much cheaper.
Most are using 20% strength (200mg/mL) and unfortunately many end up on that 200 mg T twice daily application protocol which would surely result in absurdly high TT/FT levels.
Many can easily achieve healthy let alone very high T levels on much less especially when applied strictly scrotal.
Although transdermal can be a good starting point when jumping on trt there are men who will continue to be poor responders due to absorption issues or in many cases not using a high enough dose of T seeing as most endos/uros rely on using big pharma transdermal T and the strength/potency is much less than what can be achieved using compounded transdermal T gels/creams.