SHBG

[galaxy]

I'm a little confused as to what low SHBG means in terms of dosage. I've seen multiple posts say one of two things

1) Low SHBG means that a lower dosage (<125mg/week) is most likely necessary due to high Free T/ Free E
2) Low SHBG means that a higher dosage (>150mg/week) is necessary because then you'll be a hyper excreter and will require more.

Given that SHBG is also commonly discussed when it comes to frequency of injecting I'm more inclined to see point number 2 as valid. Are there any other mechanisms I'm missing in which SHBG would affect dosage?

 

[MarkM]

I preface this saying there are exceptions to everything, especially dealing with hormones, but most people with low SHBG do much better with low doses and frequent injections. They seem to do best when Total T is 600 to 700 and Free T is at the top of the range, but not well over the range. Because SHBG is not binding to as much testosterone you end up with more Free T but that also means you have high Free E.

We have people on the forum with low SHBG dosing anywhere from 10 to 16 mg per day to get their Free T to healthy levels. We also have some low SHBG individuals dosing between 18 and 30 EOD.

Most with high SHBG need larger less frequent injections, like once weekly. This allows them enough testosterone to compensate for the high SHBG and still have enough Free T left over. Sometimes this means that their Total T is at a supra-physiological level but that is just a number and really means noting. It is the Free T that does all the work and the measurement we are interested in.

 

[Systemlord]

I see on 20mg EOD do to low SHBG and see a Total T of 496, Free T 20.8 (6.8-21.5) which is at the top of the range, any more than that and problems mount. A high SHBG guy would need a higher Total T to achieve the same Free T.

You're injecting testosterone more frequently so you need less testosterone since you don't allow levels to drop at all.

 

[galaxy]

Ok thanks Mark and System that makes sense. Perhaps I misunderstood other posts where people were saying they had low SHBG and were hyper excreters and therefore needed more.

 

[Systemlord]

Ok thanks Mark and System that makes sense. Perhaps I misunderstood other posts where people were saying they had low SHBG and were hyper excreters and therefore needed more.

Hyper excreters can exist in all SHBG ranges, I know a guy who has SHBG midrange and needs 50mg EOD in order to keep his levels up. It just means their SHBG isn't very efficient and doesn't grab ahold as well as it should.