madman
Super Moderator
This is wild!
Never heard of such.
Hard to believe any doctor would be that brain dead.
Injecting 50 mg T every 2 weeks is going to do jack shit raising your testosterone levels enough let alone maintaining them due to the dose/injection frequency/half-life of the cypionate ester and as you can clearly see you will still be in a hypogonadal state.
Impressive that you even lasted 90 days on this.
What a shitty experience that must be.
Time to kick this clown to the curb.
Unfortunately, you missed out on many of the beneficial effects of having healthy testosterone levels due to the piss poor protocol (dose T/injection frequency) you were started on.
Most men on trt are injecting 100-200 mg T/week whether once weekly or split into twice weekly (every 3.5 days), M/W/F, EOD, or daily.
Even then most men would never need the higher-end trt dose of 200 mg/week to achieve a healthy let alone high trough FT.
Most men can easily achieve a high end let alone very high and in some cases absurdly high FT level by injecting 100-150 mg T/week split into twice weekly (every 3.5 days), M/W/F, EOD let alone daily.
FT 5-10 ng/dl would be considered low.
FT 16-31 ng/dL (high-end) is healthy.
Most men will do well with FT 20-30 ng/dL.
Some may CHOOSE to run higher levels.
Comes down to the individual.
Notice I stated choose as it is highly unlikely most would NEED to be running very high/absurdly high trough FT levels to experience the beneficial effects of testosterone therapy.
Critical to have healthy thyroid/adrenals as any dysfunction will have a negative impact on the outcome of trt.
If anything you need to be injecting once weekly and to be honest most would fair better injecting twice-weekly (every 3.5 days).
The downfall of injecting higher doses of T once weekly is there will be a significant difference in the peak--->trough and blood levels will not be as stable throughout the week as T levels will be very high post-injection (8-12 hrs)/during the first few days only to be followed by lower levels come weeks end which can have a negative effect on mood, energy, libido, erectile function, recovery.
Top it off that many are still hitting high-end trough (7 days post-injection) FT levels which means that their peak TT/FT levels will be absurdly high.
The main advantage of injecting more frequently using lower doses of T is you will be clipping the peak--->trough and blood levels will be more stable throughout the week which will have a beneficial effect on symptom relief/overall well-being.
Keep in mind that although TT is important to know FT is what truly matters as it is the active unbound fraction of testosterone responsible for the positive effects.
Critical to know where your SHBG level sits as it will have a significant impact on TT/FT level achieved and can also dictate what injection frequency may suit you best.
Most men with lowish/low SHBG tend to do better injecting more frequently EOD/daily.
Comes down to the individual and what injection frequency suits you best.
The best piece of advice is to start low and go slow on a T-only protocol (100mg T/week) whether once weekly or split into twice-weekly injections (50 mg every 3.5 days) as we want to see how your body reacts to testosterone and where said protocol (dose of T/injection frequency) will have you trough TT, FT, estradiol let alone other important blood markers such as RBCs/hemoglobin/hematocrit 6 weeks in.
I would strongly consider changing your protocol to 100 mg T once weekly and even then splitting your dose into twice-weekly injections (50 mg T every 3.5 days) would most likely have you better off.
Definitely would not jump on 150-200 mg T/week when first starting.
Keep in mind that due to the half-life of the ester used (TC/TE) it will take 4-6 weeks for your blood levels to stabilize then blood work will be done as we want to see where your trough TT, FT, estradiol, and RBCs/hemoglobin/hematocrit sit.
The first 6 weeks can be very misleading and it is common for many to experience ups/downs during the transition as hormones are in FLUX and the body is trying to adjust.
Even then once blood levels have stabilized it will take time for the body to fully adapt to the new set-point and this is the critical time period when one should gauge how they truly feel overall regarding relief/improvement of low-t symptoms/overall well-being.
Every protocol should be given a fair chance (12 weeks) to claim whether it was truly a success or failure.
Do not expect everything to be fine and dandy 6 weeks in and your dose of T should not be increased 6 weeks in unless your trough FT level is too low (highly doubtful).
Patience is key!
Keep in mind that the metabolites estradiol and DHT are needed in healthy amounts to experience the full spectrum of testosterones beneficial effects on (cardiovascular health, brain health, libido, erectile function, bone health, tendon health, immune system, lipids, and body composition).
*Natural testosterone is viewed as the best androgen for substitution in hypogonadal men. The reason behind the selection is that testosterone can be converted to DHT and E2, thus developing the full spectrum of testosterone activities in long-term substitution
