TRT Dose for low SHBG?

[question]

Hey guys I have low Shbg 15-18nmol/l pre-trt
I wonder if low shbg should stick to a lower trt dose? Like 80-100mg/week, if I'm correct low SHBG Leads to easier elevated estrogen? As I feel some lump and strings under my chest mass if I grab hard and feel

I am currently on 150mg/week split on two doses. 2 days and a few hours after injection puts me at 923ng/dl.

I've felt better mood wise and energy wise signifantly but no noticrable changes in muscle. Up until 2 days ago I felt good. Last 2 days I've felt very drained with no energy and abit more depressed mind. I'm not sure if it's the many hits from sparring that day, overtraining or TRT.

Any low SHBG guys with protocols that worked for you?

I am also doing more cardio now, weightlifting 3x per week and I've been sugarfree (except for fruit for 2 weeks now to hopefully improve insulin sensitivity

 

[Helboi]

I was a low SHBG guy, at about 17 when I started. But my lest test had me at 31.3, so it's improved somehow. But I have gone from a once a week shot in the beginning, to now doing injections every other day and it seems to work really well for me with the low-ish SHBG.

 

[ERO]

Try doing everyday or every other day shots rather than lowering your overall dose. I have low SHBG (measured at 10 on my last bloodwork).

 

[CoastWatcher]

ERO pretty well captured it in the above post. I inject daily and am pleased with the results.

 

[craig weston]

I was a low SHBG guy, at about 17 when I started. But my lest test had me at 31.3, so it's improved somehow. But I have gone from a once a week shot in the beginning, to now doing injections every other day and it seems to work really well for me with the low-ish SHBG.

Helboi What dose every other day ?

 

[question]

I was a low SHBG guy, at about 17 when I started. But my lest test had me at 31.3, so it's improved somehow. But I have gone from a once a week shot in the beginning, to now doing injections every other day and it seems to work really well for me with the low-ish SHBG.

Did you change anything else? Exercise, diet, supplements? It just increased like that?

Also Ero, Coast and Helboi, did you guys successfully manage to build muscle on TRT with low SHBG?

 

[ERO]

I have not been able to build any muscle on TRT, which has been a major disappointment. I figured that with Low T it made sense that I could not build any new muscle, but I had hoped that getting my Total T up to the top of the range would help - it has not and I have been on TRT for 5 years. I eat well, get good sleep, don't smoke, rarely drink and follow a solid training plan.

 

[craig weston]

Did you change anything else? Exercise, diet, supplements? It just increased like that?

Also Ero, Coast and Helboi, did you guys successfully manage to build muscle on TRT with low SHBG?

I have low SHBG and have develop quality muscle in the 10 months ive been on TRT

 

[CoastWatcher]

Did you change anything else? Exercise, diet, supplements? It just increased like that?

Also Ero, Coast and Helboi, did you guys successfully manage to build muscle on TRT with low SHBG?

I did. I felt I had to work much harder to see results, but the results did arrive.

 

[Helboi]

Helboi What dose every other day ?

I can't say what you should be taking, but I am taking roughly 45mg every other day.

 

[Helboi]

Did you change anything else? Exercise, diet, supplements? It just increased like that?

Also Ero, Coast and Helboi, did you guys successfully manage to build muscle on TRT with low SHBG?

Yes, there were some other changes but nothing major or even that consistent. I've tried to cut down my sugar a number of times and have finally succeeded (well, the past month anyhow). I've also finally got back on a workout program, though it's just body weight stuff right now and fairly minor (I plan to hit the gym again soon). So nothing that to me would affect SHBG much, but I'm not sure the details on what would.

As for muscle, yes, I've managed to gain quite a bit of muscle just being on TRT with a VERY inconsistent and easy workout regimine over the past year. But I was seriously deficient, with a total T of 61 when I first started, so ANY increase in test was bound to increase my muscle mass, even sitting on my toosh.

 

[Vince Carter]

I use 50mg EOD with SHBG in the teens and I've put on 30lbs in the weightroom in the last 18 months. Bench way up, squat way up, all my poundages are way up. Thing with SHBG is the frequency of the dosing, second to the dose itself. For instance I've tested and seen 24hrs post injection 1475 Total T, but the very next day, 48hrs post injection but under 900. This is a typical profile for a low SHBG guy, I say like this, you tend to go through that T rather quickly. Another (great) thing with low SHBG is your Free T is always going to be off the charts high, over 3% of total. To the contray, with Free T comes Free E and this is where things get hard for us...managing E2. Thankfully the EOD injections and fast metabolization is helpful here but the E2 can be a tricky devil to work with. Most of us use no AI or very very little AI dose. I for instance use .15mg 2XW which is a tiny dose.
Low SHBG isn't anything bad.

 

[Helboi]

Just curious, but what is considered an ideal SHBG? the range goes up to 55 with labcorp, but do you want to be in the middle? Upper part of the range?

 

[CoastWatcher]

Just curious, but what is considered an ideal SHBG? the range goes up to 55 with labcorp, but do you want to be in the middle? Upper part of the range?

Given how hard it is to have any real, long-term impact on SHBG levels, I tend to not worry about what an "ideal" level ought to be. I test, note my own level, and administer accordingly. I look at the value as descriptive, and then work around it.

 

[CoastWatcher]

Another (great) thing with low SHBG is your Free T is always going to be off the charts high, over 3% of total. To the contray, with Free T comes Free E and this is where things get hard for us...managing E2. Thankfully the EOD injections and fast metabolization is helpful here but the E2 can be a tricky devil to work with. Most of us use no AI or very very little AI dose. I for instance use .15mg 2XW which is a tiny dose.
Low SHBG isn't anything bad.

But as Vince notes in his last sentence, "it isn't anything bad." It just is.

 

[Helboi]

But as Vince notes in his last sentence, "it isn't anything bad." It just is.

It's bad in the sense that it makes TRT more difficult to manage (and I hear for some men they don't feel the subjective effects, sense of well being, etc while on TRT with low SHBG).

 

[ERO]

Yeah, to me, injecting testosterone feels like I am injecting water, but I am at the bottom end of how low SHBG guys do on TRT. Almost everyone will have a better result than myself.

 

[Vince Carter]

It's bad in the sense that it makes TRT more difficult to manage (and I hear for some men they don't feel the subjective effects, sense of well being, etc while on TRT with low SHBG).

So much of individual user reports are so subjective, I know I've read one that proclaims libido and erections are fantastic on "just TRT" (my emphasis) and then pops in to a gym based thread saying he uses 50mg Viagra...it's all very....blah, you know? You can't trust what one says, you can use it a guidance with a grain of salt, and find out for yourself in trial and error. I sometimes hesitate to say that I feel fantastic...I'm no longer looking for mental health care(!) like I was pre-TRT, but as far as sex drive...improved but not great. Same with ED for me. Better, but not great.

 

[Helboi]

I sometimes hesitate to say that I feel fantastic...I'm no longer looking for mental health care(!) like I was pre-TRT, but as far as sex drive...improved but not great. Same with ED for me. Better, but not great.

That sounds like something I would say. I'm with you on all of that. But I do say I feel fantastic because my mental health was the #1 reason for going on TRT and it's improved soooo much that fantastic is just a great word to describe the difference.

 

[hardrlz]

For me its also like injecting water ... I will soon try with gels, because I saw on one forum a low SHBG guy stating that only gel worked somehow for him.