Low SHBG guys. Will increasing injection frequency make any difference?

Stanfoo · Dec 1, 2019

Has anyone with low SHBG increased their injection frequency (say from 2x a week to every other day or daily) and found yourself feeling better?

Vince Carter · Dec 1, 2019

Welcome to our forum...we have a very good search function here...use it. When you want to discuss YOU specifically and post lab results and more than "within normal range", we can try and help you.

Cataceous · Dec 1, 2019

Stanfoo said:
... I've recently learned that low SHBG causes testosterone to be quickly flushed from the body, so apparently more frequent injections would counteract this.
...

This is somewhat of a misconception, at least with regard to TRT. With exogenous testosterone you are directly controlling your level of free testosterone, and therefore also the excretion rate. SHBG in turn determines where total testosterone ends up. SHBG does not affect the rate of absorption of testosterone esters, and therefore has minimal effect on the apparent half-life of serum testosterone.

Nonetheless, there is pretty widespread belief that those with low SHBG are better off injecting frequently and with small doses. The most plausible current explanation is that this helps to keep free estradiol in check. As SHBG goes lower the ratio of free estradiol to free testosterone increases, potentially causing problems.

Edit: The premise of free estradiol increasing relative to free testosterone at low SHBG is based on an assumption of total estradiol being driven directly by free testosterone. But it seems more likely that free estradiol follows free testosterone, making total estradiol the dependent variable. In other words, neither free estradiol nor free testosterone changes much when SHBG is reduced in isolation. It's still plausible that lower SHBG leads to reduced androgenic activity relative to estrogenic activity—without a dependence on the free hormone levels.

Charliebizz · Dec 1, 2019

I didn’t notice much of a difference. Maybe less swings but I barely respond to trt myself. Mostly negative side effects. I can’t tolerate more then 80mg per week. And I’m currently off again. My natural levels are 210-250. I feel better off trt. And that sucks because I don’t feel great lol

trt reznor · Dec 1, 2019

When I switched my injections to every day it cut my SHBG in half from 28 to 14. Now this well could be a case of correlation =/= causation, but I hadn’t changed up anything else at the time. I’m back on 2x week now and prefer this.

Systemlord · Dec 1, 2019

Stanfoo said:
I've tried multiple doses (250mg/wk, 150mg/wk, even 500mg/wk for a few months) and can say that at all doses, it had no effect on me (mentally I felt the same, no increase in sense of well being, energy or libido as one would expect).

Injecting these doses infrequently is a ticket to failure in men with low SHBG. I'm a low SHBG guy, 7m daily works great to control my estrogen. I can inject EOD, but estrogen will be slightly higher and this will have a negative impact on how I feel.

HCG will increase estrogen, so if you're having estrogen sides, dropping HCG will help.

ERO · Dec 1, 2019

Personally I noticed no difference whatsoever. Numbers "on paper" looked great, but with any injection schedule, it feels like I am injecting water in terms of symptom relief.

Gman86 · Dec 1, 2019

Everyone’s different. There’s definitely guys with low SHBG levels that feel their best injecting daily. And then I’m sure there are some that inject twice weekly. In me experience, it does seem that guys with low SHBG levels do usually benefit from daily injections. If I were you, I would start injecting daily, and definitely drop the HCG, just to rule it out as something that could be causing you issues. Some guys do well on it, some men can’t tolerate even a little bit of it. Only way to find out where you fall is to drop it, try to feel good on testosterone alone, and then add it back in and see if you notice a difference good or bad.

I say keep it simple. Drop the HCG and start injecting daily. I see no downsides to at least trying for a month or two.

equel · Dec 2, 2019

I dont get this. Ive read so many people with shbg around 6-10 who do awesome on TRT, and then u get cases like this, where people "dont even feel the testosterone". It must be something else.

Charliebizz · Dec 2, 2019

equel said:
I dont get this. Ive read so many people with shbg around 6-10 who do awesome on TRT, and then u get cases like this, where people "dont even feel the testosterone". It must be something else.

Where do you see these people that do well with low shbg ?ive only seen a few over the years

CROM · Dec 3, 2019

Charliebizz said:
I didn’t notice much of a difference. Maybe less swings but I barely respond to trt myself. Mostly negative side effects. I can’t tolerate more then 80mg per week. And I’m currently off again. My natural levels are 210-250. I feel better off trt. And that sucks because I don’t feel great lol

With low SHBG, what is your free T at 210-250?

Charliebizz · Dec 4, 2019

CROM said:
With low SHBG, what is your free T at 210-250?

Sorry that’s my total t natural. My free t is 48 bottom of range is 46. Best natural if had since testing was like 66

CROM · Dec 4, 2019

Charliebizz said:
Sorry that’s my total t natural. My free t is 48 bottom of range is 46. Best natural if had since testing was like 66

Interesting, my natural total T was between 203 and 159. Never did check my free T. My natural SHBG was 11 but now is around 9.

Despite having low T i have a decent amount of muscle. Although I workout for like 27 years.

Charliebizz · Dec 4, 2019

CROM said:
Interesting, my natural total T was between 203 and 159. Never did check my free T. My natural SHBG was 11 but now is around 9.

Despite having low T i have a decent amount of muscle. Although I workout for like 27 years.

And I’m the opposite. Well I’m very thick in the trunk but always have skinny arms and legs. Even when I go hard in the gym and on trt I think it’s genetic. Built just like my father and cousins from his side.

Charliebizz · Dec 4, 2019

CROM said:
Interesting, my natural total T was between 203 and 159. Never did check my free T. My natural SHBG was 11 but now is around 9.

Despite having low T i have a decent amount of muscle. Although I workout for like 27 years.

Are you on trt now. If so how are you feeling on it with low shbg

leatherjacket99 · Dec 6, 2019

I’m a super low SHBG guy and I’m only 32. My SHBG has been stuck at 8-9 for some time now. I believe it’s because when I first started TRT the doctor put me on 200mg a week and suppressed it. Have not been able to get it back up since. I felt great in the beginning then the feeling started fading away no matter what frequency (weekly, twice weekly, EOD). I’m feeling the best I’ve been right now at 20mg daily and very little arimidex, but still nowhere near 100%. It’s tough having a single digit SHBG....

Also, as others mentioned, HCG is a recipe for disaster with low shbg!

Diablo666 · Dec 6, 2019

leatherjacket99 said:
I’m a super low SHBG guy and I’m only 32. My SHBG has been stuck at 8-9 for some time now. I believe it’s because when I first started TRT the doctor put me on 200mg a week and suppressed it. Have not been able to get it back up since. I felt great in the beginning then the feeling started fading away no matter what frequency (weekly, twice weekly, EOD). I’m feeling the best I’ve been right now at 20mg daily and very little arimidex, but still nowhere near 100%. It’s tough having a single digit SHBG....

Also, as others mentioned, HCG is a recipe for disaster with low shbg!

Have you tried raising SHBG by losing weight, body fat supplementing with T4/T3 etc? I think some people see at least a partial improvement by doing those things even if they are not insulin resistant, or have metabolic syndrome, etc.

leatherjacket99 · Dec 6, 2019

I have supplemented with Berberine for the metabolic syndrome my doctor claims I have, but never with T4/T3. Berberine has some interesting studies going on about it and I can say it helped me a little bit by improving insulin resistance and lowering my A1C which weren’t too bad to begin with, but still helped. No change in SHBG however. I wouldn’t mind trying another round of it because I may not have taken it long enough to see the results I was looking for.

Since being on TRT for the past few years generally I have only been putting on weight. Most I have put on in my life especially on the less frequent protocols, but I feel like on my current daily protocol I’m actually losing some weight and feel slightly leaner than I did before.

ERO · Dec 6, 2019

Its a myth that all low or at least most low SHBG guys are obese and diabetic. For a lot of us its genetic. My fasting glucose is in the high 70s to low 80s, I am not obese and supplementing with large doses of T3 and T4 (or in combination) still leaves me with a SHBG that ranges between 7 to 13.

I would try everything to see what may work best for you, but I would not hang my hat on loosing 10 pounds and taking some T3/T4 and have that get you to a normal SHBG level. I am not saying that to be a downer, either.