FIRST MONTH on ENCLOMIPHENE – NO CHANGE

[mcs]

UPDATE:

As I previously posted, the first 27 days @ 12.5mg were a dud.
I take my dose first thing in a.m. on empty stomach, water only.
I stayed @ 12.5mg for another 12 days then increased to 25mg for 39 days at which time I did a blood draw.
Finally, some movement (see below).
74% increase in TT, 91% increase in FT, 83% increase in BT.
Expected moderate rise in FSH/LH and E2.
Getting there.
Not bad for almost 64.
This restores me to my levels @ age 40.
Libido (desire) still good, daily morning wood as if I was taking a PDE5 inhibitor, moderate strength and lean mass gains.
Would like to be around 900-1000 TT and upper limit of FT.
Gotta watch the E2 though.

Also - my previously spiked levels of IGF-1 (due to GHRP/GHRH peptides that I started earlier this year) have been nearly cut in half (505ng/mL to 264ng/mL) - likely due to the increase in Enclomiphene:

The goal was to try and get E to work to stimulate natural T production so I wouldn't have to resort to exogenous T.

Still too early to make it a slam dunk.

But this is my very first foray into T optimization (never tried TRT) as nothing else worked before (OTC T boosters).

 

[PhilM7]

I stopped TRT for about 2 years, and decided to restart it this summer. I have been on Clomid before, and also the cream and the injections. With each one of those protocols, I could tell when it was working because I felt better and had more energy, and I couldn't see my ankle bones anymore due to water retention. My T levels were around 1,000 on all three previous treatments, even when I was taking 25 MG of Clomid.

I started taking 25 MG of Enclomiphene on my recent restart on July 19 from Empower Pharmacy. It has been about 6 weeks and I can't say yet that I feel any different and there are no puffy ankles. I will have a blood test coming up in the next few weeks through Defy, and I will report what the levels are, but I doubt they have risen. My levels were around 600 when I restarted in July. I even opened one of the enclomiphene capsules from Empower to be sure there was something inside, because I thought maybe they were empty. LOL This is the first TRT treatment when I didn't feel any different, nor notice any physical changes. This is my first time trying Enclomiphene, so maybe it is not as potent as Clomid. I'll see what happens but it is interesting to see that someone else noticed the same as what I had noticed.

I was able to get my testosterone to 877 by taking DIM and Fenugreek supplements earlier this year, and even at 877 I still didn't feel great. When I got off those two supplements, my T dropped back to the 600 range, and that's when I decided I would start TRT again.

I have posted my blood test before starting Enclomiphene and then my blood test after being on Enclomiphene and DHEA for about 3 months. You will see that my total testosterone increased from the 600's to the low 1,000's. Unfortunately my Free Testosterone actually dropped a little. I will have a follow up appointment in the coming days/weeks with Defy to discuss. My SHBG went really high. I also had some odd things appear, like high Sodium, Chloride and AST, which are things that I have never had elevated before. I can't say that I feel like Enclomiphene is working since I usually need my Free Testosterone in the upper portion of midrange to get the energy boost I was seeking. I will post later on what the follow up will be. I also started taking 3 fish oil supplements per day to improve my cholesterol, but that didn't seem to work as well as I had hoped. I am going to try Flax Seed oil this time around for cholesterol management.

I also attached my bloodwork from March when I had tried taking DIM at 200 MG per day, along with 3 Fenugreek supplements at 1,200 mg per tablet. That raised my Testosterone levels, but this is Quest lab as opposed to Labcorp on the other tests, so I am not sure the numbers compare correctly due to how labs do testing and the measurement scales they use.

This is an update a few weeks after the post above. I started taking .5mg of Anastrozole twice a week and I feel amazing. My energy is back and I am motivated to workout again. Mainly the depression has lifted, which was my main goal, as the depression was overwhelming at times. I am sleeping well too, which is fantastic. Libido is not there, but I have never had libido while on TRT so I don't expect it to ever come back.
I am hopeful that this protocol keeps working, because I had a similar experience on Clomid before, where I felt great and then after about 6 months I was feeling blah again. Hopefully Enclomiphene won't do the same. I won't have blood tests for another 5 months, so I don't know how the low dose Anastrozole has impacted my high estrogen yet. I was not taking Anastrozole before any of the blood tests I have posted in this forum.

 

[mcs]

Update:

I have kept on with the dose of 25mg/day for another 47 days and now my levels have actually dropped when I expected them to be higher:

TT: 647
FT: 69.5
FSH: 6.1
LH: 4.5

As well, E2 decreased to 20 and IGF-1 increased to 323.

Could it be that SERMS like enclomiphene spike initially then lose their effectiveness or have less affinity to bind to receptors over time of continuous use?

 

[Systemlord]

Could it be that SERMS like enclomiphene spike initially then lose their effectiveness or have less affinity to bind to receptors over time of continuous use?

At the end of the day it doesn't matter, if you're not getting any benefit, there's little reason to continue with SERM's. Lot's of men are non-responders to SERM's, even with high hormone values, you're one of them.

 

[mcs]

At the end of the day it doesn't matter, if you're not getting any benefit, there's little reason to continue with SERM's. Lot's of men are non-responders to SERM's, even with high hormone values, you're one of them.

Let me rephrase this so it's in better context. I got excellent response to enclomiphene after raising the dose to 25mg per day. I had a bout of Covid at the beginning of November. I did my labs at the end of November at which point my FSH, LH and T levels had dropped instead on increased further which is what I had hoped. I surmise that the drop may have been due to the recent Covid infection.

We shall see in the next few eeks when I repeat my blood work.