How Frequently to Perform Labs in Order to Raise TRT Level (on day ~30 now)

[Pipster]

Hi all,

I started back on TRT (self administered this time) after having gone 6 months before with great results and then being hospitalized several times over 3 months (unrelated) and having to stop. I started again about 28 days ago with 100mg weekly taken SUBQ. My initial test results (before starting) showed my E2 in the mid 20s and but my free T was 4.1 on a scale of 8.1-25 (yikes!). Everything was tested LCMS thru labcorp. The first 2 weeks I had some serious mood swings but by day 21 I had hit my stride and feel pretty darn good! Last time I had worked by way up from 50mg a week to 125 when I had stop. I had only been on 125 for 2 weeks at the time. I worked up over about 6 months. Neither then nor NOW am I taking anything to address E2 levels.

My understanding is (and pardon me if I get the science wrong) that it takes about 50 days for your body to be able to deal with exogenous testosterone levels (within reason, like 100-200mg a week) and no longer convert it (or nearly as much) to E2. Is that correct?

My question is: how often should I do blood work to see if I can/should increase my dose? My goal is to work up to 150mg/week if it feels good and the labs show everything is cool. So should I do next lab at day 50-60 and if my e2 is in check and my FT could still use a boost increase my dose? My tentative plan is to go to 125mg/week for another 50-60 days (if labs look good and I have my understanding right) before increasing my dose to 150mg/week (again if labs look good and the ~60 day understanding is correct)

P.S If I could do it sooner I would, but I want to make sure my body has time to adjust properly.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[fifty]

5 half lives. So if Cypionate is 8 days then 40 days or 6 weeks.

 

[Pipster]

P

5 half lives. So if Cypionate is 8 days then 40 days or 6 weeks.

PERFECT. Thank YOU

 

[madman]

Hi all,

I started back on TRT (self administered this time) after having gone 6 months before with great results and then being hospitalized several times over 3 months (unrelated) and having to stop. I started again about 28 days ago with 100mg weekly taken SUBQ. My initial test results (before starting) showed my E2 in the mid 20s and but my free T was 4.1 on a scale of 8.1-25 (yikes!). Everything was tested LCMS thru labcorp. The first 2 weeks I had some serious mood swings but by day 21 I had hit my stride and feel pretty darn good! Last time I had worked by way up from 50mg a week to 125 when I had stop. I had only been on 125 for 2 weeks at the time. I worked up over about 6 months. Neither then nor NOW am I taking anything to address E2 levels.

My understanding is (and pardon me if I get the science wrong) that it takes about 50 days for your body to be able to deal with exogenous testosterone levels (within reason, like 100-200mg a week) and no longer convert it (or nearly as much) to E2. Is that correct?

My question is: how often should I do blood work to see if I can/should increase my dose? My goal is to work up to 150mg/week if it feels good and the labs show everything is cool. So should I do next lab at day 50-60 and if my e2 is in check and my FT could still use a boost increase my dose? My tentative plan is to go to 125mg/week for another 50-60 days (if labs look good and I have my understanding right) before increasing my dose to 150mg/week (again if labs look good and the ~60 day understanding is correct)

P.S If I could do it sooner I would, but I want to make sure my body has time to adjust properly.

Thanks for the help guys.

and no longer convert it (or nearly as much) to E2.

Anytime one injects exogenous testosterone there will be an increase in its metabolites
e2/DHT.


My question is: how often should I do blood work to see if I can/should increase my dose?

6 weeks minimum.


My goal is to work up to 150mg/week if it feels good and the labs show everything is cool.

Why?

Forget about trying to work up to 150 mg/week as you may not even need to use such dose and do understand that when injecting once weekly whether using 100 mg/week or up to 150 mg/week that is a rather large does of T to inject and can easily result in high TT/FT/e2 levels.....let alone there will be a big difference between your peak/trough levels.

Splitting up T dose and injecting every 3.5 days as oppose to once weekly will result in more stable blood levels throughout the week and if it turns out that you are one with low SHBG than you may very well end up doing better injecting smaller doses of T more frequently as in EOD or even daily.

If anything it will come down to what TT does one need in order to achieve a healthy FT which would result in relief/improvement of low-T symptoms.

Ones SHBG levels will have a big impact on what dose of T/injection frequency is needed to achieve a healthy FT.


P.S If I could do it sooner I would, but I want to make sure my body has time to adjust properly.

What is the rush trt is not a race and anytime a protocol is tweaked whether increasing/decreasing T dose not only will levels be in FLUX during the weeks leading up to when blood levels have stabilized (6 weeks)..... but once levels have stabilized it will still take time for the body to adapt to the new T levels and I would give it a good 2-3 months before adjusting dose (unless you did not feel well overall due to T levels still being too low) so you can truly gauge how said dose of T truly effects your mood/energy/libido/erectile function

Too many men get caught up in how they feel during the first 6 weeks of a protocol change
when levels are in FLUX and end tweaking their protocol to often never truly knowing how said dose of T effects them overall.

 

[Pipster]

and no longer convert it (or nearly as much) to E2.

Anytime one injects exogenous testosterone there will be an increase in its metabolites
e2/DHT.


My question is: how often should I do blood work to see if I can/should increase my dose?

6 weeks minimum.


My goal is to work up to 150mg/week if it feels good and the labs show everything is cool.

Why?

Forget about trying to work up to 150 mg/week as you may not even need to use such dose and do understand that when injecting once weekly whether using 100 mg/week or up to 150 mg/week that is a rather large does of T to inject and can easily result in high TT/FT/e2 levels.....let alone there will be a big difference between your peak/trough levels.

Splitting up T dose and injecting every 3.5 days as oppose to once weekly will result in more stable blood levels throughout the week and if it turns out that you are one with low SHBG than you may very well end up doing better injecting smaller doses of T more frequently as in EOD or even daily.

If anything it will come down to what TT does one need in order to achieve a healthy FT which would result in relief/improvement of low-T symptoms.

Ones SHBG levels will have a big impact on what dose of T/injection frequency is needed to achieve a healthy FT.


P.S If I could do it sooner I would, but I want to make sure my body has time to adjust properly.

What is the rush trt is not a race and anytime a protocol is tweaked whether increasing/decreasing T dose not only will levels be in FLUX during the weeks leading up to when blood levels have stabilized (6 weeks)..... but once levels have stabilized it will still take time for the body to adapt to the new T levels and I would give it a good 2-3 months before adjusting dose (unless you did not feel well overall due to T levels still being too low) so you can truly gauge how said dose of T truly effects your mood/energy/libido/erectile function

Too many men get caught up in how they feel during the first 6 weeks of a protocol change
when levels are in FLUX and end tweaking their protocol to often never truly knowing how said dose of T effects them overall.

Thank you very much, I appreciate the info. My SBGH was actually high (slightly out of range). The reference range is 16-55.9 and mine was 58.3.

When I started 30 days ago I injected 3x times a week. Then I moved to 2x a week for 2 weeks and then just this last week I moved to once a week. I admit I am a novice when it comes to the hormone game but a friend who is a PhD in Biomedical Engineering and ex world class athlete and big TRT proponent mentioned that "injecting multiple times a week can be good but can also result in more surface area and it absorbs a lot quicker and breaks down a lot quicker the idea of long esters is to give a smooth even ride". This was not an indepth discussion but an off the hand remark made when I emailed about how frequently I should inject given that I wanted to avoid the roller-coaster that often comes (I've read) with restarting TRT.

My primary reason for wanting to keep moving my TRT forward is that I seemed to feel optimal last time once I got to 125. Admittedly I was only there for a few weeks (perhaps placebo) but when not on TRT I had quite bad anxiety and depression which the TRT seems to put a HUGE dent in. I am 39 now but in my younger years I was a high level competitive athlete with (not lab tested) loads of T. I would work out 5 days a week 2x a day for my sport and recovered quite easily with a less than perfect diet. I then went thru some pretty major emotional and physical traumas and my health plummeted. I get it's entirely my subjective opinion but I feel like the kind of person who had genetically hire T levels and I believe I will feel better towards the upper range of normal. Of course I need to test and try to make impartial observations but that is my gut feeling/experience. I think your advice about waiting longer for physiologic adjustments to take place is smart.

 

[fifty]

Result in more surface area? Breaks down quicker absorbs quicker?

 

[Systemlord]

When I started 30 days ago I injected 3x times a week. Then I moved to 2x a week for 2 weeks and then just this last week I moved to once a week.

This is a lot of changes in a short amount of time and considering it takes 6 weeks for everything to balance out when injecting the same dosage consistently, changing things too often and you'll never reach a balance.

You change your dosage or dosing schedule and it takes 6 weeks for your body to adapt, so if you keep changing things up every 2-3 weeks, you'll never reach any sort of balance.

During these first 6 weeks, all levels will be fluctuating and you may feel unwell, you may even have transient burning nipple pain, but when levels become stable at 6 weeks, you should be feeling better by this time.

Choose a protocol and stick with it for 6 weeks and then draw labs, it can take longer than 6 weeks to judge a protocols success.

 

[CoastWatcher]

This is a lot of changes in a short amount of time and considering it takes 6 weeks for everything to balance out when injecting the same dosage consistently, changing things too often and you'll never reach a balance.

You change your dosage or dosing schedule and it takes 6 weeks for your body to adapt, so if you keep changing things up every 2-3 weeks, you'll never reach any sort of balance.

During these first 6 weeks, all levels will be fluctuating and you may feel unwell, you may even have transient burning nipple pain, but when levels become stable at 6 weeks, you should be feeling better by this time.

Choose a protocol and stick with it for 6 weeks and then draw labs, it can take longer than 6 weeks to judge a protocols success.

Well said.

Six weeks means six weeks.