Several things...Have you tried a low dose of clomid (e..g 12mg every other day or 25mg twice per week)? That should not be suppressive at all and should boost your T, however it sounds like it is some metabolite of T that persists for several weeks or possibly some sort of receptor up-regulation that is giving you benefit rather than just the T itself. Another option is to use the Gel and Clomid together which may not be suppressive at all. Bloodwork will give you a good indication but in general suppression is a due to a combination of the compound, dose, duration, and frequency of use. For example, some compounds (e.g. oxandrolone and (i think) turinabol) are not not particularly suppressive. Some of the very short-acting forms of T may be less suppressive and you can search here for
@Cataceous 's posts which describe those. Lastly, I would use the term suppression rather than shutdown since what you are doing will almost certainly not come anywhere close to shutting you down. All that said, a lot of people never get the progress you have already so once a month or every three weeks seems very low risk for the foreseeable future.
