Looking for Advice..

[Clint 76]

I've been on TRT for about 2 1/2 years though my doctor. They initially prescribed 1 ml of 200mg/ml every two weeks Test E. Eventually the pharmacy ran out of Test E and I had to switch to Test Cyp. I was most recently taking .7 ml of Test C every week, with my injections being .35 on Monday evening and Friday morning. I noticed that I was having problems being able to finish with my wife and sometimes I was having a hard time getting an erection with my wife on the days where I needed to inject.

I went to a TRT clinic last month (DEC) since I wanted to go to someone who specializes in hormone therapy and they changed my dosage to .9 ml a week with me injecting .3ml M/W/F. They did blood work on me on the 27th and it showed my test levels were 368, so they increased my dosage.

When I first upped my dosage my libido was like it was when I was a teenager but in the last week I had trouble being able to finish again and then yesterday I was unable to get a proper erection at all, which really had not happened before with my wife. Sometimes it takes me a while to my erection to 100%, it seems like it wants to stop at 70%.

Relevant info:
-I'm 41
-I did 5 full on steroid cycles in my 20's and one in my 30's. Never had issues with ED
- Nurse Practicioner said all of my hormone levels seemed to be in normal ranges. I can post my bloodwork if needed.
- I'm nervous about becoming reliant on Cialis or Viagra so I don't want to use those unless completely necessary
- I don't know if my libido is affected because I'm still thinking about sex a lot and I still have the desire to do things to my wife even when my body isn't working properly.
- Typically my wife and I have sex of some type 4-5 days a a week although it was less frequent than that when I started TRT 2 1/2 yeas ago.
-I know that my sperm count has been effected by my TRT use as we quit using any kind of birth control about 6 months ago and she has not gotten pregnant again yet. I am open to using HCG.
I'll add more info any has any other questions.
-I've definitely got anxiety about my body not working like it's supposed to so I'm open to this being psychological.

Thanks,

 

[Systemlord]

I've been on TRT for about 2 1/2 years though my doctor. They initially prescribed 1 ml of 200mg/ml every two weeks Test E.

I was most recently taking .7 ml of Test C every week, with my injections being .35 on Monday evening and Friday morning. I noticed that I was having problems being able to finish with my wife and sometimes I was having a hard time getting an erection with my wife on the days where I needed to inject.

It's clear what needs to be done, switch back to what worked. It seems when you went from the once every two week protocol to the twice weekly, you started having problems.

 

[Phil Goodman]

For clarification, when you say “had problems on days when you needed to inject” do you mean you had issues before your injection, or after you had already injected? I’m on a Mon., Wed., Fri. protocol and notice that sometimes on Friday nights I need cialis even though I have no issues with erections and wake up with a raging boner every morning. In my case I just chalk it up to the ratio being off as my t levels would be close to peaking at that time before estrogen and any other cascading hormones can catch up. I think it’s more about ratios than specific levels, or at least that’s a bigger piece of the puzzle than many people realize. And if your t levels are too high it can cause issues as well, which might explain why you initially felt good the first week of the increase…but then as it continued to climb while you reached steady state your erections started to suffer.

Just my initial thoughts, but perhaps you can provide more insight into your circumstances. For me I’m on HCG as well so that may be something that helps me. I think it helps people maintain a more natural T/E2 ratio by keeping all the leydig cells stimulated, which are responsible for a large chunk of aromatization in males. That could be a possible option, but again you may be able to resolve it by lowering the dose and/or injecting at a lower frequency to see if it helps you have a larger window where your ratio is in the sweet spot as opposed to constantly chasing their tales round and round from frequent injections. Lots of variables at play and different people do better on different protocols for lots of various reasons.

Lastly I would add that while I understand not wanting to be dependent on medication for erections, there are lots of benefits to drugs like cialis beyond just erection strength. If everything else is going fine then adding that in on an as needed basis wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world imho. But again, if the issue is arising due to excessive levels or something else that could be managed by a change in dosage and/or frequency then I’d start there.

 

[Seagal]

Is the T cyp also 200mg/ml?
Why did you change injection frequency?
Your low T level on that dosage (assuming 200mg/ml) is very strange. Is it pharmacy grade T cyp?
Are you injecting IM or SC?
Do post lab report.

 

[Clint 76]

For clarification, when you say “had problems on days when you needed to inject” do you mean you had issues before your injection, or after you had already injected? I’m on a Mon., Wed., Fri. protocol and notice that sometimes on Friday nights I need cialis even though I have no issues with erections and wake up with a raging boner every morning. In my case I just chalk it up to the ratio being off as my t levels would be close to peaking at that time before estrogen and any other cascading hormones can catch up. I think it’s more about ratios than specific levels, or at least that’s a bigger piece of the puzzle than many people realize. And if your t levels are too high it can cause issues as well, which might explain why you initially felt good the first week of the increase…but then as it continued to climb while you reached steady state your erections started to suffer.

Just my initial thoughts, but perhaps you can provide more insight into your circumstances. For me I’m on HCG as well so that may be something that helps me. I think it helps people maintain a more natural T/E2 ratio by keeping all the leydig cells stimulated, which are responsible for a large chunk of aromatization in males. That could be a possible option, but again you may be able to resolve it by lowering the dose and/or injecting at a lower frequency to see if it helps you have a larger window where your ratio is in the sweet spot as opposed to constantly chasing their tales round and round from frequent injections. Lots of variables at play and different people do better on different protocols for lots of various reasons.

Lastly I would add that while I understand not wanting to be dependent on medication for erections, there are lots of benefits to drugs like cialis beyond just erection strength. If everything else is going fine then adding that in on an as needed basis wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world imho. But again, if the issue is arising due to excessive levels or something else that could be managed by a change in dosage and/or frequency then I’d start there.

Thanks for the thorough response.
To answer your first question, I was having issues before I would inject on my injection days. I felt like my levels were dropping, I could also kind of notice I was more irritable on those days too.
To your second point about HCG, I'm looking at adding HCG to my protocol since my wife and I are not 100% sure that we don't want any more kids. So I think that's a good idea.
I think I've got a mental hang up about using Cialis or anything else. I think it's something I just have to get over. I'm middle aged and I'm using testosterone, this is a normal thing to happen.
Once again, I really appreciate the thorough response.

 

[Clint 76]

Is the T cyp also 200mg/ml?
Why did you change injection frequency?
Your low T level on that dosage (assuming 200mg/ml) is very strange. Is it pharmacy grade T cyp?
Are you injecting IM or SC?
Do post lab report.

1.yes
2. This is what they recommended when I moved from using my regular doctor to going to a trt clinic.
3. If it matters, my blood work was done when I had not injected for over 3 1/2 days so I figured that was a factor to the levels being as low as they were. I've been on trt for about 2 1/2 yeas and I only had bloodwork done twice in that time. I was 750 the first time and 525 when I had it checked last summer.
4. I am injecting IM
5. I can't figure out how to post my labs but I can give you my numbers from last summer: Free Test : 131 Normal test: 525 Sex hormone binding globulin: 236

I've got better info from the TRT clinic but it will take me a while to get access to it.

 

[Seagal]

1.yes
2. This is what they recommended when I moved from using my regular doctor to going to a trt clinic.
3. If it matters, my blood work was done when I had not injected for over 3 1/2 days so I figured that was a factor to the levels being as low as they were. I've been on trt for about 2 1/2 yeas and I only had bloodwork done twice in that time. I was 750 the first time and 525 when I had it checked last summer.
4. I am injecting IM
5. I can't figure out how to post my labs but I can give you my numbers from last summer: Free Test : 131 Normal test: 525 Sex hormone binding globulin: 236

I've got better info from the TRT clinic but it will take me a while to get access to it.

You could simply try once per week 100mg T, since every two weeks 200mg worked well for you.

 

[Clint 76]

It's clear what needs to be done, switch back to what worked. It seems when you went from the once every two week protocol to the twice weekly, you started having problems.

I was doing the twice weekly for almost two years. It's been a more recent development that I was having issues. I switched to the TRT clinic when I felt like I could tell my levels were off or low.

 

[Seagal]

I was doing the twice weekly for almost two years. It's been a more recent development that I was having issues. I switched to the TRT clinic when I felt like I could tell my levels were off or low.

I misunderstood that too. Then purely the change of the ester and maybe the carrier oil is the reason. It's possible.