Anyone can run any numbers they want but I can assure you that anyone running numbers that high long term will pay a price. Man I have shbg over 70 and only run a 700-800ng range. If you don’t care about your long term health then run 2000ng or higher. We didn’t need 15-1600ng going through puberty and certainly don’t as aging men. Trt is meant to be within physiologic limits not anabolic steroid levels. Not being argumentative but calling complete BS to guys stating they need these insanely high numbers to be normal, just isn’t factual.
"I can assure you that anyone running numbers that high long term will pay a price".....1500-1600 ng/dl
- a little extreme here as it is highly doubtful even such levels would cause any significant negative health effects
- if anything aside from elevated hemoglobin/hematocrit/rbc's and possible lowering of hdl most of the side-effects at such level would be cosmetic such as oily skin/acne (genetically prone)/male pattern baldness (genetically prone)/increased body hair/gynecomastia (genetically prone)/water retention and bloating
"If you don’t care about your long term health then run 2000ng or higher"
- again even than running extremely high supra-physiological levels as in 2000-3000+ ng/dL long-term.....aside from what I stated above I will say that there may be an increased risk of negative effects on cardiovascular function (heart/blood vessels) but there is no data from long term studies (5-10 year) RCT's using very high dosages resulting in extremely high supra-physiological testosterone levels nor would there ever be as it would be considered unethical.
- at such levels long-term no one can say for sure if it is a given and as we should know ones genetics/lifestyle/underlying health issue will all contribute to whether one experiences such
"We didn’t need 15-1600ng going through puberty and certainly don’t as aging men"
- I will agree that no average healthy young male would ever naturally produce such
-
50th percentile (500's ng/dL).....75th (600's).....95th (800's).....97.5th(900's)
- are there outliers above 900's.....1000+.....sure far and few!
Harmonized Reference Ranges for Circulating Testosterone Levels in Men of Four Cohort Studies in the United States and Europe
- majority of men should easily do well when running TT levels in the higher end
(1200 ng/dL).....which would result in a FT 30--->30+ ng/dL and that is even with one having high SHBG!
- as you know many can do well on far less
Men with a TT 1200 ng/dL, SHBG (high) 70 nmol/L, Albumin 4.3 g/dL.....FT would be 38.86 ng/dL.....almost hitting the 40's (well over the top end of the reference range 16-31 ng/dL).
Compared to men with higher SHBG 70 nmol/L.....men with low SHBG 10 nmol/L would only need to hit a TT 1000 ng/dL to achieve roughly the same FT level of 38.57 ng/dl.
Most would think that the men with higher SHBG would need to hit a much higher TT in order to achieve such high FT levels but this is not the case due to the newer research/understanding of SHBG:T binding.
[0387]
Relation between Percent FT with Total Testosterone and SHBG. Intra-dimer complex allostery suggests that SHBG can regulate FT fraction over a wide range of total testosterone concentrations without getting saturated. Indeed, it was found that percent FT calculated using the new model changed very modestly over a wide range of total testosterone concentrations. In contrast, the Vermeulen's equation suggests a negative relation between percent FT and total testosterone. Furthermore, as SHBG concentrations increase, percent FT calculated using our new model shows only a modest decline in contrast to the marked decline in percent FT calculated using Vermeulen's equation.
Trt is meant to be within physiologic limits not anabolic steroid levels.
- most mainstream doctors think such as they are dead set on keeping their patients TT within a certain range (mid-normal is common) and to them anything above is a cause for concern
- as we very well know a doctors main concern should be treating the patient symptoms not numbers while at the same time keeping ones overall health in mind.....so we are seeking out relief/improvement and increased overall well-being of the patient while at the same time minimizing/preventing any potential negative effects whether health related/cosmetic.....this is why blood work is CRITICAL!
- we also know that many men need to have their TT levels at the top end of the range or slightly higher in order to achieve a healthy FT level which would result in relief/improvement of low-t symptoms
- numbers/reference ranges should be used as guidelines as it is not set in stone that one needs to stay within these ranges.....but again it is highly doubtful one would need to venture into these absurd TT levels 1500-2000 ng/dL to achieve a healthy FT level.
"Not being argumentative but calling complete BS to guys stating they need these insanely high numbers to be normal, just isn’t factual"
- normal.....who wants to be normal.....as they say it's about being optimal/tuned-up/slightly jackd' bruh.....LOL!
- more is always better man.....I feel my best bruh!
- on a more serious note I agree that most would never need to be running these absurd TT levels 1500-2000 ng/dL.....let alone FT levels double the top end 50-60+ ng/dL..... as I find it ridiculous that the majority of men pre-trt have low <16 ng/dL or sub-optimal (high teens/low 20s) FT and all of a sudden go on trt and now supposedly need their FT levels almost triple 50-60 ng/dL compared to what they naturally produced when they had low-t.....hell would put money on it that most men in their PRIME were not even hitting low-mid TT 20 ng/dL at peak with average FT levels.
Of course symptom relief is what truly matters but we need to be sensible here as to what levels are truly needed.
Again to each his own and I have no issues if one chooses to run such levels.....but in most cases highly doubtful it is truly needed to experience the beneficial effects of trt.