I am thinking about adding DHEA to my TRT treatment. I am currently on 180mg of injected Testosterone per week and the blood test results are in and the T level was 850. I take Adex and the E level is at 29 which they said was good. I am waiting one month to start a cycle of HCG, but in the meantime was thinking about DHEA.
Question: Will DHEA increase the T levels in my blood test? Also, if I take it do I need to adjust my other meds?
DHEA will not increase your T since you are on exogenous T
Why would you cycle hCG?
TRT turns off LH/FSH and then pregnenolone goes down, less pregnenolone–>{DHEA, cortisol etc}.
You may need some DHEA, you would know if you had some DHEA-S lab data.
hCG can restore pregnenolone and DHEA levels to some extent, results vary
Your TT=850 is one week after a 180mg weekly injection? If not injecting frequently with divided doses, you can get any lab number you want, just sample the curve at different times.
Adex need depends on T levels and if T levels change, adex dose is never right. You need steady T levels.
If I knew that your levels were steady I would recommend increasing adex by a factor of 29/22. What is your dose. Please describe details of your protocol.
Read the stickies.
[quote]KSman wrote:
Why would you cycle hCG?
TRT turns off LH/FSH and then pregnenolone goes down, less pregnenolone–>{DHEA, cortisol etc}.
You may need some DHEA, you would know if you had some DHEA-S lab data.
hCG can restore pregnenolone and DHEA levels to some extent, results vary
Your TT=850 is one week after a 180mg weekly injection? If not injecting frequently with divided doses, you can get any lab number you want, just sample the curve at different times.
Adex need depends on T levels and if T levels change, adex dose is never right. You need steady T levels.
If I knew that your levels were steady I would recommend increasing adex by a factor of 29/22. What is your dose. Please describe details of your protocol.
Read the stickies.[/quote]
Currently, the 180 is a weekly injection, and the blood test is 7 days after injection. The Adex dose is .5mg on the day of the injection(Monday), then .25 EOD(Weds, Fri, and Sun). The TRT clinic originally told me to take the full 1mg on the day of the injection, but VT above advised me to break it up which saved me from losing my sex drive in the following weeks. Basically I am just curious about adding the DHEA, but don’t want to do it if it will screw up the TT levels on my blood test.
On the HCG, the TRT doc wants to wait until the second blood test comes in after the second month to make sure the TT dose is correct before he adds HCG. Don’t most guys cycle on and off the HCG if they are on TRT long term?
Are you self injecting?
Read the protocol for injections sticky and the advise for new guys sticky [then come back with more data]. You will learn a lot more there than from this post.
Your labs are quite meaningless with weekly injections. Your TT probably peaks at twice what your lab reports on day seven. Anastrozole is a competitive drug and the dose needs to match t levels. If T is changing all of the time, your E2 is not managed properly.
DHEA is converted inside the testes to T. However, that is under the control of LH. Right now your LH is effectively zero and DHEA–>T inside the testes is not happening. In any case, your concern simply meaningless. TRT docs, at least the good ones, check DHEA-S levels and have guys take DHEA all of the time. DHEA has many benefits other than making T. Some docs test and have guys take pregnenolone as well. If you use hCG your testes will not die and will make pregnenolone in most cases. If you do not use hCG your testes will shrink and most often will irreversibly degrade. And without hCG, fertility and sexual self image are at risk.
Test DHEA-S levels. Often TRT without hCG causes pregnenolone and DHEA levels to drop. An induced deficiency.
Start reading!!! You need to get educated and will know more than most doctors in a while. You need to manage your own health care and not be passive.
[quote]CadeCayman wrote:
The TRT clinic originally told me to take the full 1mg on the day of the injection, but VT above advised me to break it up which saved me from losing my sex drive in the following weeks.
[/quote]
I probably also advised you to inject more frequently than once per week, if I was aware that was your protocol.
DHEA will drop in some people after several weeks on TRT. Do not add anything now till you get every thing else stable. You will be causing one big metabolic mess.
Proper way I suggest Dr’s to do TRT is layered approach which has been proven to reduce side effects and makes monitoring people so much easier. The “throw shit against the wall see what sticks approach” is just asking for trouble.