I started TRT years back at 200mg a week. Over time I moved down to 180, then was at 160 for years, and now am at 140 and feel the best I have felt thus far. I have always been able to keep E2 in check (as I think staying fairly lean year round prevents my body from over aromatizing (also there is a genetic component there as well). I feel substantially better mentally on this dose. Definitely not that strong but my “brain fog” that I have been fighting has lifted for the most part.
Here were my average levels at each dose (Injecting 2x a week). I obviously adjusted aromasin accordingly until I hit the sweet spot:
These were taking on your trough day also? If so, you have to consider that maybe your test was higher in those initial days, meaning you could be well 1200 total test.
I’m also one of the few who just don’t require an AI unless I’m taking 200mg weekly, lowering my dose (under 1000 ng/dL) seemed to remedy my high E2 symptoms if one considers 52 pg/mL high. I felt nothing at 200mg and it wasn’t until I lowered my dose that I started feeling good consistently. I’m now on 100mg weekly split twice weekly which puts me at about 850-900 ng/dL.
You have a huge number of posts in this forum, so review of your past details is impossible.
We often recommend against 200mg/week that T-shops are making fashionable, they make money selling T after all.
If there are metabolic limitations from low thyroid or cortisol, the metabolic demands of more T can outstrip your bodies ability to deliver and you can feel down. This is discussed in the stickies.
Systemlord? Are you still on just 100 mg per week?
I’ve been on TRT since June 2017. Started at 200mg per week, IM, one injection per week.
Then switched to 240 mg, once per week IM, then recently switched to 100mg, twice per week, Sub-c. Bottom line, still no real improvement with mornign wood, erection quality etc. All other labs pretty normal. Even on 240mg per week, test never went above 750. I’m really wondering if I just need to drop down to some lower level of test, like YOU are doing. Maybe my body just can’t handle all that test?? Not sure why the doc starteed me off so high (200mg per week) without seeing how I responded to lower levels.
I’m skinny fat with good muscle for a skinny guy, I’m trying 13mg EOD (50mg weekly) because I had high E2 even at 18mg EOD (70mg weekly). Strange how I was fine injecting 50mg twice weekly, but injecting EOD is a completely different animal.
So far 13mg EOD is working great, I don’t usually feel this good early after a protocol change.
Edkork I believe you dose is to high, you need to start out injecting 50mg twice weekly. Mostly guys who start 200mg weekly almost always feel no benefits from TRT until you lower your dose to a more reasonable level.
Wanted to bump this up vs. posting a new thread. I’m curious to hear about others experiences in lowering their dose. I’m coming to realize that anastrozole is just not going to work for me - no matter how much i lower the dose i feel like utter crap on it (as low as 0.05mg EOD). I’m at 140mg/week with 100ug HCG every day, and am considering dropping it to 100mg per week as i’m just not feeling dialled in. Lack of access to lab work up here in Canada is making the whole process a bit like throwing darts at a ouija board
Might be a dead thread but wanted to see if anyone else has had better experience with a lower dose. I started on 100mg E3.5D, lowered to 20mg ED (140weekly) and felt better. I’m considering just cutting dose in half by switching to 20mg EOD to see if I have the same benefit as OP. I have brain fog and zip libido. Any recommendations
Could you explain this some more? I see your posts everywhere and you are very knowledgeable. I’d appreciate if you take a look at my thread but it’s a bit of a disaster.
Anyway, so could having too high Total Test create problems in just overwhelming your body with too much testosterone to metabolize? I was started on the 200mg weekly but everytime I’ve lowered my dose I’ve felt better. Currently at 140mg weekly, but I’m considering just dropping to 84mg weekly or even 70mg weekly split into EOD Subq injections. Do you recommend this?
I’ve read that endogenous testosterone production is about 4-7mg daily for men, so it should make sense that injecting 20mg daily (which I’ve been doing) could just be too much?
KSman is not around anymore. What he is suggesting is that higher T is causing a drag on the thyroid and this is affecting how you feel. Not likely, but it’s possible. Too high a toal test can create a few issues for you. It can cause E2 to be too high for YOU, it’s an individual thing and there is no specific “sweet-spot” number that applies to everyone. Controlling the E2 can cuse other problems. Some people do not react well to AI’s in general, additionally many people crash their E2 when dosing the AI’s and low E2 is worse than high E2.
It’s not a surprise that you feel better at 140mg than 200mg a week. I doubt that every day dosing is making any magical difference for you versus EOD or twice week. 140 may still be too high for you, or it may in fact be a little too low. You need to make smaller adjustments in your dose. Try 120 mg and see how that feels. I don’t know all of your other factors off-hand, but your dose could easily be just a little bit too high or too low. Endogynous production is very different than exogynous supplementation (Bio-identical still means synthetic after all), it’s hard to draw a parallel for dosing.