Help with TRT Protocol, Noob Here

Pharma / TRT Testosterone Replacement
1

Hello. My name is Alek, I’m 37. 180cm tall, 78kg (7kg overweight actually).

I’m curious about TRT about a year now since I started doing blood work tests. My testosterone is very low (IMO, event though my doctor did not agree), and I’m having issues with gaining muscle, maintaining muscle, recovery time… and my overall energy levels are very low. No problems with libido or erections. Also, i seem to be prone to accumulating fat in the chest and stomach area.

I’ve been doing my blood work for about a year now, and my testosterone was:
a year ago, 301
3 months ago 366
yesterday, 250

I also did the shbg test, 22.6 nmol… which is from what I understand, low.

My FS is 188 mIU/ml
My FSH is 3.25 mIU/ml

Which, again, seems to be on the low side. Generally my blood work is good.

I had history of gaining and loosing fat really quickly in really short period of time when I was younger.

Can anybody give me any advice? Doctors seem to think I don’t need anything, but I just don’t feel like other people (everything seems to be difficult for me, i’m often sad and fatigued)… and worse thing is, when I did go to do my test last itme, i went with one guy that’s 78, and another that’s 65. First guy had 550, second guy 650… and I’m at 250 at 37 years of age.

I drink moderately. Not getting wasted every day, but I do have few drinks a day.

Thanks

2

please post a pic

3

Your symptoms are all very typical to low T. Your dr is an idiot and you should find someone who will listen to you and is more concerned with how you FEEL vs your lab results. You currently have the test level of an 80 year old man.

Also, you are not unique. There are tons of anecdotal stories on this forum where guys just like you feel like shit and struggle to find a Dr who will help them. Are you outside of the U.S? If so, I dont have anymore advice I can impart to you suffice to say, you need to find someone to help you or take matters into your own hands and start treating yourself.

4

TT by itself is meaningless without the FT, your FT could be below range. I agree with @studhammer, your doctors are morons! This area of medicine is a blank in most doctors training and since doctors are taught “in range is normal”, it becomes more an automated reaction than critical thinking and analytical thought process.

If you were in the US, you would easily qualify for TRT.

5

Yes, find someone who will treat you. Your total testosterone is very low for someone your age. Even more important, as mentioned, you have significant symptoms. With your total testosterone level of 250, while it would be nice to know where your free testosterone level is, it’s not going to be high, or even moderate. We know free testosterone will be low as well.

You will most likely need to consult with someone who limits their practice to TRT. Good luck.

2 Likes
6

Thank you guys. I’ve been researching TRT related stuff for about a year now. I’ve seen a lot of material on youtube, and read from articles to studies… but was never sure if I should commit to this, as it’s lifelong thing. The thing that was apparent to me was that, even if I don’t do TRT now, in few years I will have to considering levels are going down how we old, and mine are at the bottom already.

I’m originally from Croatia, but I live in Thailand. Doctors and hospitals here are great in general, but the one I went to was not a endocrinologist and he based his opinion on the “reference” information on the lab result paper.

I will consult with endocrinologist too, but it’s apparent what needs to happen at this point.

I purchased testosterone cypionate 250 mg/ml, 10 ml vial. This is not…from the hospital, as they did not want to go into this further, but from some kind of body building website. I don’t do body building, but testosterone is testosterone, so I thought what the heck… I’ll just get it off of them.

For dosing I was thinking I start off with 0.3ml in the insulin syringe. SubQ in the belly fat.
Twice per week, that should come to 110mg/week.

Do blood tests every 2 weeks for first few months… to see what’s going on.

Is this dosage and the method of administration good for a start? I hate needles (doesn’t everybody?), so easing into this using insulin syringes is the way to go for me I think.

Any advice much appreciated!!

7

Hello.

A bit confused. Pic of what?

1 Like
8

:laughing:

4char

9

These doctors aren’t much better, sex hormones aren’t taught in traditional medical schools, which is why @highpull suggested finding a doctor that limits their practice to TRT. The endocrinologists are into other stuff, like diabetes and thyroid problems and most often not TRT.

10

Your dosing is off.

If your test is 250mg/ml then 0.3ml twice per week is 0.6ml

0.6 x 250mg is 150mg

If you want 110mg total per week you want 0.22ml twice a week.

11

Yes, I think I made a typo. Thanks.
Is that dose reasonable as a starting dose? I understand everybody is different… and I would prefer to start from less, and if necessary up the dose… instead of other way around. I really want to avoid as many negative side effects as I can.

12

150mg is a bit much for what you are describing.

My physician started me at 125mg per week.

That would be 0.25ml twice for your test.

13

Thanks, that’s what I did.
I did my first 0.25ml today. Next will be Friday.

SubQ using insulin syringe. It was extremely hard to push the plunger though, I needed help from my gf because there was no way i could push the plunger in with one hand holding the syringe stuck in my belly.

Will do my test / estrogen test + blood count in 2 weeks.

14

Wait about 5 or 6 weeks. After 2 you haven’t even shut down natural production so it bares no resemblance in the long term what you’ll be at on that doseage.

15

Also- why subq?

Out of interest as much as anything, I and lots of others do IM twice per week.

Subq makes a lot of sense for daily micro dosing. Larger quantities imho not so much.

16

Well, is 0.25ml twice a week considered a “larger quantity”?

SubQ because the insulin syringe does not look nearly as scary as the standard needle, and I have 0 experience with needles especially sticking it into my body by myself. I barely did subq today, took me 20 minutes.

Also, the idea of sticking it to my muscle does not appeal to me. I actually did try about 6 months ago, i did one shot with insulin syringe into my shoulder, and had this dull shoulder muscle pain for 10 days. Having any muscular issues is not acceptable as I train Muay Thai almost every day.

SubQ insulin srynge into belly fat… 0 pain or even discomfort.

17

Yeah fair enough.

Get that, if I was pinning more frequently id probably go to subq.

I’m no expert but from my understanding that 0.25ml probably on the high side for subq injection- but I’m going on what I’ve read and never done any myself.

Basically more at risk of whelts, little taised lumps that need messaging and leakage with a bigger volume of liquid going in close to the skin.

See how you get on.

Good luck,

18

This really isnt true. There are scams all over the internet. You may very well be injecting olive oil. You really need to educate yourself more. Subq is OK, but test was designed to be intramuscular (IM). You dont have to go crazy with needle size if thats what you’re worried about. Just order some 5 cc syringes, some 18 gauge needles and some 1/2 inch 29 gauge needles. Draw with the 18g, switch out the pin and screw on the 29g and inject have your GF inject your delts. So much better than having raised welts on your belly and so much easier IMO.

19

I will try subq and see how it goes, some people say it’s better into the the butt so might switch to that. I can’t do it without help anyway, it’s impossible to press on the plunger with one hand.

This really isnt true. There are scams all over the internet. You may very well be injecting olive oil.

While this might be generally true, I did some research and used common sense. I’m not injecting olive oil :slight_smile:

If there are issues, I will switch to IM… most likely :slight_smile:

20

I used the insulin syringe (which i think comes with 29 gauge needle, 1/2 inch) to inject into my deltoid. I had shoulder pain for more than a week after this.
It’s likely that I did not administer it properly, because again, there was a problem pressing on the plunger. It required a lot of force. So it was messy.