In relation to your weekly injection, when were those labs drawn? Thyroid labs inadequate, we see it a lot doctors failing to test Free T3 which is the only active thyroid hormone, it is what free testosterone is to total testosterone, Free T4 is low.
Be aware most doctors lack the thoroughness to get a complete picture by only running minimal thyroid labs, not checking Free T3 is a huge mistake and shows their knowledge is seriously lacking. 100mg once weekly is telling me your doctor is way behind, most are.
Most of us pay out of pocket for TRT, insurance is almost a guarantee you’ll be dealing with incompetent doctors. Very few doctors know how to do TRT, those that do do not expect insurance.
You need to understand injecting once weekly means your levels are peaking within 48 hours and then falling fast over the next few days, that is why you feel no better. You need to keep stable levels to feel good, I recommend 50mg twice weekly. Some find they feel better injecting smaller doses EOD as this helps lower estrogen.
Estrogen levels determine how well you feel on TRT. Some guys start to feel the effects of low T in the 400 ranges, you need to target 650-800 range, those are youthful levels we had in our 20’s. Men with high normal testosterone are 30% less likely to have cardiac events than those in the middle ranges.
So just inject 50mg tonight and 50mg more on Friday morning. It will reset everything and you’ll have to wait another 6 weeks for a stable state and it will be worth it. If that provides the results you’re looking for you’re done, if not you could try injecting 20-25mg EOD.
TSH down to 1.0 from 2
What did you do to increase iodine intake?
You can inject T with #29 1/2" 0.5ml insulin syringes. IM does not need to be deep. Subq absorbs slower and delivers smoother levels.
Do labs halfway between injections and do not change that. Otherwise you will have changes in lab data just from timing. Labs at time of office visit can be wrong. Get script for lab and do that two weeks before office visit so you can discuss results and changes with doctor.
You can get a good idea of overall thyroid function via oral body temperatures, see below and note that two sets of temperatures are of interest.
If E2 is elevated, that can spoil benefits of TRT. Most feel better near E2=22pg/ml - 80 pmol/L
You will be reporting day 7 E2 results. So that result is less useful - lab timing again.
Evaluate your overall thyroid function by checking oral body temperatures as per the thyroid basics sticky. Thyroid hormone fT3 is what gets the job done and it regulates mitochondrial activity, the source of ATP which is the universal currency of cellular energy. This is part of the body’s temperature control loop. This can get messed up if you are iodine deficient. In many countries, you need to be using iodized salt. Other countries add iodine to dairy or bread.
KSman is simply a regular member on this site. Nothing more other than highly active.
I can be a bit abrupt in my replies and recommendations. I have a lot of ground to cover as this forum has become much more active in the last two years. I can’t follow threads that go deep over time. You need to respond to all of my points and requests as soon as possible before you fall off of my radar. The worse problems are guys who ignore issues re thyroid, body temperatures, history of iodized salt. Please do not piss people off saying that lab results are normal, we need lab number and ranges.
The value that you get out of this process and forum depends on your effort and performance. The bulk of your learning is reading/studying the suggested stickies.
You say it’s not helping after 2 weeks, because it shouldn’t be helping until 6 weeks. This is how long it takes to reach a stable blood levels of testosterone, there are no shortcuts, no quick fixes. Each time you change the dosage it’s another 6 weeks to a stable state.
So I upped my dose to 150mg/week injected 75mg E3.5D. My estradiol was 29 (at trough) when I was injectjng 100mg once per week. Will my estradiol increase with a larger dose but split into two?
I’m increasing my T dose to get my T up as it still is a bit low and I am not feeling as much of an effect as I would like. Not purposely trying to increase e2 but trying to increase T which I am assuming will subsequently increase e2 as a result. I