Libido Up and Down Early Into TRT

Hi All,

I started TRT a little over two weeks ago doing once a week 100mg t cypionate injections. Immediately libido started feeling better and better and by the second injection felt about 70% but after the third one libido has gone down again.

I’ve read various different reasons here about why that could be, I’m going to switch to twice a week injections but is it also possible I need to up my prescription to maybe 150-200mg per week? Going to get blood tests done but my theory is 100mg works immediately with the remaining low T I have and then the body stops producing it’s own T and 100mg becomes not enough to feel right.

Is that possibly what’s happening here? Talking to doctor next week

This. You haven’t been on it near long enough to make any protocol changes. In fact I dare say much of what you’re seeing is placebo. It takes most men 4-5 weeks for any noticeable changes. After 6-8 weeks re-evaluated and then consider a protocol change based on follow up labs and how you feel at that time.

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Understood, yea I know it’s very early. The last time I was on TRT though my doctor was an idiot and had me on a 200mg every 3 weeks protocol but I literally saw immediate results. I’m talking within a couple days I felt amazing and libido was through the roof, that eventually changed when my e2 skyrocketed as a result of injecting every 3 weeks.

Given that I saw a pretty immediate increase with this as well that has now tapered off I’m curious if there’s any harm to just switching to twice a week with same dosage as opposed to the weekly I’ve been doing.

No harm. If you feel that would help you can do it. I switched from once a week to twice a week but didn’t notice a thing. Granted I’m generally mid to high SHBG. Unless you have low SHBG I doubt it will make much difference.

Is there a way to “guess” if you are low or high SHBG? Are there any indicators? My clinic did not test it. (eyeroll)

I’ve had many bloodtests done over the last year unfortunately no SHBG but my next one I will absolutely ask for that.

I basically have low T, low free T, LH and FSH based on my last test a month ago but symptoms have been for over a year. I used D aspartic acid for a year and actually felt fine but knew it wasn’t 100%. TRT worked amazing for me for 2 months last time but with bad protocol, hoping better protocol will work better. I haven’t had the same immediate success but being patient and hoping over time it will work. Ppl on my last post told me that 100mg per week will likely not be enough but a good starting point

Not necessarily true. 100 can be plenty

Blood test is the best way, that being said there are some things that could help you to know where your SHBG is

Low SHBG most of the time walks together with
Low insulin sensitivity = high fasting insulin
High blood glucose
Being overweight
Eating refined sugars and junk food
Metabolic syndrome and low SHBG walk hand in hand
The opposite would lead to a higher SHBG

You could guess if you have TT and FT taken. If your FT is substantially higher in range than TT then you likely have low SHBG.

This is good to know, both my T and free T were low before getting back on TRT. Does that indicate that SHBG likely wasn’t an issue?

OK, thank you. I am pretty much the exact opposite of all of that.
My initial TRT blood test with my clinic indicated Total T of 620, E2 of 17. Borderline low glucose. Sounds like I may have high SHBG, which would be why my E2 was low.
I just switched from E3.5D, to EOD… libido/wood/volume issues appeared a few weeks ago, trying to figure out what to do, or do nothing.

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So probably your SHBG is not too low, too low SHBG is used nowadays as a marker for metabolic syndrome which means someone is not healthy, higher is better middle range I mean, but too high no good then it is a struggle to have a decent free T with lower doses of T

My libido came and went, too. Until I got my dose above 250 mgs/wk. Then…I could not keep my hands off my wife. It was like being 18 again.

What was your initial dose? And how long into TRT did you have solid libido for before it faded a bit and you upped your dosage?

Before TRT, I had ED and zero sex drive. My first doc had me on 160/wk. That fixed ED, but did little for sex drive. After 3-4 months, I asked to go up to 200 and stayed there for 3 more months. Libido came and went during this whole 6 months on 160-200, to answer your question.
Switched docs and told the new doc I still felt like crap. He told me he couldn’t prescribe it, but wanted me at 350/wk and would send adequate supply. I was chicken and tried 250 first. This is where I noticed libido improvement. I’ve since gone as high as 385/wk and the higher I go, the stronger libido is.

Wow, that is really high. I was on 200mg every 3 weeks when I first tried TRT back in Jan this year and had immediate amazing libido results (within days) but because of the infrequent injections my results only lasted about 2 months before e2 was raised high and ED and libido returned.

I’m thinking I may need 150-200 a week to get back to that feeling but going to ride out 100mg for another few weeks before switching protocol.

Yeah man. I bet 200mg all at once felt great. But peep this graph showing what that dose does to your Test and E2 levels.


Test drops quickly over the course of the first couple days. E2 not so much. It only drops a little and plateaus way higher than baseline. After a few big injections like that, imagine where your E2 levels were.

I think it’s wise of you to try and make 100 work. There’s something to the whole “minimum effective dose” approach. It’s gotta be the best for you. As little as you need to get symptom resolution, they say.
I’ve just always been a pretty reckless person and have a tendency to see how far I can push things. If I could legally get my hands on 1000mg a week, I would do it in a heartbeat.

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Hahaha I respect that, tbh I’d love to push it up to 150 or 200 a week right now but literally everyone on this forum and some other ppl I know who have done TRT have told me it’s way too early to be making protocol changes. I would imagine in like 3-4 weeks I’ll be talking to my doctor about upping the dose but we’ll see.

Appreciate everyone’s insight on this

I lost my erections due to prostate cancer. Started taking cialis and TRT recently, it is like being a teenager again good god. There’s a low dose cialis you can take daily, it helps with testosterone too I heard. Wasn’t covered by my insurance but I paid $10 for a 90 day supply with GoodRX. If you’re willing to ask your doctor for it AFAIK there’s zero downsides to taking it, but a lot of up sides if you know what I mean. Helps with blood flow all over your body too, maybe more bodybuilders should take it.

Ive been taking cialis for a couple of years.

I just got a different brand generic called Avkare from the pharmacy. Before it was Perrigo and sun pharma I believe. And I swear this new one is not working