Low Libido and Erections After Starting TRT

Hello everyone,

I am on TRT since 3 months. In the first two months everything was normal. Now since 1 month I noticed a decline in libido and ED. Erections still work, but the quality has decreased and its harder to sustain. Morning wood is still there but less stable and the sensitivity is lower.

Before starting TRT my sex drive was normal and I usually had no ED.

I really wonder what is the cause of this. This doesn’t make sense to me, as I expected my sex drive to go up, when testosterone is increased.

I found here in the forum that high estradiol level might be the reason due to aromatisation, but unfortunately I can’t get labs at the moment because of the lockdown.

I will now try to lower my dosage from 175mg Test E to 125mg every 5 days. Should I also consider using an AI?

I really hope someone can give me a hint, as for the next weeks I can’t get labsworks done so I can only guess.

Many thanks in advance

175mg E5D? Is that your protocol?

If that’s the case then you’re on a blast and be cruise dose. 2 shots=350mg, 350mg/10 day = 35mg, 35mg x 7 days in a week = 245mg per.

You had your honeymoon phase wore off and coupled with your infrequent injection protocol probably lead to T/E2 imbalance.

If you want to keep E5D that’s cool. Lowering your dose to 125mg per would equal 175mg which is much more reasonable. See how that works after 2-3 months. If it doesn’t then start experimenting with more frequent injections: E3.5D, E3D, EOD and daily.

Good luck Matt, I’m sure you’ll be fine.

Yes that’s my protocol.

Thank you. I didn’t realize that this is already blast and cruise dosage. I will try to lower the dosage first with every 5 days injection and then maybe increase the frequency.

No on the AI. They are very difficult to dose and guys often end up crashing their E2 to almost nothing and that can bring on a bad case of ED. Guys need E2 too for normal erections and libido.

Your dose is on the high side for a starting dose on TRT. 175 mg E5D = 245 mg per week. That is approaching bodybuilding dosing. I usually recommend starting somewhere between 100-120 mg per week and reevaluating labs and symptom abatement after 6 weeks and then adjust from there. It take about 6 weeks for the cascade of neuroendocrine changes in you body and brain to stabilize. You can’t rush TRT!

Also I recommend that you decrease the interval to E3D. The more frequent your injections, the lower the spike in T 24-48 hours after injection and thus, the lower the conversion to E2. Also, in my experience, by keeping the both the peak and the nadir levels of T within ‘normal’ ranges, you can get by with less T in your overall weekly dose.

My recommendation is to back the dosage off to 50mg E3D (117 mg/week) for 6 weeks. Evaluate and if needed bump it up to 60mg E3D (140 mg/week) for 6 weeks and evaluate. I doubt you’ll need to go any higher than that.

Once you nail down a stable dose, you may wish to layer in HCG, but that’s a personal choice.

It depends on the person. I know an individual that requires 280 mg a week to get to high normal. He is an outlier with very high SHBG. Calling things TRT or cycles just off of dose is a bit silly (unless it is 500 mg and up, which even then there is a genetic condition that requires about that dose for TRT, it is just ultra rare). It should be based on blood work and symptom resolution, not what someone decides is TRT or a cycle.

If I am you I would reduce the dose by a small amount (if it is me I would go with 200 mg a week), then evaluate well being and blood work in 6-8 weeks. You may need to go lower than 200 mg, but finding that dose is a process.

I would start doing 2 injections a week. It seems most seem to feel better going from 1X a week to 2X a week.

Your protocol is unusually high especially for an every 5 day protocol. Over time if you body has difficulty clearing out estrogen it will accumulate and eventually start climbing.

You are mixing up a higher end TRT dose with blast and cruise which is something else entirely.

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I should’ve said a blast and cruise TYPE dose.

250mg is in general the minimum for a blast and cruise dose. i know for me that puts my levels on the lower 2000s

However i do realize that there are outliers that would need 250mg for TRT.

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Thank you for your recommendations. I think 2 injections per week is a good idea, since until now I could really feel how my levels fluctuated between the 5days interval.

Does it, from your experience, make a difference if I inject intramuscular or subqutaneously? Until now I did IM injections in quad or glute.

i always think IM is superior to SubQ, not surprising since that’s what test was intended for.

It’s really personal preference. However if you do decide on subq, don’t do anything more than .5 mil at a time and even then, i feel like thats too much to risk.

I will give subq a try, if splitting the dosage alone doesn’t work.

I already, tried adding Proviron for 2 weeks but it didn’t make a difference. Actually I didn’t feel any effect at all.

I agree with this. I’ve not felt like I’m on TRT since I started subQ. And Gil T does a great job explaining why it’s better to inject oils IM than subQ on Danny Bossa’s Hormone Optimization channel. OP Give it a watch, for sure if undecided IM vs. subQ.

When I first started TRT i assumed every fluctuation was because of a hormonal issue. What i seriously found is my sex drive and libido is influenced by stress. There have been a few times because of work I became pretty stressed out. Losing sleep at night… heart racing while sitting and trying to relax and on a scale of 0-100 libido and sex drive wise… I was 0…I had my blood during this time frame and my total test was 1400… E2 40 and everything else perfect. Once the issues at work passed and my stress level dropped i went from 0 to 110. It is just a thought.

At the moment I wake up without morning wood. During the day I feel angry and short-tempered. Maybe also the circumstance (which are not the best atm) play a role. Hope it gets better soon.

Did those mental factors influence your morning wood as well?

Was it just a lack of libido or was erection quality suffering too?

I can’t tell, if they influence the wood, too.

It was not just a lack of libido, also the quality of the erection was decreased. I tried intercourse with 2 different women in the past month and I noticed that the quality of the erections was diminished and it was harder to sustain.

Hey guys, a brief update: I decreased my dosage from 250mg per week to 175mg per week and increased frequency from E5D to EOD. After 2 weeks now I already feel much better. I get morning wood every day, erections are solid and libido came back. In addition also the tingling feeling and the slight reddening of mace face has gone.

I am so grateful for your advice and glad that I found this forum here! Before I was only listening to some coaches on YouTube and bro science on bodybuilding forums.

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Matthew this is great to hear, sounds very similar to myself, erections are there, but weak and a struggle to maintain. Im 5 weeks in to a protocol with maybe only a slight improvement? So I draw strength from your experience, really happy for you bro