My TRT Experience - Opinions Wanted

While yes your hematocrit, RBC, and Hemo are high, your ferritin looks to be on the very low side. Be careful with the donations so that you don’t crash your iron. From what I have heard that is not a very fun area to be in either.

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This is my challenge. Prior to this bloodwork, my Ferritin was 13. I started supplementing Iron Glycinate and now you can see it’s improved quite a bit (40). I always have to do therapeutic blood donations every 2 months, so it’s a tough game keeping Ferritin up.

My bad I hadnt read above where you had already been discussing your ferritin. Sorry about that.

@slammiam
Man there has to be a better way. I can’t imagine giving blood every two months is a sustainable practice. That has to cause some shit down the road (I don’t know what I’m talking about just speculation).

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Your ’ spidey sense ’ are right on the money @dextermorgan . He will not be able to keep this up. Sooooo many of us have tried and failed.
Sooner or later he will pass out with on ferritin and end up in the hospital. No ethical TRT doctor would recommend what this guy is being told to do. Lets hope he’s not on the free way when he blacks out.

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Why do you need to donate blood so much?

“So many of us have tried and failed” What then, is the alternative? TRT is what raises my RBC to the moon. Without therapeutic donations every 2 months, how exactly do I keep it in check, and what has everyone else done?

They were forced to drop their weekly dose until their HCT gets no higher than ~50
Everyone is different so don’t ask what dose will work for you.

Most try 100mg/wk some have to go as low as 80mg/wk. And yes I know your other TRT blood numbers will not be their best. But (((your))) HCT determine how much T you get to take. Just so you don’t feel alone Some guys have to reduce their weekly T do to high E2.

Getting your protocol tuned in with high E2 or HCT issues can take years of experimenting. Try to find the T level where your HCT stays around 50 with no more than two 1 pint whole blood donations a year. I try to donate 2 weeks before my 6 month TRT checkups.

Thanks for putting this into perspective. My initial thoughts are to cut out ALL red meat. If I don’t take an iron supplement, my Ferritin will crash…unsure what to do there.

Dr. also mentioned he might try Every Other Day injections with smaller doses if it continues.

If you are trying to stay fit, hold or gain muscle you really should have some red meat every week. It contains some amino acids that are hard to get otherwise. Just eat a good balanced diet. No keto no vegan. Best of luck. Oh daily injections will not lower your HCT. Daily injections of the same weekly dose will raise your TT and E2 so I don’t see how that would cause the HCT to go down it will probably go up.

@slammiam - forgive me, I don’t know how to link other threads into responses, but check this out. Read the first response to the “layman’s terms” question.

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How long did it take to raise your ferritin from 13 to 40? How many points does yours go down after each donation? Mine went from 29-19. 3 months later I’m at 22 but need to donate again. Do you take a shirt cycle of iron right before the donation or after? What us the best type of iron recommendation and daily dosage? Glycinate?

It took 3 months. I haven’t measured after injection? Did you mean donation? I just started supplementing Iron Bisglycinate 25mg daily ( Thorne ) 3 months ago. After last blood work ( 3 mos prior ), I started supplementing Iron. I’m going to continue. It’s likely better to have higher ferritin and donate every 2-2.5 months I’d think?

I’m starting to get a little frustrated. My doc thinks it’s all ok and manageable and from now on we’re just “optimizing and tweaking”. However, these boards have me wondering if I should be concerned about my bloodletting schedule.

Everyday injections raises E2? I thought it would lower E2 from what I have heard. Figure it would lower HCT as well.

Guys don’t even worry about E2 levels as long as they are in proper ratio with your Total test. 1/13 to 1/15 is the optimal ratio for peak health.
My TT abs E2 on trough are 926 and 72.5. My ratio comes out to 1/12.8. No sign of any high E2 symptoms. I actually lost 10 lbs, retaining no water, no mood issues, even my rings seem too big and slide off my fingers. So definitely no water retention.
My only worry is this damn ferritin.

Also my HCT goes up to about 56 on any dosage and on any frequency.
100 mg once a week
40 mg every 3.5 days
72 mg every 5 days
70 mg every 4 days

Double edged sword too. I pump out great numberS on the hormones side but equally inflated blood markers. Just a side note I don’t feel any side effects when blood markers are high or even when ferritin is low. So not sure how to gauge that.

Should I be concerned? My doc switched protocol to .12 subq daily and my rbc/hct keeps going up :confused: Started to be concerned with HCT @ 57% last donation.

Just back down the AI to a quarter of what your taking. You’ll be in range most likely. From my experience.