I have been documenting every part of my journey here.
For the past 12 months, I have had labs drawn monthly. I have spent more on lab work than on the pellet insertions.
Although I have had other hormone imbalances, the biggest factor in my situation was sky high SHBG. I had HIGH testosterone before going on pellets, and the doctors opine that I was in the 3 or 4000 as a young man.
Will pellets, I start high, begin a tapered decrease until it is time to reinsert. I am currently experimenting with how long I can go between inserts, now that danazol has my SHBG under control.
To answer your question with numbers, my last insertion was October. I usually register >2000 a few weeks after an insertion. I skipped blood work in November. In December, T was at 1435. In January, T was at 1473 - yes, it increased. I have not had a February draw yet.
Yeah so far so good mate! 23 days in and my sleep and libido seem to get ever so slightly better each day.
I don’t believe I’m experiencing any “side effects” from elevating estradiol, however my E was lower than 5 when I started. I have put on about 4-5 pounds of water weight. That trend seems to have stabilized as most of that came in the first 14 days.
So I’m 3 weeks in. First days were amazing. Morning wood that I haven’t had in years, libido, and immediate change in the gym. Now at the 3 week mark and I’m super irritable, tired, and no morning wood. Some irrational anxiety, too. I’ve ready plenty to know this is par for the course, but just wanted to check in with you guys to ensure this is a common phase, and what to expect as far as how long this goes on, etc (knowing that I may need to adjust things when I retest at 8 weeks).
Your TRT honeymoon didn’t last long, no worries it will return in a couple of weeks if your levels are sufficiently elevated in 3 weeks. The tuning phase of TRT can take months to figure out, mostly it can take the better part of several months to a year to find out what works best.
Thanks so much. So glad I have you guys or else I’d be panicking already. So if I’m tracking, it sounds like this is normal and I’ll start to feel better again in a few weeks BUT getting fully optimized/dialed in will take months - year?
If it is honey moon that means natural production has stopped and you’re left with injected t. So a slight raise should cover that deficit. Make sense? Get blood drawn to make sure. It’s cheap and you won’t have to rely upon educated guesses from board members. It could be something else.
@e306 I have never heard of anyones honeymoon phase coming back after it happens once.
Yes in time if your T lvl is high enough your libido will pick up but that is it. To trust every word you read on the internet from randoms can be dangerous. Take notes and if you see several guys suggestioning the same thing on different mens health forums you have a pretty good chance the info is legit. The folks that offer advice on forums like this are not all on the same page they have different opinions and ideas on how all this works.
I would just call defy and ask them if this is normal. Or jsut reach out to them tomorrow. That’s what they are for. They have worked with thousand and would know for sure.