Haha, I’m sure there’s a whole lot more if you keep digging.
As a side note… I’m the other weird one with SHBG comparable to BKB’s, I was at 151 just before starting TRT and, I believe, even higher than that a few months prior. I literally had “high” total T and a “low” free T on the same test, but I didn’t test SHBG then because I didn’t know what I was doing. 6 months later I had gone down further on both tests, so I was at least “normal” and low at the same time, not high and low.
I tried to use the TruT calculator somewhere along the way and it always had super high results so I always wondered about that. Good to hear you agree it’s way off, esp for high SHBG situations. The first one is at least in the ballpark of my free T test results so I guess that’s a good thing. Either way… pretty interesting stuff.
One note: Labcorp has the units screwed up on that particular test, so it’s really 7.2ng/dl
Can’t say I’m familiar, brother. I know it sounds unreasonable, but I’ve just accepted my body — with SHBG so high — is an outlier. I could be deceiving myself, but an unusual approach seems warranted.
I’ve flirted with Winnie and tried Danazol, which worked for lowering SHBG but didn’t really impact the way I felt. I know taking exogenous T is already somewhat rolling the dice in terms of long-term health (not that I’m too concerned about it), so I’m hoping to minimize the number of compounds I’m taking.
Just feels like the more stuff you introduce, the more you risk, you know? Winnie/Danazol doesn’t seem like a long-term solution.
Here are my free T values over time (most values from Quest, only the first and last from Labcorp). These are listed from oldest (Jan. 2017) to most recent (Nov. 2020):
11.3
173.7
192.9
215.1
543.1
422
289
401.6
11.1
Happy to answer any questions you might have about some of these ‘middle’ values, though – as you can see – my numbers have fluctuated pretty dramatically.
I had my follow-up with Defy. The PA obviously agreed the cream wasn’t working.
His opinion is that the cream may not have been bad, but it may not have been getting absorbed properly. This could be because I was applying all four clicks to the scrotum, which can lead to it rubbing off on different things. I’ll admit I probably don’t always give it enough time to dry. This is a struggle with cream, when you’re on the move. I’ve often been applying it in my office between meetings, only giving it 3-5 minutes to dry.
One thing I hadn’t noted here, that I mentioned to him: I’ve had a lot of physical pain lately. That’s the one thing I’ve noticed that’s really changed. My hips in particular have been aching (weird for a super active 29-year-old). He thinks that could be because my estrogen got so low (going from 54 to 23).
One other thing he mentioned I hadn’t heard before: body comp effects are far superior with injectable T vs. cream. Anyone else heard that?
He was on board with my desire to switch back to injections at a high dose. We’re gonna try out 68 mg EOD (238/week).
I’ve heard this, and my best guess is it’s just a numbers game: more guys in the gym using injections than using cream. If you switched every pro or gym guy to creams they’d probably keep growing just like they are on shots.
The top one (11.3) is without any treatment. Second and third (173.7 and 192.9) are with HCG mono. And then everything from 215.1 down is with T introduced to the mix.
I think that it would be next to impossible to deliver the quantity employed by most Pros using cream. You’d need to tape a platic bag of it around your sack so it could absorb all day, lol.
You might be right. I think one issue is what I encountered: greater possibility of bunk cream (if we’re only talking about pharma-grade, of course) and of failed absorption. Whereas injectable T seems more reliable.