Success Rate on TRT?

Pharma / TRT Testosterone Replacement
1

I have to ask, what is the success rate for TRT?
I have tried it over almost 5 yrs now since a shut down from a cycle, every time failed and tried to restart to have a clean run at it from baseline.

Always the same thing as so many posters here, couple of good weeks, then feel worse than before I started, brain fog and terrible libido.

I’ve tried so many dosage protocols, used HCG etc but always the same thing, awesome, then crash and terrible!

Finding this ‘sweet spot’ is like looking for a feminist’s g spot or unicorns, although of the three, it’s more likely unicorns exist.

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Please read the stickies found here: About the T Replacement Category - #2 by KSman

  • advice for new guys
  • things that damage your hormones
  • protocol for injections
  • finding a TRT doc
  • HPTA restart

Most do well on TRT once they get high-normal TT and FT with E2 near 22pg/ml

Did you get damaged using a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor for hair loss?

A common issue here is low thyroid function that can reduce libido and energy, often as a result of not using iodized salt needed to support thyroid hormone production.

Please post labs with ranges.

3

I use iodized salt often, not a hair loss issue, bald and embraced it since i was 25 lol.
I can get cold very easily though, especially feet, not sure if that’s an indicator of anything.

My history is that I did a cycle of test and deca twice a year for 6 weeks, that’s it, small amounts, I am very reactive to juice and would get bigger gains than training buddies dosing 3 times the amount I was using.
Typically a front heavy cycle of 1ml sustanon EOD for 3 shots, and half a ml of deca once a week, then sustanon every 4 days for 2 weeks, then 1 ml every 7 days and stop with pct from week 2 after last shot of sustanon.
TBH never felt I needed the PCT, missed it once because I couldn’t get any, and seemed to need no recovery at all!

29th Jan 2012, was just finishing one of those cycles, although I had let this one run an extra couple of weeks.
Went out, few drinks, felt a bit ill, headache and a bit flu like, but took a nice girl back to mine and for the first time ever old floppy Joe!
And that was it, never been on form again since then.
Done restarts and got back to levels where I should have been OK, but just not there, and maybe 10% of the awesome libido I had on Jan 28th!

I am 51, regular trainer, although I have moved to bodyweight exercises and rings for a lot of my training, 5’ 8 1/2" 176 lbs 44" chest, 32" waist low bodyfat.

For labs, where would I start? Been trying this for years and spent a clean fortune on labs.
At the minute I am just starting the nova part of your restart protocol, I didn’t deem labs necessary before starting it, I was shut down hard from another attempt at TRT and knew what they would say.
I will get labs done at the end of your restart and assess the best way then, but where I am, for the labs you guys post I paid $600 US for labs like that to use in a consult with Scally.
Can’t be dong those every few weeks!

Once your restart is complete, I will get labs and assess from there, I have also ordered some triptorelin and will try that if I don’t have any success with the restart and post updates and labs for the guys on the forum to gauge that, if it goes that way.

TBH I was only asking about the percentage of guys who make it to that sweet spot in TRT.

4

You spent $600 on labs that you ordered via the web or via a doctor?

Cold feet: Lets eval your overall thyroid function by checking your oral body temperatures as per the thyroid basics sticky?

Are you taking any OTC or Rx meds?
Other health issues?

Can you post prior labs?

5

I have attached labs, but they are not current, that said same issues as I had then.
Those were the exact labs that Scally specified when I consulted with him, they weren’t cheap.
At that point i was feeling a little better than normal but still tired daily and that elusive libido…

I don’t take any OTC or RH meds.
Don’t smoke, do drink recreationally, glass of wine or a whiskey, and that can’t change, I’m Irish so it’s in the DNA, last Irishman that stopped drinking we hung him for being a traitor!

Any recommendations for cheaper labs? I live in Asia where the only reliable labs are in hospitals, there are no doctors surgeries as such, dodgy back street clinic or straight to the hospital. Although the hospitals do have most results in an hour.

Following up on the temperature thing.

2484×3240 1.16 MB

6

I should also add that 3 weeks into the HCG part of your restart I got some serious gyne on one side, quite large and pronounced, visable through a t shirt

7

hCG dosing?
what else did you feel or observe
some anastrozole would have been useful, noting that it would not control T–>E2 inside the testes

TSH should be lower. Sounds like you should be getting enough iodine via your salt, but would not hurt to get an iodine supplement and monitor body temperatures.

I asked for body temps 12 days ago.

RBC is high end, and ferritin is below optimal. Odd combo, but suggests that you need more iron in your diet.

E2=36 was nasty. You need an AI !!!

1 Like
8

That was an old lab, I’ll get a basic lab tomorrow, and a thermometer.
For a basic lab Test, E2 FSH, LH, and what? (essential not a full panel please).

I did find that and E2 below 20 makes me feel really poor, anywhere 20-30 and I feel ok.
I am MASSIVELY sensitive to anastrozole (arimidex), it crashes my E2 like nothing I’ve ever seen, took me from 44 to 8 in 5 days, never felt so ill in my life without actually having a virus.

I had arimidex capsules and to try to get a small enough measured dose I would drill 2mm holes in a thin piece of plastic, then fill one of the holes and take that, anything over that and my E would crash again.

I know that sounds ridiculous, my training buddies couldn’t believe it but the labs don’t lie.

9

hCG dosing? As per your restart protocol
what else did you feel or observe I did feel better and libido did increase a little, but that didn’t stick.

10

Dissolve anastrozole in vodka, 1mg/ml and dispense by volume or by the drop. That way you can manage small doses.

11

I got these to dose dissolved anastrozole. They are about 7 inches long and very accurate.

12

I got those same ones, rich33584 and they’re good! I dissolved 4.5mg of anastrozole in 9ml of vodka. Each 10th of a ml = .05mg so using these, it should be accurate as long as I shake my mixture to get a nice even consistency. It has only been a week off of AI since I crashed E2 to 8.4 and I’m still waiting to feel better. E2 must be coming up slowly as my joints aren’t as noisy and they were.

I bought these to store my liquid mix in. These little bottles fit nicely into my prescription bottle:

13

Sorry for late reply, caught a nasty virus and was completely wiped out.
Didn’t leave the house for over a week.
As I was in a state of losing all food and fluids and food within minutes of taking them I think the restart is pretty much dead in the water and I’ll probably need to go back to square one.
Temperatures would also have been pointless.

Now that I’m, sort of, back to normal health wise, I was thinking that as i have a vial of triptorelin, that I might get labs today and then try that as it’s a single shot.
I will post a basic lab later today and they try the trip, I will detail the changes and follow up with a basic lab.

Thanks to all for posting.