Have been on trt for about 2 yrs now. Am pretty much use to the whole process of levels dropping a bit once or twice a year. Doc adds a 6-8wk hcg routine and all is back to normal.
Have found that I feel my best with T levels in the 800’s, any more not the best and lower really worn out feeling.
Well, about 12 wks ago I was up for labs. I didn’t feel horrible but suspected my levels could be low due to lack of usual energy. Bingo, T levels were in the mid to upper 500’s. E2 around 28. Doc adds hcg for 6 or 8wks and upped test dosage by 10mg. Labs come up again. Same results, upper 500’s and E2 28. Doc decided to up my test dosage to 190mg wk to see what happens.
Anyone ever hit this rut where the hcg didn’t seem to help things bounce back? Seems really odd to me. Is it possible that the body gets use to the trt and builds a tolerance requiring higher dosages to get the same result? Doc also mentioned something about the hotter summer months somehow make the body process the test different and it has been seen that patients can require a dosage increase during the hot months. Sounds a bit odd to me but anything is possible I guess.
Seems odd. Something is amiss. Several things you need to relate.
What is your injection protocol?
How old are you?
Need all,labs with ranges posted. Especially TT, FT, SHBG, E2
What is the timing of the lab work?
Don’t have the labs with my right now but have these stats:
inject 1x per week at doc office. 170mg test cyp IM
43 yrs
TT: 575
E2: 28/29
lab work done in the afternoon after work usually every 8 weeks or so.
By timing of labs I meant in relation to the injection. IOW, how many days after last injection. When you inject a large dose once per week your labs will vary widely based on timing.
Inject on Thursday and labs pulled following Thurs before weekly inject.
Ok, then you can assume that the numbers you are seeing are at your ultimate low point. If you want consistent T numbers, you must inject twice weekly. Over a short period of time, your T levels will stabilize and only fluctuate slightly from day to day. Right now you are going from very high to average every week.
What’s scarier, is your doc is making dosing adjustments based on these numbers! Increasing your T dose is only gonna make the
problem worse.
Thanks. Agree injects 2x per week would be nice but the doc is a bit far for my schedule to accommodate. In any case my numbers have never stayed flat like this before, especially post hcg. We are talking 2 years of being pretty rock solid when it comes to the numbers with no major fluctuation.
You should ask if self injection would be ok.
I guess someone will chime in and explain it better than me. What I’m trying to say is that your levels will be quite a bit higher on some days than others. Have you always run the lab work on the day of the next injection?
Yes, have had labs always done the day of the next inject. Have a feeling either the insurance would give them some grief or they simply like my co-pay (lol) as self-inject was never an option.
What is sort of screwy is that it just seems odd that the numbers changed without any changes in the treatment. Guess I will just have to wait for the next round of labs. Am still benefiting from the treatment even if not at my usual spot.
Hmm. That is odd. Hopefully equalo or ksman will provide their thoughts.