Androgen receptor down regulation has been generally disproven, rather upregulation, but there is a lot of research that points to the ability of the androgen receptor to become desensitive or basically almost useless when exposed to high doses of androgens over time. Here’s a reading on it, I’d like to know if anyone buys into this and what they do about it.
I’ve seen a lot of guys talking about how they’re either on 100mg a week or 200, but I’ve also seen the occasional 400 a week guy, which is crazy, but you usually don’t hear anything but positives aside from libido and ED issues maybe.
My fear stems from confusion I guess. When I first started any TRT it was 4 pumps of androgel daily along with a wee bit of HCG. It kept me feeling great, gained me 40 pounds of muscle, and just did its job. It kept my T up near 1,200 ng/dL, and my theory then was that my androgen receptors were extremely starved for test, which resulted in quick and noticeable gains. What doesn’t make sense about this theory is that I kept making gains for almost the entire year.
Fast forward to basically a year later and I was noticing changes again. They were subtle at first, but noticeable nonetheless. First I lost tone, then libido went, then a few pounds. I started to get facial bloat, something that had never happened to me while my levels were high and even when my E2 was elevated. I figured I had enough T in my blood to outweigh a 52 pg/mL E2 level.
Anyway, I have to theories on this…
1.) It tends to be the same for many on transdermals. If it works, it works but it will only work for a certain amount of time. You’re on borrowed time from the start, and its only a matter of time before your skin adapts as a result of external factors (maybe even the gel itself) and your stratum conreum thickens, thus leading to an overall decrease in absorbtion. For me I feel that as my T dropped, E2 and SHBG took over, just raising hell in my body.
2.) I was too high, too long and I payed the price? This one makes less sense to me because especially on the gels you aren’t always elevated. You have daily peaks and troughs that should keep a certain level of sensitivity…no? My troughs had to be down in the 400’s, and the peaks in the 1,000’s.
Where this all applies to me now is, after all that mess with the androgel, my doc puts me on androgel 1.62% for 3 months thinking that would do the trick…only made matters worse and made me hate transdermals more. He tried Testim as a last resort effort and finally started me on 60 mg test cyp a week…so extremely low. I was on that dose for about 2 months, then he tested and bumped it up to 100 mg a week for about 3 months. Finally about 5 weeks ago he bumped it to 200 mg a week, as I wasn’t feeling the 60 or 100. Now it comes down to,
1.) Have I given it enough time or am I expecting too much too fast.
Some dudes say it takes around 6-8 weeks to fully notice changes.
2.) Am I truly insensitive as a result of what I’ve done, and will this not work for me at all?
3.) Is it even possible? It doesn’t seem to add up with real world results as far as testosterone’s concerned.
There’s my little book 
